Overview of Dynamics 365 for Field Service April '19 release

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Important

This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.

Note

These release notes describe functionality that may not have been released yet. To see when this functionality is planned to release, please review What’s new and planned for Dynamics 365 for Field Service. Delivery timelines and projected functionality may change or may not ship (see Microsoft policy).

Dynamics 365 for Field Service empowers organizations to move from being reactive to providing proactive or predictive field service, and to embrace new business models such as outcome-based service or “anything-as-a-service."

The April '19 release includes investments in these areas:

Embedded IoT enhancements: The October '18 release included integration with Azure IoT Central to enable the flow of IoT information between IoT Central and Field Service. Azure IoT Central is a fully managed global IoT software as a service (SaaS) solution that makes it easy to connect, monitor, and manage your IoT assets at scale. Measurements from devices flow into IoT Central where the devices can be monitored. In addition, rules can be created to identify conditions or events that require service action. These come into Field Service as “IoT alerts.” IoT alerts can be monitored and tracked in Field Service.

The April '19 release will include the next level of integration with Azure IoT to be fully embedded within the Field Service application. The flow of alerts can be managed through cases and work can be defined based on the details of the alert.

Within context (for example, within alerts, cases, or assets), measurement of current and historical information from Azure IoT will be shown using visualizations. The visualizations provide the capability to manipulate the device data to diagnose alerts and determine next actions. Based on the diagnosis, commands can be triggered from the Field Service application and executed on the device through IoT Central.

Scheduling capabilities: Over the past two years we have made significant investments in automated and optimized scheduling capability for field service through resource scheduling optimization (RSO). In November 2018, we released single resource optimization, which enables organizations to quickly optimize the schedule for a selected resource.

The April '19 release will include the following enhancements to scheduling:

  • Variable resource location will enable resources to work from different areas and have schedules reflect that shift in resources.
  • Optimization insights will provide service managers and dispatchers an insightful Power BI analytical dashboard to show optimization summarization and statistics to help ensure the desired optimization results.
  • Self-service scheduling via a portal will enable engaging customers on their time, and at their convenience.

Technician productivity enhancements: We continue to enhance and improve the Field Service mobile application. In the October '18 release, we released push notifications and real-time geo tracking. In the October '18 release, we also enabled embedded Field Service context within the HoloLens Remote Assist app.

In the April '19 release, we will add embedded IoT data and time entry capabilities to the Field Service mobile app.

Service delivery improvements: The April '19 release will include time-tracking capabilities to ensure a more accurate accounting for technician time, which helps with calculating cost and revenue.