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Our key takeaways from Directions EMEA 2022
Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes
In the latest episode of Tecman Talks Dynamics, we reflect on the recent Directions EMEA Conference held in Hamburg. For those of you who don’t know what Directions is, Directions EMEA or Directions 4 Partners EMEA is an opportunity for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner community in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to get together to learn about the latest releases and product information for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Last week’s event was jam-packed and really pinpointed what partners, just like us, should focus on. So, James, Liz, Matt and James have reflected on the 3-day conference and pulled out what they feel are the key takeaways which will benefit users of the solution and discuss them further.
This year there was a big focus on the Power Platform. Liz mentioned that ‘they were smacked in the face with Power Platform’! In recent years there’s been a Power Platform boom and it’s now a case of finding out all the fantastic new features of the 6 solutions, Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, Power Portals, Power Pages and Power Virtual Agents and finding the right tool for the right job. They discuss the ins and outs of the Power Platform including customers using online resources to create their own apps etc and consequently the complexities of testing for partners.
Another key takeaway was the new integration with Microsoft Teams. This is a biggie as even non-Dynamics 365 Business Central users, without a licence, can now view shared contact cards and lists within Teams. As James said ‘there’s not much that Microsoft gives away for free!’.
Telemetry was another subject which was discussed in detail in Hamburg. For partners it helps us to pinpoint any problems that occur, meaning that they get resolved quicker and users disruption is minimal. Our Directors discuss the telemetry journey and its future.
Also discussed is reporting, whether that’s the new functionality released which allows you to report within Microsoft Excel, Power BI or other third-party apps. There are lots of options to choose from now, depending on what you want to report on, some are more simple than others but sometimes more complex ways are required. They explore some of these options and what they can be used for.
Last but at no means least are permissions. In the latest update, you could exclude options for users as well as include them which allows set specific limitations. Discussed are the new Dynamics 365 permission sets and how they are better than the historical ones.