D365 Wave 1 in Production

We don't have D365 in production yet - still in vendor selection - but I've been talking with companies that do about their Wave 1 experience. Here's what they're reporting about the new features in real-world use.

Finance Capabilities in Practice

The AI-assisted reconciliation is getting positive reviews. One reference customer said it cut their monthly close process by about a day and a half. The system learns matching patterns over time, so it gets better as you use it.

Caveats: It requires clean data to work well. If your chart of accounts is a mess or your vendor master is inconsistent, the AI makes inconsistent suggestions. Garbage in, garbage out applies here too.

Supply Chain Features

The demand planning enhancements are useful for companies with promotional cycles. One food manufacturer said they're seeing better inventory positioning during promotional periods - fewer stockouts without excess overstock.

The Supplier Communication Agent is still preview-quality according to most feedback. It works for simple inquiries but struggles with complex scenarios or vendors who don't respond in expected formats. Worth watching but not production-critical yet.

Integration and Performance

Power BI integration continues to be a strength. References consistently mention the analytics capabilities as a highlight - being able to see operational data in real-time dashboards without building custom reports.

Performance varies by implementation. Companies that followed best practices for data volume management and indexing report good performance. Companies that migrated huge historical datasets without optimization report sluggishness.

Implementation Reality

None of the companies I talked to implemented Wave 1 features from scratch. They all had existing D365 implementations that received the Wave 1 update. The update process was generally smooth - Microsoft's auto-update mechanism works - but some customizations needed adjustment.

This is important context for our planning. We'll implement D365 with Wave 1 (or Wave 2 by the time we go live), not upgrade to it. That's a different situation than existing customers face.

Lessons for Our Project

Data quality before implementation. Every reference emphasized that the AI features work better with clean, consistent data. Our data migration effort needs to include significant cleanup.

Start simple, add complexity. Don't try to implement every feature immediately. Get core ERP working, stabilize, then add the advanced capabilities.

Plan for updates. Wave 2 will arrive during our implementation. Wave 1 next year after that. Build update management into our operational rhythm from the start.