Dynamic Times For Partners

At the Inspire 2018 partner conference, one of the key messages coming from Microsoft's channel leadership might be summarized like this: the time is now to seize the Dynamics 365 opportunity. Dynamics 365 -- Microsoft's combination cloud CRM and ERP system -- saw 65 percent growth during the first three quarters of the company's fiscal 2018 (Microsoft's fourth-quarter results come out Thursday). That makes it one of Microsoft's fastest-growing businesses, even faster than Office 365. "Over the past 12 months, we've celebrated partner achievement in business applications across the globe," said Alysa Taylor, corporate vice president for business applications and industry at Microsoft, in a blog post. "Building on this progress, we are increasing our investment in partner success for the coming year."

What follows are five key announcements from Microsoft about Dynamics 365.