During the Microsoft Keynote at Direction EMEA 2022, Microsoft showed a 71 seconds movie from an internal event. It flashed by fast and nobody(*) got a deep look at what was shown.
(*) Apart from some Youtuber with a camera on the first row, have a look:
At Directions 2022 in Hamburg, Microsoft showed a brief one-minute-and-eleven-second video during the keynote — a “vision hackathon” where their Business Central team envisioned where the product could be heading in one, three, and five years. The video flashed by so quickly that most of the audience barely had time to absorb what was on screen. Erik, sitting in the front row, recorded the whole thing and captured a series of screenshots revealing some fascinating hints about the future of Business Central.
The Vision Hackathon Concept
Unlike a typical hackathon where developers write code and build working prototypes — like the time Erik controlled a drone flying indoors using Business Central — this was a vision hackathon. Mike Morton asked his team to envision where they’d see Business Central in one, three, and five years. The results were compiled into a short video shown at the keynote, and the screenshots reveal some genuinely interesting ideas.
Supply Chain Planning
The very first frame that the frame grabber captured appeared to be a PowerPoint slide with the text: “We’re working on a new product — supply chain planning. How do we get people to try it out? Reaching out to planners… spend their time with Excel… a simple forecasting plugin.” This suggests Microsoft is thinking about a new supply chain planning product, possibly with Excel integration as a way to ease adoption for planners who currently live in spreadsheets.
A Reimagined Onboarding Experience
Multiple screenshots focused on onboarding, which makes sense — onboarding means different things to different people, and Microsoft has been investing heavily in this area. One screen showed a prompt: “What do you like to do in Business Central? Make your choice of what to start with — you can always add more later,” with options like tracking quotes and invoices, tracking purchases, and paying vendors.
Meet BC Bot
Perhaps the most intriguing onboarding concept was a conversational bot: “Hi! BC Bot here. Can we ask a few questions to give you the best start in Business Central?” After the user agrees, the bot explains that it has dashboards ready for various business roles and asks which one you’d like to start with. This appears to be powered by the Microsoft Bot Framework, enabling a conversational approach to setting up Business Central. Erik noted that he’s done similar experiments before with his “Ask AL” project where you could talk to Business Central, and suggested this is an area worth exploring further.
Partner Matching
Another onboarding screenshot showed a popup suggesting a Microsoft partner based on the user’s requirements and location — complete with a specific contact name, company, city, and phone number. Connecting trial users with partners is a notoriously complicated area, but it’s clearly something Microsoft is thinking about solving more elegantly.
A Cleaner, More Modern UI
Several screenshots revealed a significantly redesigned user interface. Key observations include:
- Search Your Business — A new search dialogue that could potentially be the long-awaited combined search function, searching across cues, pages, and data
- Back arrow navigation — Indicating a more browser-like navigation model within card pages
- Redesigned action bar — The save icon, edit pencil, and other toolbar elements have been rethought
- No visible scrollbars — Fact boxes and the main screen area flow together more seamlessly
- A “Story” element — An unexplained but intriguing new concept visible on customer cards
- Comment bulbs — Small indicators next to fields like Credit Limit and Balance, suggesting inline commenting or annotation capabilities
- A “Follow” button — Allowing users to follow specific records like customers, items, or lists
Real-Time Collaboration: Work as a Team Where the Data Is
One of the most exciting concepts shown was real-time collaboration awareness. A dialogue indicated that another user (Mike) had the same customer card open and was “working in the General section,” with an option to “Go there.” This is the kind of feature that could prevent conflicts — imagine seeing that someone else is already working on a sales order before you start making changes. The slide was titled “Work as a team right where the data is.”
Timeline and Process Tracking
A blurry but legible screenshot showed a timeline in the fact box area with the heading “What is next — including future events requiring attention.” Items on the timeline included:
- Final shipment delayed three days — contact customer (with a checkmark)
- Manufacturing production order pending start
- Finalize remaining items that still need to be shipped and posted
- Phase two: sales order partially shipped
This concept of showing connected, sequential events in a timeline format would give users much better visibility into where a process stands and what needs attention next.
Sales Process Overview
The final screenshot showed a page called “Sales Process Overview” — a visual flow showing a quote that was won, turning into a sales order, then shipments, then an invoice, and finally a payment. Being able to see how processes are connected and drill down into each step would be incredibly powerful. Erik noted that at least one app in AppSource already does something similar to a certain degree, but having this built into the base product would be a different story entirely.
Teams Integration — Going Both Ways
Several slides focused on deeper Microsoft Teams integration. We’ve been getting more and more Business Central inside Teams, so the natural next step is getting more Teams inside Business Central — similar to what’s already happening with Dynamics 365 Sales (CRM), where you can initiate Teams calls directly from within the application.
Favorites and Following
Building on the “Follow” button concept, another screenshot showed a “Your Favorites” panel displaying what you’re following: two customers, one item, and one list. The layout resembled the phone client’s brick format, suggesting a unified, modern layout that works across devices. Another slide reinforced this with the text: “What loads in sync across apps and on any device.”
The Source Code Easter Egg
In the spirit of the video’s theme — secrets hidden in plain sight — Erik created a minimal AL project to go along with this exploration:
codeunit 50100 "Steal the secret"
{
}
With an accompanying app.json that playfully sets the stage:
{
"id": "f2b4f3cb-1b1a-41ff-8ab3-317ba63c4aaa",
"name": "StealTheSecret",
"publisher": "Default publisher",
"version": "1.0.0.0",
"platform": "17.0.0.0",
"application": "17.0.0.0",
"idRanges": [
{
"from": 50100,
"to": 50149
}
],
"contextSensitiveHelpUrl": "https://StealTheSecret.com/help/",
"showMyCode": true,
"runtime": "6.0"
}
An empty codeunit — because the real secrets were in that one-minute-and-eleven-second video, not in code.
Summary
From a one-minute-and-eleven-second video that most attendees barely registered, we can extract a remarkable amount of insight into what Microsoft’s Business Central team is dreaming about:
- Supply chain planning as a new product area with Excel integration
- Conversational onboarding via a bot framework
- Automated partner matching for trial users
- A significantly modernized UI with cleaner layouts and new navigation patterns
- Real-time collaboration awareness showing who else is working on the same records
- Timeline-based process tracking in fact boxes
- Deeper Teams integration within Business Central itself
- Follow/favorites functionality for records you care about
- End-to-end process visualization from quote to payment
- Cross-device, cross-app synchronization
These are vision hackathon ideas, not product commitments — but they offer a fascinating window into the minds of the people shaping Business Central’s future. If any of these concepts excite you, let Microsoft know — they’re likely paying attention.
