Integrate with Dynamics 365

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Automation is one of my favorite topics, so what options or features are there in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM let's have a look at them. Let's discuss the types of Processes in Dynamics 365 which are there for automation.  Business Rules -- use them when you need to do quick and simple form level or entity level automation. Using these you can avoid writing JavaScripts for your form-level customizations where possible. Business Process Flow -- use them when you want to guide or bound the users to a specific set of steps/tasks for a business process across entities, e.g. Lead to the Opportunity Sales cycle. Previously Task flow feature was there around it, however, that is now deprecated. Cloud Flow / Modern Flow -- use them as a replacement of many other traditional automation options or features in Dynamics CRM like the WorkFlows, Plugins, etc. Desktop Flow -- I find this as a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool from Microsoft which we can use with many other automation options s. Workflow -- This is the most tightly coupled inbuilt automation option for D365 CRM. Use them for various types of automation in the traditional way. However, I prefer to use modern flows instead of workflows where possible. Action -- This is more or less a part of Workflow as explained and also can be treated as functions to be called from other automation as a child step. Dialog -- This is a deprecated feature that was there for dialogues or user interactions similar to Action. Other options for automation can be plugins, form-scripts / JavaScripts when the available inbuilt processes are not sufficient to meet the requirement. Plugin -- We use this when we need to develop complex and extensive automation or feature in D365. However, I always prefer to use other automation options before going for a plugin as an automation option where possible. Low code/no code is always a preferable option for me for customizations and developments. JavaScripts -- We can add JavaScripts in form components and events by hosting the scripts as Web Resources in D365. In a nutshell, my personal choice is to focus only on Business Rules, Business Process Flows,  and Modern Flows for D365 automation as long as they meet the requirement. Let me know what do you think about it and/or if you use any other automation options for D365 automation.

How can you predict the behavior of the effect of record deletion on its related records? If you are aware of the "Type of behavior" of the relationship between two entities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM then you can understand it as follows easily. Primarily there are two types of relationships - one is Referential and another is Parental. Let's talk about each of these relationships one by one. If the relationship is Referential and Remove Link on Delete: then any actions taken on one will not affect the other. If it is Referential and Restrict Delete: then any action taken on the parent record will not be applied to the child record, but the parent record cannot be deleted while the child record exists. Next is the Parental relationship, which establishes a very tight link between records. If it is Parental: then any action taken on a record of the parent table is also taken on the related child table records. If it is Custom: then Custom behavior for each possible action is applicable. For Custom behavior, setting up detailed cascading options for Delete, Share, Reparent, Assign, and Unshare can be possible. However, the "Type of behavior" option is not applicable for many-to-many relationships, where any actions taken on one will not affect the other.

Dynamics 365 (or D365) is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). I can remember D365 used to be known as a CRM solution from Microsoft. However, with the progress of the solution, upcoming additions of various modules, and feature enhancement, I was pretty sure that one day it is going to be a full-fledged ERP solution. And the most exciting part is that this is going to be an online or cloud-based ERP. Today with the modules like Finance, Operates, HR, and Supply Chain in D365 we can see the time has arrived when we say that D365 is an ERP solution. This is also established by Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ where recently Microsoft is named a Leader for Cloud ERP. Moreover, D365 has the Commerce module and easy integration with Office Solutions as well. This is not very common with other ERP solution packages. Otherwise, these had to be a separate and disconnected solution again. So this was my point of view for the latest D365 avatar, if you have any other such point of view then please let me know.

Recently we have integrated Dynamics 365 (or D365) with Leadfeeder. This has increased the efficiency of generating new quality leads and tracking the existing leads. The process is very simple and easy. After configuring Leadfeeder we had to just install the solution into the D365 instance. Then a simple authorization process, and that is all. By the way, a few custom fields needed to be created in the D365 Account entity, which is also explained very clearly in the integration guide. So this shows the extensibility or scalability, whatever you say, of D365 for the features we may need to meet our ever-growing and changing business needs. I find there are numerous such useful add-on solutions available for D365 in the market which is a very helpful aspect for D365 customers and users.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (in short D365) database cost is very high compared to other cloud storage like OneDrive or SharePoint. To save this cost and collaborate on the documents better in D365 it is really helpful to integrate it with SharePoint for document management. The only challenge with this is managing the access permission of the contents. The two systems have two different types of access permission management. So if you can manage the container-based permission of SharePoint with D365's role-based permission then integrating D365 with SharePoint is really a cool solution. Check out the Document Management settings in D365 for this. Similarly, we can integrate D365 with OneNote which is one of my favorite applications for taking and managing notes. What I love most about this aspect of D365 is that we can attach online documents with the D365 records. Then we can do online collaboration without making multiple copies of the same document. Watch out for the check-in and check-out of the document feature with this as well. If we manage the documents with this approach then we can search and work on the documents and files in SharePoint in parallel to D365 which is an added advantage. Let me know if you need any help on this. With this, Narottam Das here signing off for now. Thank you.

While working with Power BI I primary faced two types of languages or scripts they are Power Query and DAX. Power query is very powerful in transforming the source data before they load into the reports or the user interface. Power query uses the M functions to write the data transformation codes. That is why they are also called M queries. If required we can use the R and Python scripts here while transforming data in Power BI. Once the data is transformed, the real-time measures and other data processing can be done using the DAX language. The full form of DAX is Data Analysis Expression. This is used once the data is processed using a Power query. This is available on the front end of power BI. But this is optional, DAX is needed only when we need to add any data processing logic in the report once the data is loaded. So in summary I find that the Power query or M query is for the backend data processing and DAX is for the front end data processing in Power BI. There are many such observations around Microsoft Power BI that I am trying to share in this episode.

Hi Friends, have you seen the charts and dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics 365? What do you think – how many charts and dashboards do you need to fulfil your reporting and data analytics needs? If you think carefully and list them then I am sure there will be many. So eventually you must prepare many charts and dashboards that we used to do in our old ERP systems. I can remember that in my first ERP implementation the client had given me tons of hard-copy sample reports and documents of their business to prepare 100s of reports out of that. It was a pathetic experience. However now in the solutions like Dynamics 365 – you know, a single chart can serve the reporting needs of several aspects of the business. It saves time of the implementer a lot and saves your time by avoiding switching from one chart to another chart frequently. I have created a small video for an idea of what it may look like in D365. You can refer to that video, the link is provided in the description. Please comment if you need more on this. Thank you. Here is the video link (https://bit.ly/2RI0uiN).

We are here again with another new interesting article of its kind on the journey of business solution offerings from Microsoft. Here is the blog link (https://bit.ly/3gi1MLH). While working with Dynamics 365 or D365, especially when people ask me to add some options around D365 in our environment then they come with the names like Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV, sometimes only NAV (the Dynamics word is not there), then Dynamics AX, Dynamics CRM and sometimes Dynamics 365 CRM, Dynamics BC or Business Central … oh! My God … the list seems overwhelming and confusing as well. Overall, we all know that these are Microsoft business applications, but how to categorize them what are the differences between them? Are all the said names different, or only some are same? What industry do they cater to if we want to segregate them as per their target industry size? As we do integration of all these solutions as well hence to make our integration data proper in our CRM, I had to nail this up and demystify the classification and categorization of these business applications or the business solutions. So, I do research on this and things get clear to me now, and I write a blog on this too. I hope you will like it too if you face a problem in understanding the business solution offerings from Microsoft. The blog link has been given this podcast trailer please do check it out! There are many such interesting facts around Microsoft Business Solutions that I am trying to share in this episode.

To connect WooCommerce with Dynamics 365 if your only constraint is that you don’t know about Woocommerce APIs. Then a podcast on Woocommerce APIs will surely help you. The podcast has been released very recently. Here is the link - http://bit.ly/wood365 There are many such integration tricks and tips around Microsoft Dynamics 365 that I am trying to share in this episode.