In today’s fast-paced business environment, efficiency and speed are key to staying ahead. That’s why we’re excited to preview* a new feature for Model Driven applications (Canvas application support coming soon) which is designed to improve your mobile applications offline sync performance, saving valuable time and bandwidth.

Offline table column selection brings a significant enhancement to the offline capabilities of your mobile app. Now, Dynamics customers have the power to customize their offline data sync by selecting specific columns within a Dataverse table to download. This granular control means that only the most relevant data is downloaded to the offline device, reducing the overall volume of data that needs to be downloaded.

An example of how this preview feature can be used is shown with the standard Contacts table. This is a standard out of the box Dataverse table which typically includes 240 columns. By leveraging offline table column selection, you can now reduce the number of columns downloaded offline by **greater than half.

User Benefits:

• Reduced Download Time: By downloading only the necessary columns, the time required for offline sync is significantly decreased. 
• Improved User Experience: Faster offline sync times will lead to less waiting for the mobile application to be ready to go offline, and large updates to the device will happen even faster. This will lead to a smoother and more efficient user experience. 
• Optimized Data Usage: This feature helps in managing data consumption, especially in areas with limited connectivity or data plans. 
• Enhanced Performance: With less data to process, the mobile app will use less battery and bandwidth, allowing for quicker access to critical information. 

The offline table column selection feature is a testament to our commitment to providing solutions that not only meet but exceed the needs of our customers. By enabling enterprise users to tailor their offline data access, we’re empowering them to work smarter, not harder. Experience the difference today and take your field service operations to the next level. 

* Offline table column selection is currently in preview only, please refer to the release plan for general availability

** Required columns may be different by organization and unique business scenarios. Be sure to review your custom business logic to ensure all columns required are selected.

Additional resources

• Learn more about this feature and how to enable for your organization
• Field Service Release update: Select table columns to include in mobile offline sync | Microsoft Learn
• Power Apps Release update: Select columns downloaded on mobile devices | Microsoft Learn

The post Improve Mobile Offline performance with Offline Table Column Selection appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 (Preview) app for Windows is optimized to help your team stay productive whether they’re connected or working offline.

The app provides your salespeople, agents, and supervisors with tools they need to track their tasks, arrive prepared for appointments, take notes, and access customer records.

It is seamless to deploy because employees can install the app themselves from the Microsoft Store, and then with one sign-in access all the Dynamics 365 apps enabled for your organization, with no additional configuration.

If you want to customize the app, you can tailor it to meet your business requirements using the Microsoft Power Apps app designer and extensibility points, and configure it to work offline. The seamless setup experience enables you configure the app once, and then deploy it everywhere on iOS, Android, or Windows devices.

Key capabilities

The Dynamics 365 (Preview) app for Windows delivers these key capabilities:

• A personalized action hub to help users get to common tasks, suggestions, and records quickly
• Offline access with synchronization, so users can be productive on the go
• Access records from an easy-to-use home page
• Track progress for key performance indicators visually with charts
• Access personalized views of lists and grids so that users see the data most important to them

We’ll continue to improve the app, adding features that are currently available in the iOS and Android mobile versions including:

• Ability to capture video, photo, and audio in the timeline when adding notes
• GPS geolocation
• Integrated barcode scanner

Next steps and continued learning

To learn more about the Dynamics 365 (Preview) app for Windows, check out the documentation for more details on the capabilities, setup process, and to get the link to install the app.

We’d like to hear from you. Please send us your feedback.

The post Dynamics 365 (Preview) app for Windows comes with offline access appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.