What’s New in Dynamics 365 Field Service 2023 Release Wave 2
In this post, we review changes and new functionality related to Dynamics 365 Field Service 2023 release wave 2.
This is the final post in our 2023 release wave 2 changes and functionality series.
In prior posts we review:
- 2023 release wave 2 changes and new functionality for Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain Management and Finance and Operations cross-app capabilities.
- 2023 release wave 2 changes and new functionality for Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Sales.
- 2023 release wave 2 changes and new functionality related to Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC).
- 2023 release wave 2 changes and new functionality related to Microsoft Power Platform.
If you want to learn more about these topics or view these posts, go to:
New in Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Sales in 2023 Release Wave 2 | Velosio
What’s New in Business Central in 2023 Release Wave 2 | Velosio
What’s New in Microsoft Power Platform 2023 Release Wave 2 | Velosio
In this post, we review changes and new functionality related to Dynamics 365 Field Service 2023 release wave 2.
For additional details related to the topics reviewed in this post, or to view the Release Plan click here.
Dynamics 365 Field Service
Dynamics 365 Field Service is an industry-leading field service management application allowing companies to transform service operations by connecting people, places, and things to deliver a customer-centric experience.
Field Service includes work order management, resource scheduling, asset management capabilities and frontline worker tools. Field Service allows companies to move from paper-based reactive service to delivering proactive and predictive service, empowering digital transformation and allowing innovative business models such as outcome-based service.
In this release wave, next generation modern, task-oriented experiences for service managers, dispatchers, and frontline workers are being introduced. Additionally, a new copilot experience is being built into Microsoft 365 applications such as Outlook and Teams, harnessing the power of AI.
Frontline workers can expect both improvements and brand-new capabilities in the Field Service Mobile application. Service managers receive new capabilities to simplify both customer management and work order processing. Dispatchers can efficiently assess, queue and assign work orders.
A refreshed schedule board experience is now available for all users.
Field Service
Copilot in Field Service
Frontline Productivity
Frontline workers and service managers can now create, view, and manage work orders using the power of generative AI. Copilot capabilities within Microsoft 365 and Field Service core application integrations, support users with assisted work order creation, management, and scheduling recommendations thereby increasing frontline productivity.
Optimize Service Operations
This release advances field service productivity to another level. New work order user experiences, with embedded copilot capabilities and enhanced work order lifecycle management, make it easier for service managers to manage work orders and ensure that customer requirements are met on time.
Client Management
Improved client management and location capabilities enable a seamless quote to work order process, making it easier for service managers to manage clients and locations. Additionally, service managers can now use enhanced characteristics to define client required resource skills.
Empowering Frontline Workers
Service technicians and frontline workers are the keys to a successful field service operation. These field service team members are at the forefront of providing customer service excellence by effectively resolving customer issues. Frontline workers must have the best digital tools available to enable them to engage with peers, the back office, and customers all while performing field service duties. This release continues to empower technicians and frontline workers, providing better service and improving first-time fix rates, which is at the core of Microsoft 365 and Field Service objectives.
Mobile Apps
Enhanced user Experience
Core user experience within the Field Service Mobile application is enhanced through using new mobile-first experiences and controls. Enhancements include a new booking and work order management experience, navigation updates, improved touch targets, and familiar swipe gestures to accomplish mobile application tasks.
Provisioning
The new user experience is provisioned through an administrative toggle. This feature increases provisioning control and improves user adoption by ensuring that field service users are trained and ready before the new experience is made available.
Mobile App Performance
Image uploads are now compressed reducing bandwidth and capacity consumption. Offline sync settings for frontline workers improve the mobile app sync experience.
Resource Management and Scheduling
Resource management and scheduling optimization are at the heart of field service management. The schedule board offers enhanced scheduling capabilities for dispatchers, project managers, and resource managers through different views and increases capabilities for companies to tailor functionality to meet their specific needs.
New Schedule Board
The legacy schedule board is being fully retired in this release, and the new schedule board has been enhanced.
Other schedule board enhancements
Simplified methods of breaking down long-lasting or complex requirements with key improvements in specifying patterns is added. Also, scrolling shortcuts to quickly zoom in and out on the schedule board to adjust the date/time granularity are enabled.
Booking Views
Revise daily, weekly, and monthly booking views on the schedule board to display bookings proportionately to their durations, helping to quickly determine resource availability and utilization.
Resource Schedule Optimization Add-in
The Resource Schedule Optimization add-in has received several enhancements including new booking features to improve resource utilization for single-resource optimization.
Field Service Microsoft 365 Integration
Work Orders
Frontline workers and managers can now create, view, and manage work orders within Microsoft 365 applications, including Microsoft Teams and Outlook.
Viva Connections Dashboard
A Teams Viva Connections dashboard allows frontline workers to view their workday and frontline managers to view and create work orders.
Outlook Add-in
An Outlook add-in allows frontline managers to view and create work orders in Outlook, supporting quick response to service requests and questions.
Remote Assist Calling
Users can now initiate a Remote Assist call within Teams Mobile.
Notes for Application Administrators
Features Enabled Automatically
Features impacting users should be reviewed by application administrators. This facilitates release change management and enables successful onboarding of new capabilities. For the complete list, look for all features tagged “Users, automatically” in the release plan.
Features That Must be Enabled by Application Administrators
This release wave contains features that must be enabled or configured by administrators, makers, or business analysts to be available for their users. For the complete list, look for all features tagged “Users by admins, makers, or analysts” in the release plan.
Use the link provided in the introduction section to access the applicable release plan.