Managing Customer Engagement Continuous Updates

• Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Online implements a continuous update release schedule with inconsistent promises of deliverables and few options to delay updates.
• Continuous updating requires customers to perform continuous testing and vigilance to avoid errors.
• Customers will need to budget for and use sandboxes, delay tactics, and other strategies to mitigate risk.

Starting in Apr. 2019, Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Online adopted a continuous update policy that requires customers to accept updates on a weekly and monthly basis, requiring more frequent testing, validation, and training.

Overview

Dynamics 365 is a family of software and hosted services that provide sales, marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), retail, and human resource functionality.

This report focuses on Customer Engagement Online, which is governed by a modern life-cycle policy. The associated on-premises product, Dynamics 365 Server, retains a traditional fixed life-cycle policy where customers control the update process and can remain on a version indefinitely; however, the on-premises version may not offer the newest features.