Podcasts about unified interface

Fortune 500 companies are showing caution in adopting generative AI, with a focus on risks rather than benefits. A recent survey reveals that AI tools are impacting workers' productivity and workload, highlighting the challenges of balancing human talent with AI implementation. CompTIA identifies critical areas for skills building as AI adoption grows, emphasizing strategic planning to mitigate costs and enhance cybersecurity.Intel faces setbacks with its 18A chipmaking process, raising doubts about its role in U.S. industrial policy goals. Despite financial struggles and layoffs, Intel remains optimistic about the 18A process, aiming for production next year. The company introduces new chips, such as the Intel Core Ultra 200V, focusing on power efficiency and performance improvements. However, Intel's challenges may hinder its access to investment dollars and impact the government's industrial policy goals.ConnectWise revamps its marketplace with a unified interface, offering over 400 vendor integrations to enhance user experience and promote innovation. Auvik enhances its network management solution with new features, aiming to optimize network monitoring and management efficiency for IT teams. These tactical upgrades reflect the ongoing evolution of ecosystem strategies among platform players in the tech industry. Three things to know today 00:00 Fortune 500 Companies Highlight Generative AI Risks Over Benefits, Reflecting Caution in Adoption04:02 Intel Faces Setback with 18A Chipmaking Process, Raises Doubts About Its Role in U.S. Industrial Policy Goals06:31 ConnectWise Revamps Marketplace with Unified Interface and Auvik Enhances Network Management  Supported by:  https://www.huntress.com/mspradio/ Pulseway Event:  https://www.pulseway.com/v2/land/webinar-nexus-msp?rfid=vendor/?partnerref=vendor   All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessoftech.bsky.social

Microsoft Dataverse is part of the Power Platform and it was a common data model and is also the database that the majority of the core Dynamics 365 Business Applications live on. In this episode of the ‘Powerplatform explained' Podcast series we want to clarify what exactly he Dataverse is, why a partner should care and how he can make money from it. Visit QBS Power Platform Interest Group Microsoft have provided the ability to integrate with Dataverse through providing configuration capabilities in Business Central. So, you can do single or bi-directional synchronisation of Accounts, that's Customers and Suppliers or Vendors in Business Central terms, Contacts, Currency and Salespeople/Purchasers with the Dataverse. Also, if you or your customer is using Dynamics 365 for Sales then additional data synchronisation can be enabled for Products from Items and Resources, Price Lists, Opportunities, Sales Orders, Sales Invoices, lots of out of the box capabilities can be configured. And it doesn't stop there, if you wanted to write your own custom connectors to hook Business Central into Power Automate to drive workflows, or even use the Microsoft provided Business Central connectors, those capabilities are also possible options for you to consider on a scenario-by-scenario basis. Then, the other option you could consider building for integrations is around virtual tables. These are tables that exist in Business Central but do not synchronise to, nor do they then reside in Dataverse. Virtual tables can be made available to Microsoft Dataverse, but they need to be accessed via development of custom APIs or through the standard Business Central APIs. Dataverse is something that is difficult to position and sell on its own, no one goes out to market with a “Would you like some of this new data platform?” messaging, it just doesn't resonate with customers. So, you need to consider the capabilities it provides and then combine them with other parts of the Power Platform. Do you want to define a proposition around extending the existing core entities such as Accounts and Contacts to provide new solutions in market for your customers? Do you want to go and build new tables that can help with additional data capture and storage needs for your customers? When those things are combined with the power of the Unified Interface in model driven Power Apps or new workflow integration solutions through Power Automate then you can begin to uncover net new opportunities in your customers that you maybe hadn't considered before. Finally, don't forget about the potential of Power BI in the equation here too, the ability to deliver dashboard style KPIs on top of the data that you help your customers capture then analyse and act upon. All of these things bring annuity licence revenue opportunities with the usual expected margins and extended consulting and services opportunities for continual, ongoing development for customers as their needs change and evolve over time. As we have said before, there're a lot of ways in which partners can look to begin to make money from the Microsoft Power Platform, the key is for each of them to come up with their own ideas and then turn them into products, solutions or services to suit their own market and customer requirements.

Episode 93: Markus Erlandsson talks to Dian Taylor from RSM about the upcoming 2020 release wave 2. Dian starts with talking about news in Field Service, then continues to Power Plattform, Sales, then finally ends with a recommendation to move to Unified Interface now, otherwise, you are missing out. Bio Dian Taylor is a Microsoft … Continue reading Best of 2020 Release Wave 2 with Dian Taylor The post Best of 2020 Release Wave 2 with Dian Taylor first appeared on CRM Rocks.

Monthly blog updatesThe Premier Field Engineer team for Dynamics 365 published a monthly update to our blog.Dynamics 365 Monthly Update-May 2020 2020 Release Wave 1 ScheduleRelease Wave 1 is currently available and is being rolled out automatically in May. North America will receive updates starting May 22. Includes updates for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Power Apps, Automate and others.Overall schedule Unified InterfaceLegacy web client is deprecated. Deadline to move to Unified Interface has moved to December 2020. Start planning now if you haven't already.Legacy web client is deprecated Transition existing web app Microsoft Business Applications Summit and BuildOn demand content available for both of these events:Microsoft Business Applications Summit Build Updates & ReleasesOn-Premises https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3142345/microsoft-dynamics-365-onpremise-cumulative-updates Online https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/business-applications-release-notes/dynamics/released-versions/dynamics-365ce#all-version-availability

We're back! The Power Platform Daily Brief is now just the Power Platform Brief.  We'll continue to focus on the news and updates related to all thing Microsoft Power Platform and we're still talking to the interesting people who make this community great. In this episode, we discuss the death of Talent, new connectors, Unified Interface scheduling and we talk to John Gravely about his new business, SalesSpark.

This episode is brought to you by Maplytics by Inogic. On today's Power Platform Daily Brief we are happy to announce a new Power Platform and Dynamics 365 conference called Power Platform 24. This world-wide virtual conference will be 24 hours of great content about Microsoft Flow, Dynamics 365, PowerApps, and Power BI September 25. You can be a speaker--submit your proposals now at https://sessionize.com/power-platform-24/. We also discuss some of the great enhancements to Unified Interface and model-driven PowerApps, including enhancements to error messages, improvements to the activity timeline, and the return of save and new. Music: www.purple-planet.com

The Dynamics 365 Web Client is going to be deprecated soon. If you have not transitioned to the Unified Interface, time is running out to be in control of that process for yourself. Maybe there is a reason to look at this "chore" as an "opportunity". Unified Interface The Unified Interface is awesome, a vast improvement over the previous Web Client. Yet a significant number of organizations are still using the Web Client. Microsoft needs you to get off your ass and move. In fact they recently created an Online Community dedicated to this single purpose. In my informal survey of customers who are still on the Web Client I am aware of the following three reasons: Obliviousness, Fear or Money. Obliviousness There are a reasonable number of customers who deployed Dynamics 365 without a partner. Many of them bought the licenses and then went underground on their own, disconnected from whatever may be happening on the surface. Many other customers were deployed by a non-Dynamics partner who likewise is not up-to-speed with changes in the product. There are also customers, as well as partners, who engaged offshore resources or freelancers, most of which are also out-of-the-loop of current information. So in addition to many other things this large customer group is unaware of, the looming deprecation of the Web Client they use every day, is yet another. Fear This group of customers is aware of changes coming to the platform, but lives in fear that their deployment, which they liken to a Rube Goldberg machine, will break if they dare touch it. This group will always wait until the very last minute, which is ironically the scariest and riskiest thing they could possibly do. Their fear is often a result of a lack of confidence in either their own, or their partner's knowledge and understanding of the platform. In other words, they're ignorant. Money Is there a free service that will update you to the Unified Interface? Not that I am aware of. Is it a simple project? That depends, for some users it could be, but for most it will require more effort. Is it frustrating that you subscribed to this product, paid some partner to help you initially configure and customize it for your needs, have been happily using it for a long time, and now out-of-the-blue you have no choice but to spend some money to keep using it? Yes, I would assume that is frustrating. More so if you have no budget for things like this. Opportunity Does this upcoming unavoidable "Effort/Expense" present a possible silver-lining opportunity for customers? Maybe. As a Partner, I often look at changes like this as a good reason to look at what a customer is doing today, vs. what they were doing when we first put this thing together. Hindsight is always 20:20. If we have to crack this thing open anyway, let's go ahead and address some of those issues we discovered after launch, that we never got around to taking care of. At least if the customer has to spend some money for a required change, they can get a little upside out of it. But is there even more upside potential today? PowerApps What if I told you, that while you were at it, you could potentially reduce your license costs by 92%! Is this even possible? You will have to wait for my next post to find out.

In todays PPDB (Brought to you ClickLearn), Brad Koontz talks to George Granata from Microsoft.  Aside from being Brad’s neighbor, George is a seasoned technical specialist from Microsoft focused on the Power Platform in the public sector.  Topics include Dual Write (not Dual Rights), Unified Interface, the Stanley Cup and why the best restaurants in Dunwoody are actually in Chamblee.    Dual Write https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/business-applications-release-notes/april19/cdm-data-integration/dual-write-link-common-data-service-apps Unified Interface and Maker Portal https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/admin/about-unified-interface Stanley Cup https://www.nhl.com/ Consensus best restaurant in Dunwoody is actually in Chamblee http://hopstix.com/ Music:www.purple-planet.com

I usually wait a week or two to weigh in on new announcements from Microsoft. I like to let the noise die down a little, and see how others are responding to the news. But I am way too excited about the Public Preview launch of the PowerApps Component Framework. What's in a Name? The journey to Public Preview has been a rather long one. Originally coined the "Custom Control Framework" (CCF), which gave way to another name, "PowerApps Control Framework" (PCF), to ultimately landing on the name "PowerApps Component Framework", this "framework" has been quite the work in process. According to the new Branding Guidance, we are not supposed to use the acronym (PCF) anymore, but whoever decided that, does not write blog posts. Good Delays When PCF was first announced, there was a lot of excitement, among the MVP community in particular. We were all eager to get our hands on this new "capability" that was coming soon... but it did not come soon. It was not because there was any lack of will from the team behind it, rather it was another example of Microsoft seeing an "Opportunity". I recently discussed this "opportunistic re-trenching" that has been going on across Microsoft Business Applications on Mary Jo Foley's podcast. The source of this particular delay, was the realization that if both Model-Driven and Canvas PowerApps could share the same Component Framework, it would be way more valuable to everyone. So one step back was taken, to get two steps forward to the Preview. A frustrating delay for some, but well worth the wait. What the Hell is PCF? Is it charts? Is it Kanban boards? Is it Gantt Schedules? Buttons, dials, widgets, cameras? It is actually a way to create all of these, and many other "components". Is it a "Citizen Developer" capability? No, it is not. Building "Components" is a developer-level job, requiring Javascript/typescript and other development skills. For those of you on the development side, this is the future of what you now know of as html Web Resources... but way better. How is it better? Flexibility, portability and supportability are three things that come to my mind of why this is way better. As opposed to building a hard-coded webresource tied to something, with a Component you can package that up with parameters. This means that your Component is abstracted away from the particulars of a specific environment. For example, during the just concluded "Private Preview", we worked directly with the Microsoft development team to refactor a Gantt Chart Webresource that we had built for a specific custom project management entity in one of our ISV solutions. Our original html webresources were of course hard coded to this entity. The finished "Component" version instead included a parameters capability, meaning we could actually display our Gantt Chart "Component" on anything that met the minimum requirements to display it, which in our case was a start and end date. If additional parameters are present such as predecessors, successors or percent complete, it would take advantage of those also... very flexible. We can install our component solution on any environment, and use it wherever we want. While Citizen Developers may struggle to "build" a component, configuring one for their use is completely within their capability. From a supportability standpoint, since Microsoft developed and owns the "Framework", it falls on Microsoft to handle component lifecycle, retain application business logic and optimize for performance... instead of you. Is this All New? Well, it's new to you, but you have actually been using "components" for quite a while, possibly without even knowing it. Remember the fanfare about the addition of editable grids? That was a "component' built by Microsoft on the framework. In fact, a lot of the features you see in the new Unified Interface are actually "Components", including all of the original charts. What is new is your ability to now create your own components. Who will use this? Personally, I think the largest opportunity around the PowerApps Component Framework is for ISVs. Either building components as part of their larger solutions, or even freestanding components that they might resell individually via AppSource. There is some development effort involved, and I don't see a lot of SIs necessarily learning the nuances of building components for individual end customer needs. Better that they just incorporate components that exist, or will exist in the near future. Of course many ISVs still need to get themselves up to the Unified Interface, but that will happen pretty quickly, or they will be in a world of hurt. Are Html WebResources being deprecated? A common question today from customers and partners, whenever the Microsoft Bizapps team launches something new, is whether the old stuff will go away. Everything you are doing will eventually require change. Microsoft can only advance so fast when they are dragging a big bag of legacy behind them. This was the impetus for the One Version strategy. But even in the One Version world, a level of backward compatibility is a requirement... but for how long. How long will Microsoft allow that technical debt pile to grow? As long as they absolutely have to, and no longer. I have not heard anything about deprecating anything as a result of PowerApps Component Framework. But of course the same could have been said two years ago about other, now deprecated things. Neither the future nor Microsoft is waiting for you.

In order to implement an effective Dynamics 365 solution, your users need to adopt it, and it is near impossible to get users to adopt a solution that has a poor user experience, so I wanted to spend an hour talking about the User Interface and User Experience best practices I use on every implementation I lead as a Solution Architect.   I also talk about Unified Interface gaps and share my Top 5 User Experience Accelerators!

In this episode (brought to you by D365UG), Joel Lindstrom and Ulrik Carlsson discus what you need to know about Interactive charts and dashboards in Dynamics 365 Unified Interface. Topics discussed in this episode: What can you do with interactive dashboards that you can't do with classic UI dashboards? Drill down filters Dashboard date filters Single vs. multiple streams Entity level dashboards Number of widgets on a dashboard Specifying color of option set values in charts Advanced chart editing limitations Got feedback or suggestions for a future episode? Email voice@crm.audio

In this episode (brought to you by D365UG), Joel Lindstrom and Ulrik Carlsson discus what you need to know about Interactive charts and dashboards in Dynamics 365 Unified Interface. Topics discussed in this episode: What can you do with interactive dashboards that you can't do with classic UI dashboards? Drill down filters Dashboard date filters Single vs. multiple streams Entity level dashboards Number of widgets on a dashboard Specifying color of option set values in charts Advanced chart editing limitations Got feedback or suggestions for a future episode? Email voice@crm.audio

This episode is brought to you by DocumentsCorePack from mscrm-addons.com. It's the holidays, and at CRM Audio we are taking some time off, but while we are gone we wanted to revisit some of our best episodes from 2018. In this episode, we were joined by Shilpa Sinha, Microsoft Principal Program Manager for Microsoft Business Applications and Srihari Srinivasa, Microsoft Product Manager for Outlook integration. From Business Apps Summit: Why you should move to Unified Interface and how to do it by Shilpa Sinha Topics discussed with Shilpa: Hybrid experience for Unified Interface power users Advanced find Merge Bulk edit Sharing Hybrid and side-by-side experience Opting out of hybrid experience Should new deployments roll out Classic UI or Unified Interface Is Classic UI being deprecated? Topics discussed with Srihari: App for Outlook roadmap Configuring the Outlook app on version 9 Delegate tracking on version 9 Changing the category name and color for the category based tracking This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Player.FM, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, or YouTube. You can also listen via our app on iOSor Android.

In this episode (sponsored by CRMUG/D365UG), hosts Britta Rekstad and Matthew C. Anderson talk about XrmToolBox Tools. Discussed on the show Revisit "What is XrmToolBox" Using community tools Iconator Dynamics icon sizes/formats Matthew's blog & video about "Area" images Finding Icons https://www.flaticon.com/ https://www.iconexperience.com/m_collection/ Bulk Workflow Execution Usage patterns for bulk workflows Minor correction: Excel export supports 100,000 records in an export   Call to action! We're going to do an upcoming episode about the Unified Interface for Dynamics 365/Model-Driven PowerApps. Send us your questions through the contact form on our website or through Twitter @mcanderson or @macgyvercrm What's on your mind? Have a question you'd like answered on a future podcast? Submit one by visiting implementthis.org

In this episode (brought to you by Maplytics by Inogic), Joel Lindstrom and Shawn Tabor recap what we learned at Ignite 2018. Dynamics 365 for AI Mixed Reality Layout and Remote Assist Dynamics 365 for Customer Service Power Platform news Unified Interface by default Microsoft Learn AI for Good Open Data Initiative How you can experience Ignite if you weren't there Links AI for Good Microsoft Learn MyIgnite--watch videos from Ignite sessions Recommended Videos: Vision Keynote Portals roadmap Customer Service roadmap Automate creation of Teams and Channels in Microsoft Teams Field Services Best Practices Intro to Microsoft Remote Assist Dynamics 365 Update Cadence Moving to Unified Interface Apps Introducing the October 2018 Release This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

It's time for another episode of CRM Audio (brought to you by Maplytics by Inogic). Topics discussed in this episode: Business Applications Developer (BAD) Masterclass North America--register here Outlook app is now configurable Dynamics 365 v9 Unified Interface navigation changes Dynamic help for solution import problems Dynamics 365 v9 On Premise George is getting out of the hosting business Find out where you can see us live at Microsoft Ignite Tool review: Github vs. Bitbucket Gitlab vs. Github GitKraken  

As I was writing my last post on Re-Thinking, I got an email from some off-shore developer, offering to assist us with any "Dynamics CRM Online" projects we may have. Based on this pretty big clue, I put on my pompous know-it-all hat, and blasted him for offering his ancient skills to a cutting edge partner. His apologetic reply included, "there is just so much to get up-to-speed on, I don't even know where to start". Then I felt like an asshole. But he did give me the idea for this post. Skills Deprecation In many of my recent posts I have been preaching that you need to get current to stay relevant. What has served you for years, is in jeopardy. Your past ability to keep up with the conveyor belt of changes, and still get work done, is failing now that the belt is moving 50 times faster. It seems that this "concept" might be resonating with a lot of people. But work will always take priority, and today, the more you focus on work, the faster and father behind you get. It is a viscous cycle with a bad ending. The Conveyor Belt Changes are coming way too fast for even the most ardent watchers to keep up with, much less while trying to keep food on your table. But among that non-stop stream are a few things that will be key to your longevity as DynamicsBusiness Applications Developer. I am fortunate to have a greater than average amount of time to digest these things. I try and pick up each piece as it goes by and study it. Many of them are like "Huh, that's interesting", and some are like "Huh, that changes everything". But you continue to... Wait... back up... "changes everything"? So I thought I would create a cheat sheet for those that can't possibly review everything, of the things they must make time for. Unified Interface This one has a laser lock on you that you cannot evade. The honeymoon is over. Unified Interface is now the default UI for new deployments. Your trusty ole Web Client (Classic UI) is still available in the background for a limited time. You need to get on this one. I have written about this one here. PowerApps PowerApps is the crabgrass in the Dynamics 365 lawn... and it is taking over. Its seeds have already taken root, leading to more seeds. You might have first noticed it in the Solution Designer, but that was just a visible manifestation on the surface. Underneath, it has already taken over the entire platform you work on every day. PowerApps is not a name change, it is a philosophical change to how Microsoft is moving forward in Business Applications. Bit by bit, PowerApps is gradually replacing everything you always knew. The way you design views for example is changing with a brand new view designer, forms are next, and it will continue. Should you freak out? If you have designed views the old way, you will be able to pick up on the new way in about five minutes... once you make the time. Common Data Service Under the hood, Dynamics 365 has very little in common with Dynamics CRM Online. The separation of the Apps from the platform may not be obviously apparent, but the changes are profound. Any developer who plans to continue their career, will need to get their arms around this concept. I have already written about this at length, so I'll just refer you to this post, this post or this post. Microsoft Flow You may have thought about Microsoft Flow as some kind of "If this then that" competitor that you can safely ignore. But the crabgrass seeds have spread. Once all the wiring is in place, Microsoft Flow will actually replace the workflow designer you currently use in Dynamics 365. Do you think you might want to bone up on that one? Power BI One of Microsoft's key differentiators in Business Applications is Power BI. Really analytics in general, but Power BI is your door in. While there will still be a place for native charts in Dynamics 365, they do not set Microsoft apart, like Power BI can. To be honest, this is one of the areas that I acknowledge that even I am behind on, but I also know I can't be. Power Platform Thankfully, the "Power Platform" is not a separate thing, but rather a concept of using PowerApps, Microsoft Flow and Power BI together. So if you understand those three, you understand the Power Platform. Extra Credit The items above, are really what I consider table-stakes, for having a future in this business as a developer. Consider those as getting your head out of your ass and wiping your face off, but if you really want to get the crap out of your teeth, then here are some items that will allow you to further stand out in the crowd. PowerApps Control Framework PCF is like crabgrass in the crabgrass. It has already taken over many things without your even knowing it. For example, the out of the box charts have all been converted to "Controls". The Editable Grid is a "control". Many of the things you are looking at right now, have been quietly converted to controls, and it is the way forward. To be fair, this is still in private preview, so you may not be able to get to it yet, but once you can, you will want to understand how this works. Dynamics 365 for Marketing Some of you may know that I have written a few posts on Microsoft's new marketing application, Dynamics 365 for Marketing. Some of you may have even stayed away as a result of those posts. But, as I recently wrote about here, the water is fine now, and you can feel free to jump in Connectors Connectors are going to be a bigger part of the picture as we move forward. As the name implies, these are bits of code that connect to some other application's API. Using the Dynamics 365 connector and any other connector, you can link the applications together. They are the cornerstone of Microsoft Flow and Canvas PowerApps. They are also not difficult to build. If you are a third-party application wondering how you might "connect" with the Microsoft ecosystem, "Connectors" could be the ticket. Summary This was just the tip of the iceberg, and while it might be awesome to stand on the peak of the iceberg, you at least need to be clinging onto the side of it, or you will drown under it. My posts tend to be about things you should be thinking about, but for the next level of how to actually get there, I highly recommend a fellow MVP, Jukka Niiranen's excellent blog http://survivingcrm.com/

Rob and Jason are joined by Gordon Brown to discuss his work on SYCL the OpenCL abstraction layer for C++. Gordon is a senior software engineer at Codeplay Software in Edinburgh, specialising in designing and implementing heterogeneous programming models for C++. Gordon spends his days working on ComputeCpp; Codeplay's implementation of SYCL and contributing to various standards bodies including the Khronos group and ISO C++. Gordon also co-organises the Edinburgh C++ user group and occasionally blogs about C++. In his spare time, Gordon enjoys dabbling in game development, board games and walking with his two dogs. News CppCon 2018 Poster Program Announced A bug in the C++ Standard Synapse submitted for Boost review New C++ London Uni Course Sept 18 Gordon Brown @AerialMantis Gordon Brown's blog Links SYCL ComputeCpp Parallel Programming with Modern C++: from CPU to GPU P0443r7: A Unified Executors Proposal for C++ CppCon 2017: Gordon Brown "Designing a Unified Interface for Execution" SYCL building blocks for C++ libraries - Gordon Brown - Meeting C++ 2016 Sponsors PVS-Studio February 31 Patreon CppCast Patreon Hosts @robwirving @lefticus  

This episode is brought to you by Ingenius and D365UG. Our guests for this episode are Shilpa Sinha, Microsoft Product Manager for Unified Interface, and Srihari Srinivasa, Microsoft Product Manager for Outlook integration. Send feedback to Shilpa and Srihari about Unified Interface and App for Outlook by leaving feedback at experience.dynamics.com. You can also email feedback to unifiedfeedback@microsoft.com From Business Apps Summit: Why you should move to Unified Interface and how to do it by Shilpa Sinha  Topics discussed with Shilpa: Hybrid experience for Unified Interface power users Advanced find Merge Bulk edit Sharing Hybrid and side-by-side experience Opting out of hybrid experience Should new deployments roll out Classic UI or Unified Interface Is Classic UI being deprecated? Topics discussed with Srihari: App for Outlook roadmap Configuring the Outlook app on version 9 Delegate tracking on version 9 Changing the category name and color for the category based tracking This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

There is no need to panic...yet. Procrastinators can freely ignore this post, for now. But if you are one of those people who hates scrambling at the last minute, then maybe this will interest you. Waves Microsoft likes to call the significant updates for Dynamics 365 "Waves". They have also announced that there will be two major Waves each year, with minor "ripples" ongoing. The thing about "waves", as you may recall from your last beach trip, is that you cannot stop them. Nor can you slow them, or divert them. If you are in the Dynamics 365 ocean, you cannot avoid them either. Make no mistake, the shit is going to hit your fan. There is also a strong will to get to a single version of Dynamics 365 in the market as soon as possible. This is a good thing for everyone, but "control" will be ceded to Microsoft. The concept of "Optional" is being deprecated. Of course you always have the option to go somewhere else, but Microsoft is actually one of the last players to get here, so you won't find any more "control" elsewhere either. The best way to not get knocked down by a huge wave... is to ride it. Waves Stack Up Big waves that hit the beach did not pop up 50 feet offshore, they actually started miles away. While you are riding the current wave in, the next big wave is already in motion, and they each build on the previous wave. Some small thing in one wave, becomes more significant in the next wave, and critical in the next wave. Good surfers pay attention to the small things in every wave...because they know. A Small Thing It seems like several waves ago that a small thing called "App Designer" quietly made its way onshore. The idea of creating an "App" out of Dynamics 365, and actually "limiting" its power, seemed contrary to how practitioners and users have worked with the product. It also seemed contradictory to the messaging from Microsoft about #freightrains of innovation. Why on earth would we want to "hide" any of it? For us, it was a Godsend, we built a business out of "hiding" stuff, with our previous version of RapidStart CRM, but many were left scratching their heads. Photocells If you have ever looked down at a big city from somewhere high around dusk, you can see a few lights start to come on early, as it grows darker you see more, and once it is completely dark, you can see quite a few... but not all. Many of us involved with Dynamics 365 have our own Photocells; for some of us the light comes on early, for others a little later, and sadly, for too many, the light does not come on at all. Not long ago, you were free to sit in the dark and no one would bother you. But now, you will get hit by a huge wave... in the dark... and probably drown. So while many of us are enjoying a moonlit evening on the beach sipping Piña Coladas watching people drown, I thought I would ruin the entertainment, and toss a small life ring out. I can handle the boos from the crowd. A Life Ring That App Designer thing I mentioned, has had a few more waves roll onto it to augment and clarify its true purpose. What we may have first thought was just a tool for creating granular, role-specific "versions" of Dynamics 365 for subsets of users, has morphed into one of the most critical concepts for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement. It is also something you will not be able to ignore. A Simple Tick For those of you with your lights on, who have been using App Designer for some time now to create these role-specific apps, you may have noticed an option on the App Properties Tab. For "Client", you have the choice of "Web" or "Unified Interface". This snuck in on one of those waves. From now on, we will call it the "Future Button". If you have already built apps with the App Designer, ticking this option will transport you to the future of Dynamics 365. But, don't tick it yet. First let's take a peek at this future. Unification of an Interface If you have been listening, Microsoft has been ramping up the conversation about what they are calling the "Unified Interface", aka "Unified Client Interface", "UCI", "New UI" and "The other thing that is not the Web UI". While it may feel like this came out of nowhere, it has been steadily building with each wave. The Unified Interface is the UI of the future, and we have actually had it for a while now, behind the curtain. Back in this November post I wrote "For many of you who have seen, or started to deploy, Dynamics 365 V9. You may have noticed that the UI looks a little different. This would be the "Web UI". This is not the New UI, this is a bridge UI. Currently the New UI, is in the background, with this interim UI taking front stage. In the next release, these positions will change and the New UI will be front and center, with the interim UI in the background. By V10, the interim UI will be gone." Well the time has come for one of those predictions, as of now, new Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement deployments will utilize the Unified Interface by default. You can still opt for the now ancient WebUI, but why would you? Okay, there are a few reasons. Cart meet Horse Sooooo, the Unified Interface is not quite feature complete. There are some parts missing from the box. Are they critical? That depends on where you are coming from. If you have been using Dynamics 365 for a while, and already transitioned to V9 and got the new, now old, WebUI, you may have some challenges moving to the Unified Interface today, because of those missing parts. So if it is missing parts, why is it now the default UI for new customers? Because they won't know what they're missing. The good news is that there is another wave, already on the way here, it hits in October, and brings onshore most of the missing parts. Where's that damn Life Ring? So you build things for the Unified Interface, primarily in the App Designer. While still an option, Unified Interface soon will not be. How soon? I would guess, as soon as most customers have moved to the Unified Interface. When will that be? An excellent question, for which there is no answer yet. But you can be sure that the pressure will be ramping up. You might want to get ahead of it. If you are looking for more technical information to make this move, I highly recommend my fellow MVP Jukka's blog, he has way more patience writing the technical stuff than I do. I regularly punt the hard questions to Jukka... keeps my hands clean.

 Episode 65: Markus Erlandsson talks to Scott Durow from Develop 1, about what the Unified Interface is and what the news is there. How you can get to it and how to use it in the best way. Bio: Scott is a Microsoft Business Solutions MVP specializing in Dynamics 365. He is a committed and … Continue reading Unified Interface with Scott Durow