As the Dynamics community moves through a new series of conferences for Dynamics 365/CRM, 365/AX, 365/NAV, and GP communities, the channel is suddenly awash in roadmap updates and an expected (but still sudden) surprise from Adobe and Microsoft.

Some of the news that MSDynamicsWorld editor Jason Gumpert and assistant editor Dann Maurno cover:

• Dynamics 365 for Financials gets the "full NAV" treatment with a shared codebase, NAV feature set, and W1 localization.
• The Common Data Service, a report from the Dynamics 365 technical conference, where CDS, new deployment options, power BI and faster implementations dominated conversations
• Microsoft and Adobe’s joint customer experience solutions, which burst onto the scene at Adobe Summit 2017, fully developed (but not ready for the channel)
• The updated Dynamics GP 2018 roadmap, with Workforce 4.0 – and what is “PowerSuite”?

• How customers can extend the lifecycle of what they have built out in upgrading to the latest version of Dynamics 365. 
• Digital transformation – what does it mean to customers in the purchasing cycle? In productivity? Overall business outcomes?  
• How as Wittich describes customers are beginning to grasp digital transformation with “some actual lightbulbs going off and eyes lighting up.”  
• Local data: How the on-prem and hybrid model is a sigh of relief to at least some customers, who take it as a sign that “Microsoft is listening.” 
• How the manufacturing vertical is especially vocal in its need for high-volume, high-availability performance of Dynamics 365 (and Microsoft’s answer to that demand). 
• How the Dynamics 365 brand is catching on – fueled in part by the familiarity of Office 365.  
• A surprising interest in Power Apps, and how in an impromptu session AXMentor created a working mobile app in under 10 minutes. 

It has been an exciting few weeks of news in the Microsoft Dynamics channel, with acquisitions (Arbela absorbing Integral USA), product news (Dynamics 365 for Operations on-premise), and expectations around new CRM SMB announcements to come.

Some of the topics MSDynamicsWorld editor Jason Gumpert and assistant editor Dann Maurno cover:

• Dynamics 365 for Operations local business data: Call it on-prem if you like. It won’t offer all the benefits of pure-cloud ERP, but partners and customers are ready to embrace it.
• Cloud outages: Delta’s massive 2016 IT outage should have taught it a lesson, but alas. What can Dynamics users learn from this about disaster recovery?
• A Q&A with PowerObjects, which “bet the farm” on Dynamics CRM 3.0 and shared its best practices for riding the CRM wave to Dynamics 365.
• Why the cloud calls for managed services despite its self-service image, a thought piece by Lasse Olsen of Avanade.
• Integrating Dynamics ERP with Amazon: It isn’t plug-and-play easy, but Western Computer walks us through the technical and tactical challenges.

Newly awarded Microsoft MVP Steve Mordue has never shied away from the challenging issues that partners face both in their day to day work and in long term business planning. A veteran of the Salesforce ecosystem who transitioned his consulting business to Dynamics CRM several years ago, Mordue now runs RapidStart CRM, an ISV that offers tools that improve user adoption of Dynamics 365.

As we move deeper into 2017, Dynamics 365 professionals are awaiting the next phase of the suite’s position in the CRM market, namely with its planned SMB, or “Business Edition,” sales and marketing apps. Once a skeptic, Mordue says he has been won over by Microsoft’s efforts on the buildout of these apps so far. But questions remain, among them:

• How will partners and customers handle around the dozens of CRM-related SKUs related to Dynamics 365 apps and plan?
• What newly interested Microsoft partners, especially those selling Office 365 and Azure, will do to adopt D365
• Where Microsoft is able to get an edge against Salesforce today in terms of features or hype
• Does AppSource still has a lot of runway to build momentum with ISVs?
• Can Dynamics 365 Business Edition sales and marketing compete with SMB sales and marketing cloud solutions?
• How should partners transition from previous generation services to next generation? (Hint: vertical focus)