Microsoft Dynamics Business Central: Highlights of the Autumn 2019 Release

Microsoft, being the tech embracing savior in the business world, has taken its game a notch higher by introducing updates every 6 months in their Dynamics 365 suite. In the past year, specifically after the Spring 2018 release, Microsoft witnessed a 311% growth in partners selling Business Central – 68% of which was from North America alone. At present there are over 300 Business Central apps on AppSource. With over 50 new Business Central partners every month, Microsoft does prove its worth in the market. After their exciting April release, people can’t wait for the Autumn ‘wave 2’ that is to be witnessed in the month of October.

While Microsoft released a list of 42 changes and over 100 new features Dynamics Business Central is going to experience this season, the list is still a tentative one and is subject to minor changes. However, amongst these dynamic changes in Dynamic 365, there are some that took our breath away.
Our team here has compiled a list of the highlights that you shouldn’t miss for the world – especially if you are a Business analytics guy.

Highlights of Microsoft Dynamics Business Central: Wave 2

The series of 42 changes will be introduced over a course of 6 months, from October 2019 to March 2020. Application enhancement, application lifecycle management, ISV acceleration, migrations to business central online, are some of the suites to undergo exciting updates.

Multiple production environments

If you ever doubted the fact that Microsoft takes customer feedback seriously, now is the time to be certain of it. Finally, Business Central will support Localization-Extensions per Company. Today, it is necessary to maintain a homogenous codebase for all the companies on the same database. This would change with the aforementioned introduction. SaaS companies, who often avoided Business Central due of this, will now have absolutely no reason to not switch to Dynamics 365. We’re sure ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) will make good use of this to update their price models.

Boost in Performance

Wish to test database usage of your Extensions? Wish to analyze the performance of your extensions while executing data entry? Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC has you covered! This term, they not only spent on speed and agility, but have improved the performance from 350 orders with 10 lines each in 2 minutes to an almost double the speed. It has also mentioned plans of releasing a Lock-free number series in future, so be prepared to say goodbye to database locks.

Modern clients

Waving adieu to the desktop client, Microsoft is revamping its Modern clients. If one is honest, the desktop client is the most powerful one right now with its multi-tasking abilities and commendable data input options. The best example of this would be lack of simplicity for modern clients. If you wish to resize columns, you must navigate to the Personalize – Menu on the modern clients. But Microsoft is intent on changing this scene with its autumn release. A new powerful filter will also allow users to add custom filtering criteria without having to add extensions for aid.

Also, if the fact that running long processes means you cannot really work on any other tabs lest they be affected has been troubling you, it’s time to rejoice. Multi-tasking acrossmultiple pages is being introduced in the new Business Central.

Base applications as AL applications

Remember 2002 when Microsoft acquired Navision A/S and the rumors were that the programming language of NAV was soon to integrate with the developer tools of Microsoft? The time has arrived! It is not to be a rumor anymore. While AppSource grows steadily with Extensions, courtesy how Microsoft decided to phase in the introduction of the AL- language over a couple of years, there are a few ISVs who are still struggling to make this transition. However, if they’re unable to provide an Extension solution within November 2019, it would be impossible for the customers to upgrade this year.
This change will be the end of the Windows client and the C/SIDE development environment. The base application will be split up into The System and the Apps part. And this is why the Desktop App has to go as well.
Moving GP users to Business Centrals

While a lot of Dynamics GP users have been content with Intelligent Edge, a solution that helps augment the use of Business Central, a lot of them have expressed their wishes to migrate to Dynamics 365. Until now, there was no smooth path for them to make this transition. However, Microsoft has put a lot of thought in this particular direction this term. However, this does not mean GP is dying down. On the contrary, we believe Dynamics GP will dominate for the next decade or so to come.

This quarter, Microsoft is all set upon making bold statements, not only with their Business Central updates but with the hundreds of additions to their Microsoft Power Platform as well. While Dynamics will see 350+ new features, Customer Insights, Customer Service Virtual Agent, and Fraud Protection, the other capabilities to be introduced will be Forms Pro, Dynamics Visualize and Dynamics Guides. A developer’s life is soon to be much easier with these introductions.