Category: Dynamics 365

What is the Common Data Model?

For those who want a quick answer:

The Common Data Model (CDM) is a standardized, modular, extensible collection of data schemas published by Microsoft that are designed to make it easier for you to build, use, and analyze data. This collection of predefined schemas—consisting of entities, attributes, semantic metadata and relationships—represent commonly used concepts and activities, such as Account and Campaign, to simplify the creation, aggregation, and analysis of data. – Microsoft 

For those looking for more detail:

The CDM is a common data structure that you should use to build out all of your business applications for consistency in entities, attributes and relationships.

For example:

Scenario 1: You’re a company that sells and manufactures widgets. Your sales, manufacturing and accounting departments all manage their own business processes and data within their own application. That’s 3 applications. AKA your IT departments worst nightmare. And each individual application may have different data structure and records for the same Accounts data. Sending/receiving data from one system to another may require custom attribute mapping and some data may not make it.

Scenario 2: You’re a company that has motivated executives who have had their ears to the ground on Microsoft’s digital transformation message. You also sell and manufacture widgets. You have since converted all of your business applications into the CDM and your Sales, Manufacturing and Accounting teams all share the same set of Account data. No integration needs to take place and your IT department’s business expense for Advil has gone to $0. Building out additional business applications is a breeze – since the core of your application has already been built for you.

Which company do you think has the leg up on their competition?

Use the CDS trigger to set the scope of your flow

Chances are if you are reading this, you know that new and upgraded instances of Dynamics 365 are now synonymous with the Common Data Service. And because of this the D365 and CDS Flow triggers can work on the same data.

There may be an circumstance where you want to create a Flow that only runs when YOU update or create a record. With the D365 connector – this is not possible. The trigger will run on any record that is created/updated.

BUT if you use the CDS trigger, you get more options! You can set the scope of the trigger to “user” – and if you select that option it will only run for records that YOU trigger.

A pretty handy trick to keep in your back pocket.

Benefits of Office 365 integration with Dynamics 365

I’m going to keep this introduction short and sweet. If you are making the decision between Dynamics 365 and another software or are wondering how to leverage Dynamics 365 and the other Microsoft productivity tools, it is a no-brainer to use the integration between Office 365 and Dynamics 365. Here’s why:

Outlook

These days, every CRM system needs to integrate directly with Outlook – and none do it better than the Dynamics App for Outlook. You can work in Outlook all day and have complete access to the full functionality of Dynamics without skipping a beat. If you have emails coming in from leads all day, Dynamics 365 will know their data without your input and you can update their information right from the Dynamics 365 side panel. Turning on email tracking will also allow any emails sent to/from records in Dynamics will be tracked to its timeline.

outlook integration

Cortana

Microsoft is pushing Artificial Intelligence very hard. And one of the main places they are pushing it is in Dynamics 365. The relationship assistant monitors daily actions like tasks, sentiment in emails and opportunities nearing their close date to provide you with actionable insights. Data cards show up in your dashboards and on forms to give you friendly reminders to send the client that email or follow up on that opportunity. Just look at this list of AI features rolling out in the October ’18 releases here. AI is going to give you everything you need to have a leg up on the competition and close more deals.

RA1RA2

Flow

Use Microsoft Flow and it’s expansive list of connectors to send data to and from Dynamics, Office 365, Azure, SQL and many other 3rd party software…. the list goes on.

SharePoint

Another powerful tool that you should leverage with your Dynamics implementation. Every business uses documents and needs a place to store them. With the SharePoint integration, you can link those documents to that quote, opportunity or any record you choose, and it can all be surfaced in SharePoint. Along with all the functionality you get with it, such as versioning and workflows.

OneDrive

By enabling the OneDrive integration, you can manage and work on documents from Dynamics 365 and have them automatically synced to your desktop or mobile device. Go with OneDrive if you want a more private file management solution.

Excel

The integration with Excel allows for data export/import, creating templates, and being able to refresh or edit Dynamics data directly from Excel using Dynamics worksheets.

PowerBI

PowerBI is a no-brainer when it comes to business analytics and interactive reports. Create powerful visualizations with your Dynamics data and embed it right into the D365 dashboards. You can also share these reports with non-Dynamics users.

PBI

OneNote

For every record in Dynamics, you can keep a OneNote notebook to store notes, pictures, videos or voice recordings. This enables your employees to collaborate on the sales deal or project in one of the best productivity tools that Microsoft has to offer.

O365 Groups

With this integration, you can create or link O365 groups to Dynamics 365 records. This gives you a way to link emails, conversations files and collaborations to a record. This is great for projects or big sales opportunities that may involve several users that need a place to collaborate.

Skype for Business

Dynamics allows you to click on any phone number in the system to automatically open your Skype for Business account and give them a call. This is a great tool for sales people who are constantly calling their contacts, lead ands opportunities that don’t want to worry about managing contacts and phone numbers.

Dynamics 365 is a powerful platform on its own, but when you can leverage the functionality available in all the other Office 365 applications it cannot be beat. Combining the two will bring your organizations productivity to another level.

PowerApps Checklist: 10 Things you need to know before getting started

Are you are getting ready to build your first PowerApp? Here is a list of what you should know before you begin:

  1. Do you know your data source?
    • This is an important question, and you guessed it, because of licensing… but I will get to that at a later point. PowerApps has nearly 300 connectors, which can be found here. A decision needs to be made on where you would like to store your data. Common storage locations are SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Excel and Common Data Service (CDS)(Link to blog about what CDS is).
    • Your data source could also determine what type of app you can build. With the Common Data Service, you can build model driven apps which are designed around business functions and business processes.
  2. Do you need a custom connector?
    • If you do not see your data source in this list of connectors, you may need to build your own custom connector. With a custom connector, you will be able to bring data into your PowerApp just like the out of the box connectors.
  3. PowerAppsWhat license is needed?
    • Depending on what connector you need for your data, you can use PowerApps for O365, P1, P2, or Dynamics 365 licenses.
      • If you have O365, you will be able to use PowerApps at no additional cost if your connector is on the list of free connections. Some of these include: SharePoint, Excel, and OneDrive.
      • If you are an end user that needs to connect to a premium data source, such as Common Data Service, you will need a P1 License.
      • If you are an app builder that needs to connect to a premium data source, such as Common Data Service, you will need a P2 License.
      • If you are already using Dynamics 365, you will inherently have a full PowerApps license for no additional cost.
  4. On what device will users be accessing the app?
    • The decision here is an important one for usability. If most of your users are out in the field and will be using the app on their cell phone, you should build the app in “portrait” mode. If users will be accessing on their desktops, you should build the app in “landscape” mode.
  5. Do you need any workflows?
    • Flow is the preferred choice for running any workflows based upon data in PowerApps, and O365 in general. Make sure to document these workflows as part of the beginning stages of any project. With Flow, you will have access to the same connectors used in your PowerApps,plus handy connectors like Approvals, which are easy ways of generating email approval workflows.
  6. Do you need custom branding? Or can you get away with an out-of-the-box theme?
    • When you create PowerApps, you are easily able to switch between the out of the box themes that are made available from Microsoft. But sometimes, they might not fit the branding you are looking for. Currently, you are not able to make a custom PowerApps theme. If you will need a lot of custom branding for your PowerApp – you may need to budget more time for the creation of your app.
  7. Do you need to report on your data?
    • If you need to report on your data, the best place to do so would be in PowerBI. You can create powerful visuals based on the same connections that you have used to create your app. So no matter whether the data is in SharePoint, CDS, Dynamics, Excel, or any 3rd party connectors, you can get powerful insights.
  8. Who will manage the PowerApp?
    • A very important question. When change requests inevitably happen, who takes ownership of those changes? Is it IT or a power user within the team? PowerApps is designed for power users to be able to handle much of the workload, but it is still a great idea to have an IT member or external consultant with more expertise on call.
  9. Who will train end users?
    • The great thing about PowerApps, is that they can be designed in a way that is intuitive to users. Of course there will still need to be some training. Outlining who should be conducting the training is crucial so that users don’t get left behind. Poor user training generally leads to weak user adoption.
  10. Get familiar with the PowerApps roadmap
    • This is important to check every so often due to the steady rollout of new features coming from the PowerApps team. By checking the roadmap here, you can see the new features coming down the line that might solve the need you are looking for, or provide a more usable feature for your end users.