News
After Delay, Dynamics 365 Marketing App Hits Public Preview
- By Gladys Rama
- February 09, 2018
Microsoft's new Dynamics 365 for Marketing app is now available for small and midsized businesses (SMBs) to test out.
Dynamics 365 for Marketing is designed to be "the front end of the sales cycle to help companies nurture more sales-ready leads, align sales and marketing and make smarter decisions," according to a blog post this week by Microsoft Principal Program manager Kishan Chetan.
Dynamics 365 for Marketing is meant for smaller organizations -- what Chetan described as "growing businesses." For larger enterprises, Microsoft recommends Adobe's Marketing Cloud suite, which became available to Dynamics users as part of a 2015 agreement between Microsoft and Adobe.
The public preview, which can be accessed from this page, supports eight languages and is currently available in 11 countries, according to this infographic from Microsoft:
[Click on image for larger view.] Source: Microsoft's Dynamics 365 availability PDF.
More information on what's included in the public preview is available here.
The Dynamics 365 for Marketing app has had over a year-long gestation period. Microsoft first announced the product back in October 2016, touting it as the replacement for the existing Dynamics Marketing app. At that time, Microsoft had slated Dynamics 365 for Marketing's general availability to be sometime in the spring of 2017, but that timeframe came and went with no release. However, a private preview of Dynamics 365 for Marketing was announced last July.
Microsoft now expects to roll out Dynamics 365 for Marketing this spring, a full year after its original target release date. The current Dynamics Marketing app will then be phased out on May 15, 2018, according to this August announcement.
The projected spring release timeframe coincides with a planned revamp of the overall Dynamics 365 model that Microsoft described last September. The revamp, also due this spring, aims to create a more streamlined Dynamics 365 offering.
"Instead of offering separate editions (e.g. 'Business edition' and 'Enterprise edition'), we will focus on enabling any organization to choose from different price points for each line of business application, based on the level of capabilities and capacity they need to meet their specific needs," Microsoft said in that September announcement.