Arnhem, July 16, 2021 – Microsoft announced yesterday their 2021 Release Wave 2 for Dynamics 365. This wave brings new innovations and hundreds of new features across Dynamics 365 applications, including Marketing, Sales, Finance, and Human Resources.
Our attention was on HR, obviously, so let’s talk about it. According to Microsoft, the focus will be in 3 key areas:
- Broaden the human capital management (HCM) ecosystem;
- Reimagine the employee experience;
- App unification.
But the big news is the infrastructure merge that will bring Dynamics 365 Human Resources into the same infrastructure as other Finance and Operations apps.
Let us give you some information of what to expect of this infrastructural merge.
A brief context
Dynamics 365 HR is a stand-alone application that uses a different infrastructure than other Finance and Operations apps. It was once the HCM module, part of the Finance and Operations (F&O) solution, that Microsoft decided to duplicate but as a stand-alone back in 2017. That was a conscious decision taken to attract a different segment of customers that were only looking for an HR solution.
Now it’s coming back to Finance and Operations. Why? Because having the same infrastructure behind all D365 apps makes improvements easier to do and allows for a more seamless integration between all the apps. Simple as that.
What will change for you as a D365 HR or F&O customer
If you only have Dynamics 365 HR, your Human Resources environment will be migrated to the new infrastructure. Much of this migration process will be automated. Processes will be in place to migrate your database and synchronize it with the new infrastructure.
Additionally, tooling will be in place so that you can test the migration process, and validate your data and experience, before you migrate your production environment.
For organizations that are using the HR module in Finance and Operations apps, the new feature functionality from Dynamics 365 Human Resources will be applied to your environment through the standard One Version update process. You can expect to see the new functionality in your environment as it becomes available in each update.
No loss of functionality in our Web Apps
If you have one or multiple of FourVision’s Web Apps, this is the most important message we want to share: There will be no loss of functionality. FourVision is technically prepared for these changes.
The functionalities that our Web Apps provide outside F&O will still be the same provided in the new environment. Especially because we know that environment very well, as we kept providing extended functionalities to customers using the HCM module within the Finance and Operations solution.
When can you expect these changes
According to Microsoft, the migration for each organization will depend on its current configuration and readiness to migrate to the new infrastructure. These dates are subject to change.
- Organizations that currently use the HR module in Finance and Operations apps will receive the HR functionality for Dynamics 365 Human Resources as part of the regular One Version update process. New features are planned to become generally available beginning in October 2021.
- Organizations that currently use only Dynamics 365 Human Resources will have access to migration tooling so that they can begin testing and start the migration beginning in mid-2022. The date that the migration to the new infrastructure must be completed by hasn’t yet been determined. However, it will be at least one year after the date when migration tooling becomes available.
- Organizations that currently use both Dynamics 365 Human Resources and other Finance and Operations apps will have access to migration tooling so that they can begin testing and start the migration beginning in late 2022. The date that the migration to the new infrastructure must be completed by hasn’t yet been determined. However, it will be at least one year after the date when migration tooling becomes available.
For more detailed information about this infrastructure merge, check this FAQ.
And, for the full Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources 2021 Release Wave 2, read here.
