Sunday 1 April 2018

What’s new in Media Platform in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

Microsoft Stream is a service that enables your employees to create, discover, and share videos securely across your organization, right inside the collaboration apps they use most, such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Office 365, and Dynamics 365. Intelligence capabilities provide more ways to find and interact with videos, and help people access relevant content quickly and easily.

Microsoft Stream provides accessible, enterprise-grade security for organizations of any size, and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to convert speech to text, and face identification for smarter search.

Microsoft Stream empowers organizations to:

  • Build an easy-to-use video experience that is familiar, appealing, and secure. Microsoft Stream minimizes the learning curve for employees to do more with video at work.
  • Integrate tightly into the business applications people use daily. Microsoft Stream takes video to the productivity apps where people spend their time, and delivers a seamless, embedded experience. Additionally, embedded video in business applications brings video directly to apps where people work with customers.
  • Create their own content. Content creation tools allow employees create and publish content to Microsoft Stream. For example, videos created via meeting recordings in Microsoft Teams can be published and shared with others. AI techniques extract insights about the content and enable business users to make informed decisions.

Main features and enhancements in Media Platform for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) investments address requirements imposed by the European privacy law. 
  • Public anonymous playback – In Dynamics 365 for Marketing, users can watch videos without needing access credentials on websites.
  • Tier-C compliance – Microsoft Stream is a certified Tier-C service for compliance standards such as ISO and SOC2.
  • Spotlight videos on the Stream home page and groups pages – Admins and group owners can highlight (or spotlight) videos to make them more visible to employees.
  • Cloud recording for meetings in Microsoft Teams – Record and share meetings in Microsoft Teams.
  • Seamless single sign-on with Microsoft Teams and Yammer – Single sign-on for users of Stream videos, and channels is embedded in Microsoft Teams and Yammer.
  • Edit transcripts and curate people timelines – Edit automatically generated transcripts, and curate people timelines.

What’s new in Data Integration in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

Data Integration provides the connectors and gateways that make it possible to bring any external data into the Common Data Service and store the data in Common Data Model (CDM) form. This makes it easier for customers to integrate their data in a single place for business applications and analytics. Data Integration is based on Power Query, the same technology millions of people use daily in Power BI and Excel.

Data Integration provides direct connectivity to hundreds of business-critical data sources, including:

  • Hybrid connectivity via the On-premises data gateway.
  • Integration into Power BI, PowerApps, Logic Apps, Flow, Azure Analysis Services, and Office 365 (Power Query in Excel).

Main features and enhancements in Data Integration for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

  • Enhancements to major connectors, such as SQL, SAP BW, and SAP HANA.
  • Improved capability for partners to create and distribute their own connectors.
  • Extensibility enhancements that enable lightweight connectors to be deployed to Power BI.
  • Gateway improvements on the desktop and in the cloud, including DirectQuery support.

What’s new in Business Intelligence Platform in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

Organizations can use Power BI to translate a wealth of data into actionable insights.

Main features and enhancements in Business Intelligence Platform for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

  • Analytics and exploration experiences. Features include an improved SAP HANA connector that treats SAP HANA as a multi-dimensional source, and capabilities for analysts to improve productivity with unique ways to visualize data. For example, users can use canvas tooltips to express more detail in context. Excel users who use the matrix visual receive measure-driven conditional formatting, and the ability to expand or collapse sections of the visual.
  • Natural language analytics for everyone. Authors can use some of the improvements to Q&A natural language experiences to add domain-specific language and phrasing tailored for their domain. Users can ask questions in the context of their workflow, which includes Cortana and reports in Dynamics 365. Users can identify trends or changes in their data using Smart alerts and enhanced Quick Insights.
  • Enterprise-grade trusted platform. Governance improvements include additional administrative controls, access to user content, and reporting. With Power BI Premium, you get improved scalability support with larger node sizes, incremental refresh for faster data loads, and deployments that span multiple geographic regions worldwide.

What’s new in Microsoft Flow in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

Microsoft is modernizing business processes across productivity, CRM, and ERP applications, which makes it easier for every business to transform how people work. Microsoft Flow, the Microsoft workflow and business process management platform, is core to the success of this mission. It's the connective glue that’s used by users and app developers alike for digital transformation, no matter what application they’re using. Flow, together with PowerApps and Power BI, makes up the Business application platform.

Main features and enhancements in Microsoft Flow for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

  • Create a business process flow. A business process flow is a new type of stateful, human-interactive flow based on the Common Data Service for Apps. Use these new flows to define a set of stages and steps for people to follow. They can move forward and backward as needed.
  • Business process flow entity customization. Business process flow entities can appear in the system, so that entity record data can be made available in grids, views, charts, and dashboards.
  • Add an action to a business process flow. In a business process flow, add a button that triggers an action or workflow that runs processes on your data.
  • Repair recommendations sent in email for failed flows. If a flow fails, have detailed repair recommendations sent right to your inbox. These step-by-step recommendations are linked directly to the information you need to fix the most common failures.
  • Request for sign-off flow built into SharePoint. When you select a file or item in SharePoint, you’ll see a new Request for sign-off flow. This flow, which doesn't require any configuration or setup, sends a sign-off request with a single click.
  • Customize SharePoint content approvals with Flow. For SharePoint page libraries, site administrators can take advantage of Flow for content approval workflows.
  • Flows “owned by” SharePoint lists and libraries. Flows that work with SharePoint lists (and libraries) can be shared with those lists, so instead of being shared with individuals or groups, they’re shared with everyone who has access to the list. As membership of the list or library changes, users are automatically given access to the flow.
  • Test your flow by using sample data. Creating a flow might require some trial and error during the development process. Use sample data to test your flow as you build it, so you know that the flow will run as expected.
  • Build and run flows from Excel. With the new Flow button (accessed from the ribbon’s Data tab), you can create and trigger automations from Flow on your table data in Excel. Automate data processing or the copying/importing of data.
  • Create a flow for Microsoft To-Do in Outlook Web App. If someone is @mentioned in Outlook Web App, they’ll see a shortcut to create a flow. This flow automatically creates tasks for the @mentioned person in Microsoft To-Do, based on the content of the email.
  • Return data to PowerApps from a flow. Build flows that can be called from an app built with PowerApps, and return data back to the app. Use the visual drag-and-drop flow designer to build the logic you need for the app.
  • Quick access to help and support. Open support tickets in the context of an issue encountered in Flow, such as when your workflow is failing. Automatically provide Microsoft support engineers with failure details for quicker resolution.
  • GDPR compliance. To support the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), administrators can now submit a request to export or delete all of the data about Flow users.
  • Access modern approvals in the Common Data Service for Apps. Modern approvals data in Flow is built on the latest version of the Common Data Service for Apps. This means that you can build flows that are triggered by or read the status of the approvals you send or receive.

What’s new in Common Data Service for Apps in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

The Common Data Service for Apps is how PowerApps, Office, and the Dynamics suite of products integrate with a single system of record for business data. The Common Data Service for Apps is the native system of record for:

  • Dynamics 365 for Sales.
  • Dynamics 365 for Service.
  • Dynamics 365 for Field Service.
  • Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation.
  • Dynamics 365 for Marketing.
  • The Dynamics 365 for Talent family of applications.
  • Standalone IT business apps.

Main features and enhancements in Common Data Service for Apps for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

  • Support for additional data types. Additional data types support more complex entity definitions and provide richer experiences. (Applies to canvas and model-driven apps)
  • Improved entity creation and customization. Create and customize entities in the Common Data Service for Apps right from PowerApps.com. The refreshed experience includes improved performance, a more user-friendly UI, and helpful features such as in-line option set creation. (Applies to canvas and model-driven apps)
  • Server-side logic for validation. Create server-side business rules for validating data entered into the Common Data Service for Apps. (Applies to canvas and model-driven apps)
  • Calculated and rollup fields. Create calculated and rollup fields in Common Data Service for Apps entities directly from PowerApps.com. (Applies to canvas and model-driven apps)
  • Improved Excel add-in for the Common Data Service for Apps. The Common Data Service for Apps Excel add-in now supports the upgraded Common Data Service for Apps features.
  • Software Development Kit (SDK). Developers can use the Common Data Service for Apps Software Development Kit (SDK) to create code-based customizations for the Common Data Service for Apps.
  • Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). Solutions in the Common Data Service for Apps allow customizations to be organized, exported, and imported between environments to support Application Lifecycle Management scenarios within organizations, and between ISVs and their customers. (Applies to model-driven apps)
  • Common Data Service OData Web API. Advanced users can access data stored in the Common Data Service for Apps through a new OData Web API.
  • Import data into Common Data Service for Apps with Power Query. Use Power Query on the web to directly import data into the Common Data Service for Apps from multiple sources.

What’s new in PowerApps in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

PowerApps is the high-productivity application development platform from Microsoft. In this release, we’re combining the richness of Dynamics 365 with the agility of PowerApps to create a single unified platform. The PowerApps platform is now the platform that the Dynamics 365 for Sales, Service, Marketing, and Talent applications are natively built on. This release also includes major advancements to the Common Data Service for Apps (the data platform that comes with PowerApps) and client UX creation tools. These new capabilities are backward-compatible with the Dynamics 365 platform (frequently called the xRM platform), which means that Dynamics 365 customizers and partners can use already-acquired skills to create apps with PowerApps.

PowerApps is also tightly integrated with Office 365. You can use the same set of tools to customize and extend an increasing number of Office 365 apps, and also build standalone business applications connected to more than 200 data sources.

Main features and enhancements in PowerApps for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

Model-driven apps
You can build a new type of application with PowerApps: model-driven apps. Create and customize model-driven apps directly from PowerApps.com by using the app designer. Bring together entities, forms, views, dashboards, charts, and business processes to automatically generate powerful line-of-business applications. It's easy to get started building model-driven apps. Switch to model-driven mode, learn the basics, and then explore one of our great sample apps.

  • Entity forms. Create and customize sophisticated forms for Common Data Service for Apps entities directly from model-driven mode on PowerApps.com. Create forms with visual drag-and-drop designers by using a host of custom controls that are available from a rich control library.
  • Entity views. Create and customize views for Common Data Service for Apps entities directly from model-driven mode on PowerApps.com. Use point-and-click tools to create filters, set the sort order, and choose which columns to display.
  • Business process flows. Associate one or more business process flows with your model-driven app to focus your users' experience through a specific set of guided steps.
  • Dashboards. Build and use custom interactive dashboards with rich chart controls that use data from Common Data Service for Apps entities. Embed Power BI dashboards in model-driven application dashboards for deeper cross-system data analysis directly from the application.
  • Metadata-driven responsive user experiences. Model-driven application user experiences are automatically generated upon entity creation. A navigation model, basic forms, and a subset of views are available for customization. User experiences are responsive and metadata-driven. Applications provide consistent functionality across all surfaces, including web and mobile and support for right-to-left (RTL) languages.
  • Accessible apps out of the box. Model-driven apps built using the Unified Interface infrastructure meet Microsoft accessibility standards (go to the Trust Center to learn about our industry-leading accessibility standards). The applications enable users, including keyboard-only users and touch-only users, to perform key tasks. The apps work well with screen readers and won’t block other accessibility tools, such as one-click devices.
  • Mobile player. Run model-driven apps on mobile devices. For tablets and phones, applications are automatically optimized for the device.

Canvas apps
You can now build two types of applications with PowerApps: canvas apps and model-driven apps. The term “canvas apps” refers to apps built through the WYSIWYG screen design that provides complete control over the interface. With a canvas app, you start with a blank canvas to create a very tailored user interface. Then you connect that user interface to your choice of 200 data sources. You can build canvas apps for web, mobile, and tablet applications. With a model-driven app, you start with your data model. Build from your core business data and processes in the Common Data Service for Apps to model forms, views, and other components. Model-driven apps automatically generate a great user interface that’s responsive across devices.

  • Controllable delegation limits. Control delegation limits for non-delegable data sources that have up to a maximum of 2,000 records. This allows client-side operations to work on larger datasets.
  • SQL views. To avoid performance issues, use SQL views to combine data in SQL Server before bringing it into PowerApps.
  • Simplified access to entities through foreign key relationships. Intuitive access to entities included in a relationship (foreign key) in entities that are stored in the Common Data Service for Apps makes it significantly easier to use related entities in canvas apps.

Improved app sharing experience 
The improved experience for canvas apps makes it easier to view the data sources used by an app and easier to set up user permissions to access that data. For model-driven apps, share apps by assigning appropriate security roles that provide user access to the entities and data in the Common Data Service for Apps.

Apps connected to SharePoint lists can include attachments
Apps connected to SharePoint Online can now be used to view and upload attachments, including images and documents.

Improved support ticketing for admins
Request help from a Microsoft support representative from the new Business platform admin center.

GDPR compliance 
To support the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), administrators can support data subject rights requests for PowerApps users.

Automate governance with PowerShell
The administrative capabilities of the Admin Center are now available programmatically to admins through the release of the PowerApps PowerShell cmdlets.









What’s new in Business Central in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

With the Spring ’18 release, Dynamics 365 Business Central brings the full power of Dynamics NAV to the cloud in 14 countries or regions and replaces Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Business edition. Existing Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Business edition customers will be automatically upgraded to Dynamics 365 Business Central at the next upgrade of their service.

Dynamics 365 Business Central is the next generation of Dynamics NAV, one of the leading Microsoft business application products, which has served 140,000 customers and millions of users worldwide. Dynamics 365 Business Central is an extremely flexible solution, easily adaptable to the needs of geographies, industries, and individual customers.

Main features and enhancements in Business Central for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

Broad regional availability
  • 14 markets - Dynamics 365 Business Central is available in 14 markets.

Full suite of application functionality
  • Essential - Includes a broad range of functionality that most businesses need to run their business.
  • Premium - Adds Service management and Manufacturing.

Look and feel
  • Modern user experience - A refreshed and modern user experience, optimized for insights and productivity.

Easy to extend
  • App Source - Customize your experience with apps from App Source.
  • Power BI, PowerApps, and Flow - Combine with PowerApps and Microsoft Flow to compose new applications and extend existing business processes. Integrate with Power BI for custom dashboards and configurable reports.
  • Extensions - Many improvements have been made to the extensions technology, so that you can extend, customize, and build solutions in an upgradable fashion, decoupled from the base application.
  • Individual customizations - As a user, you can personalize your experience. As a partner, you can apply customizations to one or more customers' experiences.
  • Business API - Integrate with external systems and services by using the robust API.
  • Modern developer experience - File-based development environment and a new development language.

Compliance
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - Investments address the European privacy law’s requirements. Go to the Trust Center to learn more and find resources to help you comply.
  • Accessibility enhancements - Go to the Trust Center to learn about our industry-leading accessibility standards.
  • ISO and SOC compliance.

What’s new in Talent – Onboard in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

The focus for Spring '18 updates has been to streamline onboarding at the department level through more robust templates, reporting, and automation. Based on customer feedback, Onboard has been enhanced with collaborative capabilities to allow more individuals to create and implement onboarding experiences. Onboard now also includes template authoring workflows to enable template updates to be rolled out to all instances instantiated from the template.

Main features and enhancements in Talent – Onboard for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:
  • Customizable welcome emails
Managers can personalize the welcome email sent to their new hires when it’s time to onboard. This creates a personal touch and improves email response rate.
  • Due date placeholders
Managers can insert due date placeholders as an offset from a new hire’s start date, such as two weeks after the start date or three days before. Due dates are updated automatically if the new hire’s start date is changed.
  • Export to Excel
Hiring managers can export all the guides they create or contribute to an Excel file that can be used for reporting and Power BI.
  • Import (Public Preview)
Hiring managers can import content from other guides or templates to ensure that the latest content is always reflected. This helps them get started quickly and makes it easier to include the latest content from their manager or department leader. 

What’s new in Talent – Attract in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

The Spring ‘18 releases expand recruiting management capabilities to include support for career websites and for posting multiple jobs at the same time to simplify the job posting process.

Main features and enhancements in Talent – Attract for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

  • Configurable hiring process - Customers can define the hiring process on a job-by-job basis.
  • Advanced interview scheduling - Enhanced scheduling of multi-day interviews, last-minute interviewer replacement, and improved communication throughout the scheduling process.
  • Candidate notes - Ability for the hiring team to keep notes on candidate applications. 
  • Assessment activity with Koru integration - Third-party candidate assessment from Koru (www.joinkoru.com).
  • Company Career site - Quickly post jobs to a company career site to kick off the application process.
Candidate apply - Candidates can apply for open positions directly from the career site. 
LinkedIn integrations - Apply with LinkedIn, and post openings to LinkedIn. 
  • Assessment activity with Gauge integration - Gauge is a tool for creating assessments for efficient hiring or employee assessment surveys.
  • Configurable hiring process – templates - Create custom templates to guide the hiring process.
  • Offer management - Offer creation and management through templates and workflows.
  • Prospect tracking - Manages all prospective candidates before formal application.
  • LinkedIn Recruiter system connect - Quickly push candidates into Attract from LinkedIn Recruiter.

What’s new in Talent – Core HR in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

The Spring ‘18 release of Talent - Core HR focuses on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, enabling integrations, and adding key capabilities based on customer feedback.

To support best-of-breed payroll functionality and increase the portfolio of customers we can support, we have added payroll integration capabilities, including support for Ceridian Dayforce. In addition, we provide support for open enrollment processing and streamlined processing for employees to initiate qualified life event changes. These updates provide configuration and processing of all changes, together with a workflow to ensure accurate data across Talent for compliance and eligibility, and the ability to export elections to benefits providers.

Enhanced manager self-service capabilities mean that managers can initiate compensation change processes within their organizations. Integrated review and workflow approval processes ensure that changes are accurate and within budget.

Main features and enhancements in Talent – Core HR for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

  • Manager self-service promotion requests/workflow - Expanded manager self-service capabilities.
  • Attachments - Attachments from the hiring process can be transferred to new hires’ employee records.
  • Contextual filtering of reason codes - Reason codes can be configured for hire, transfer, termination, and compensation processes.
  • Custom fields - This functionality has been enabled across Talent.
  • Streamlined transfer process - When transferring an employee, the job is automatically added to the transfer request.
  • Updated Power BI visuals - The visuals have been refreshed in Power BI reports. Mean and median gender pay metrics have also been added.
  • Default dates - Dates are no longer completed by default for hire, transfer, and termination processes.
  • Rehire flag – A flag for the worker's eligibility for rehire is set as part of the termination process.
  • Integration with Finance and Operations 7.2 and 7.3 (Public Preview) - Integration provides an initial data load into Talent, with ongoing integration to maintain Finance and Operations workflows and HR transactions.
  • Payroll integration - Connect Talent to your payroll system by using out-of-box integration with Ceridian, or connect manually to other payroll providers.
  • Benefits enhancements - Open enrollment and qualified life event changes.
  • Absence management
Working days calendars – Supports the creation of calendars that reflect company holidays.
    Submit time off in days – More flexible increments for entering time off.
      Custom absence accrual dates – Customize time carry-over and time-off accrual capabilities.
      • Position and employee management updates - Provide additional information related to positions and employees, allowing HR professionals and managers to streamline the hiring process.

















      Saturday 31 March 2018

      What’s new in Retail in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      The focus of the Spring ‘18 release for Retail includes an investment in service hardening and enabling new capabilities that drive our integrated and omni-channel value proposition even further.

      Main features and enhancements in Retail for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      • CDX and data management - Provides improved offline capabilities to ensure that point of sale terminals continue to function during updates or internet disconnects.
      Retail organizations often find it challenging to maintain connectivity everywhere at all times. It can be a disruptive and daunting task to manage and maintain full connectivity without downtime. By allowing for offline functionality that is seamless and simple to administer, retail organizations’ point of sale terminals can continue to function during software updates or internet disconnects. To facilitate easy and informative workflows, the user interface and logic around when to switch between an online connectivity and an offline functionality has been enhanced to make it clear what is occurring and how to best handle any changes to the work being done.
      • Deployment and servicing - Provides resource governance between transactional and back-office workloads to ensure that long-running batch processes don't affect transactional system performance, and that peak store traffic doesn't impede back office operations.
      Retail organizations, especially those with globally-distributed operations, often find it challenging to pick a single maintenance window that is simultaneously non-disruptive to their entire global operational footprint. With near-zero downtime updates, most retail store operations can continue to work even through maintenance windows. This allows organizations that prefer low/no-footprint deployment to enjoy the same level of business continuity in their stores, even with a cloud-only topology. Retailers also routinely experience significant fluctuations in customer traffic based on seasonal trends, flash sales, viral popularity, or weather events. Likewise, system load during times of statement calculation and posting, or other batch processes, can be disproportionately high. Resource governance between transactional and back-office workloads ensures that long-running batch processes don't affect transactional system performance, and that peak store traffic doesn't impede back office operations.
      • End-of-day processing - Enhancements include improved statement posting performance, the addition of rollback and recovery to prevent data corruption, and enhanced in-app diagnostics that show status, errors, and logs.
      End-of-day processing is a crucial element of retail operational workflow. This involves aggregation of raw transactions into meaningful business data to ensure that business and accounting rules are conformed to, before posting transactions as official business records. Improving the reliability and performance of this batch process and increasing the visibility of the processing for the administrator improves the user experience. Users can easily monitor the progress of the processing and see exactly what caused a validation failure. As a result, they can quickly resolve the issue and reliably retry the process without contacting Microsoft Support.
      New capabilities include improved statement posting performance by removing table deadlocks and optimizing batch processing. The introduction of a state model in the posting process aids in rollback and recovery, which eliminates data corruption and the need for manual intervention. Enhanced in-app diagnostics with detailed status, errors, and logs (including details of transactions included in the scope of the statement, transactions resulting in errors, and possible steps to correct issues) allow for easy troubleshooting.
      • Globalization: Retail localization for India - Calculation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and value-added tax (VAT) in POS is implemented.
      Retailers in India need to be able to calculate Goods and Services Tax (GST) in their POS solutions, and to post GST in Retail headquarters. Dynamics 365 for Retail was integrated with Global Tax Engine (GTE) to support GST calculation in POS. Both intrastate GST and interstate GST can be calculated, depending on the customer delivery location. GST integration is supported for normal sales and return transactions, and also for customer orders and replenishment operations. Dynamics 365 for Retail POS also supports the calculation of value-added tax (VAT) if it's required. In addition, for named customers, invoice numbers can be populated from POS receipt numbers.
      • Globalization: Certified cash registers for France - New capabilities fulfill the requirements for NF525. The Retail solution is certified by an accredited body.
      As of January 1, 2018, all retailers in France must use cash systems certified per the NF525 requirements. The requirements cover inalterability, security, retention, and archiving of information pertaining to cash sales. New capabilities were implemented to fulfill the NF525 requirements. These requirements were confirmed by a certificate issued by an accredited body.
      • Payments - Improved tolerance when connecting to payment providers over unreliable networks. There is also a stateless payment stack to prevent payment failures from crashing the point of sale app, and improved extensibility for payment scenarios at the point of sale.
      Beginning with the Spring ‘18 release, we have made investments to improve tolerance when connecting to payment providers over unreliable networks. This also includes a stateless payment stack to prevent payment failures from crashing the POS app, and improved extensibility for payment scenarios at POS. Issues with external components such as Hardware station, Payment connector, and Payment device are better handled by POS, which reduces the likelihood of POS app crashes due to payment failures. This functionality will be released incrementally through application updates starting in Spring 2018.
      • Extensibility (HQ, POS, CRT) - New extension points simplify the customization model, reduce the lines of code that need to be written by customers and partners, and reduce the effort required to upgrade.
      Most customers customize our product to support their business process. We made major enhancements in our retail extensibility framework to simplify the customization model, introducing a metadata and configuration-driven development experience and more advanced APIs. This new framework reduces the lines of code that need to be written and the time spent to do customizations. By using the framework, business users or power users can do simple customizations without writing any code.
      We also introduced a new independent packaging model so that extensions can be packaged separately. With the new extension framework and independent packaging model, extensions can be created independently from the core app. They can then be packaged and published to AppSource or the marketplace seamlessly, and then loaded at runtime. This seamless extension model helps easily plug and unplug any new extension, app, or extension to an existing business process model. Extensions can also be serviced seamlessly without any change to the core app model. With this new model, ISVs and partners can independently develop extensions and deploy them seamlessly. POS can also load multiple extensions independently.
      We are continuously enhancing the Dev Application Lifecycle Management and the extensibility framework to add more new extension features and APIs to simplify the development process and reduce the effort required for servicing the extensions.
      • Monitoring and alerting - Added granularity in monitoring the health of specific user operations.
      Building on existing capabilities related to monitoring of tenant and system-wide availability and reliability, this release extends these capabilities to the next level of granularity by monitoring the health of specific user operations. This ensures that, regardless of the relative volume of operations performed in a customer's tenant, business-impacting issues are immediately detected, and the reliability of the service remains high.
      In addition to availability and reliability monitoring at the scenario level, performance monitoring to proactively detect performance degradations for high-value business operations has been implemented. To get comprehensive coverage, the reliability alerting capability has been extended to the client components, such as Modern POS. By seamlessly detecting issues logged at the client components, it’s now possible to detect reliability issues that are specific to the client applications and that might not otherwise have been detectable in the cloud service alone.

      What’s new in Finance Insights: Credit and collections in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      Are you providing the right level of credit to the right customers? Is your organization collecting efficiently and effectively? Credit and collections insights provides proactive guidance about questions such as these and more. It provides key credit and collections metrics, such as days sales outstanding, balance overdue, credit exposure, and customers who are over their credit limit. It uses transactional data and provides aggregate views of credit and collections across all designated companies. It also provides a breakdown per company, customer group, and customer.

      In addition to historical trends and analysis, you can leverage predictive analysis and built-in visuals to proactively show and identify trends. By experimenting with the visuals, you can see emerging trends and key groups of customers and credit.

      The Credit and collections insights capabilities are available as part of a workspace within Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, and also in a stand-alone app, which is available at https://appsource.microsoft.com.

      Main features and enhancements in Finance Insights: Credit and collections for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Credit and collections insights provides analytics that help organizations effectively manage their credit and collections processes. It provides:

      • Aggregate views of credit and collections across all designated companies.
      • Data broken down by company, customer group, and customer.
      • Credit overview report.
      • Collections report.
      • Credit and collections details for a variety of dimensions.
      • Predictive analytics to help identify trends.

      What’s new in Finance and Operations in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      The Spring ‘18 release of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations delivers enhancements in system performance, servicing, reliability, and extensibility. It also offers new ways of integrating with other Dynamics 365 products and adds to our suite of business productivity tools.

      Main features and enhancements in Finance and Operations for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Business productivity

      • Alerts - Client-based alert functionality enables a user to define alert rules based on business events, such as when an invoice is paid or a customer changes an address.
      • Optimization advisor - Uses telemetry to analyze customers’ business processes, finds optimization opportunities, uses application data to quantify the opportunities, and then recommends solutions.
      • Project timesheet mobile - Employees can create and submit project timesheets. The use of saved favorites and the ability to copy from a previous timesheet facilitates rapid, accurate time entry.
      • Edit default project fulfillment hours - Project resource managers can edit the default hours as part of the project booking fulfillment process.
      • Reserve project resources past the task end date - Project resource managers can fulfill resources on tasks past the current planned end date for the task.
      • Person search report - You can find a person and their personal data in Finance and Operations.
      • Data sharing for customer and vendor tables - Data can be shared across customer and vendor tables and many related tables across multiple legal entities.
      • One voucher deprecation – One voucher is turned off by default, through a General ledger parameter.

      Extensibility and customization

      • Customizations through extensions only - Migrating customizations from one release to the next has been simplified by moving away from over-layering to the use of extensions.
      • Extensibility requests - Customers can submit a request to Microsoft for extension support to be added to the product for a needed scenario. The Spring '18 release enhances this feature by moving it to Lifecycle Services.
      • Extensible project work breakdown structure - Enables customization of the project work breakdown structure using extensions. This replaces the hierarchical grid control used for the project work breakdown structure with a standard grid that supports hierarchical data.
      • Embedding PowerApps in workspaces and forms - Use PowerApps to embed data from external sources into Finance and Operations data.
      • Custom fields - Organizations can add custom fields to tailor their application to their business requirements, using a no-code extensibility experience.

      Integration
      • Integration with Common Data Service (CDS)
      • Integration with Dynamics 365 for Field Service - Provides data integration to support scenarios where Field Service activities are done outside Finance and Operations, leveraging the data integrator.
      • Integration with Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation - Supports scenarios where project and resource management activities are done outside Finance and Operations, and the project accounting activities are done in Finance and Operations, leveraging the data integrator.
      Improved support experiences
      • Telemetry-based KB recommendation - Telemetry from a production environment can be used to identify the application hotfixes that apply to a tenant.
      • KB recommendations when entering a support case - LCS provides telemetry-driven KB recommendations.
      • Report production outage - Provides a quick and effective channel to escalate issues to Microsoft Support if the services in a production environment are degraded or become unavailable.
      Supply chain management
      • Vendor collaboration – RFQ process - Enhancements make it easy to tell who entered a bid (a vendor or a procurement department).
      • Partial shipment of a load (split load) - Allows single loads or multiple loads to be fully or partially loaded.
      • Immediate replenishment of locations - Used during wave execution if allocation fails for a location directive line that has a replenishment template.
      • Reason codes added to warehouse counting and adjustment - Users can add a reason code when performing counts and when making an adjustment.
      • Batch balancing enabled for advanced warehousing processes.
      • Analytical workspaces with embedded Power BI for Cost management – new Cost administration and Cost analysis workspaces
      Globalization
      • India localization – project and upgrade - Users can manage India Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the Project management and accounting module, and AX 2012 customers can upgrade to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.
      • Enhanced configurability - New features include import and testing scenarios, and also broader support for configurability without coding.
      Servicing, performance, and deployment
      • Improved delivery of platform and financial reporting updates - Enhancements to how software updates are provided, to improve deployment time and the reliability of servicing.
      • Upgrade automation - Upgrade automation makes major version upgrades a self-service operation for the customer, using LCS for non-production environments.
      • Service hardening - Added service monitoring and alerting for core business processes, and improved form load performance of the most commonly used forms.
      • Lifecycle Services sandbox self-service automation and RDP lockdown.
      • On-premises deployment updates.

      What’s new in Project Service Automation in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      The Spring ‘18 release of Project Service includes multidimensional pricing capabilities, GDPR and accessibility enhancements, and a new user experience with the app built on the Unified Interface framework.

      Project Service is available for Private Preview to select members of the Dynamics 365 for Project Service Insiders program starting in April 2018.

      Main features and enhancements in Project Service Automation for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Project Service app enhancements

      The Project Service app helps sales and delivery teams engage customers and deliver billable projects on time and within budget. Project Service helps organizations:

      • Estimate, quote, and contract work.
      • Plan and schedule tasks.
      • Assign resources and balance utilization.
      • Improve team coordination and collaboration.
      • Capture and approve time, expenses, and progress.
      • Invoice in line with contractual expectations.
      • Track financials and monitor overall performance.

      Built on the Unified Interface framework

      With the Spring ’18 release, the Project Service app is built on the Unified Interface framework for improved user experience. The redesigned app delivers a consistent, uniform user interface, and follows responsive design principles for optimal viewing on any screen size or device.

      Common Control Framework (CCF)

      User interface controls use a Common Controls Framework (CCF) for consistency with other Dynamics 365 business applications. Controls follow consistent, familiar patterns on every surface in the application, making it easier for Project Service users to onboard and be productive.

      Work breakdown structure (WBS) editable grid with Gantt visualization

      The Spring '18 release introduces an editable grid with a Gantt visualization experience for the work breakdown structure (WBS), and removes the restriction that requires upfront booking of named resources to the project team before assigning them to tasks.

      Project managers can assign named or generic resources to project tasks without a prior booking. Additionally, named resources can be created and assigned for any user of installed sales, service, field service, or project service apps. Formal booking or booking requests can then be executed after the project plan has been detailed.

      This simplifies the project manager experience, and improves the range of scenarios where Project Service can be used to schedule work.

      Schedule board list view

      With the Spring ’18 release, the schedule board list view helps users interact with the schedule board using a list view to see data in a more meaningful way. For example, use the list view to work with bookable resources on the schedule board, or when searching for resource availability in hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly schedule board views.

      What’s new in Field Service in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      The Spring ‘18 release of the Field Service application includes resource scheduling and optimization improvements, GDPR and accessibility enhancements, and a new user experience with the application built on the Unified Interface framework.

      Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service is available for Private Preview to select members of the Dynamics 365 for Field Service Insiders program starting in April 2018.

      Main features and enhancements in Field Service for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Field Service app
      • Built on the Unified Interface framework - With the Spring ’18 release, the field service app is built on the Unified Interface framework for improved user experience. The app delivers a consistent, uniform user interface, and follows responsive design principles for optimal viewing on any screen size or device.
      • Common Controls Framework (CCF) - User interface controls use a Common Controls Framework (CCF) for consistency with other Dynamics 365 business applications. Controls follow consistent, familiar patterns on every surface in the application, making it easier for field service users to onboard and be productive.
      • Associate 3D content with customer asset records - Arm your technicians with 3D content to help them complete repairs. 3D models or sequences can be uploaded (directly to Dynamics 365 or hosted externally), and then associated with customer asset records for use by technicians within the mobile app. Supported 3D file formats are glTF, FBX, GLB, and OBJ.

      Universal Resource Scheduling (URS) solution
      • Schedule board list view - Interact with the schedule board using a list view to see data in a more meaningful way. For example, use the list view to work with bookable resources on the schedule board, or search for resource availability in hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly schedule board views.

      Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO) solution
      • Extensible scope - The Resource Scheduling Optimization solution uses scope to define the input for resources, resource requirements, and resource bookings, as well as the timeframes used for optimization. With extensible scope, the solution leverages entity views in Dynamics 365 to provide an easy and flexible way to define what gets optimized.
      • Run as a simulation - The admin can run a schedule on demand as a simulation, which results in resource bookings that are simulations without affecting actual bookings. This capability helps an administrator better understand the effects of adjusting optimization scope, constraints, objectives, and other parameters, to determine what optimization configuration best matches business goals and objectives.
      • Enforce skill level - Resource requirements can include not only a skill, but also the level (or rating) of the skill required to do the work. By considering the skill (or resource characteristic) rating level required, the solution is able to find resources that better match required skills and proficiency.

      Connected Field Service (IoT) solution
      • Built on the Unified Interface framework - With the Spring ’18 release, the Connected Field Service solution is built on the Unified Interface framework for improved user experience. The app delivers a consistent, uniform user interface, and follows responsive design principles for optimal viewing on any screen size or device.
      • Synchronization of device conditions and properties with device twins - Connected Field Service includes a representation of customer assets and devices that can be registered within Azure IoT Hub to enable messages to flow through Azure IoT Hub to create alerts. 
      In the Spring ‘18 release, in addition to receiving messages that require action, Connected Field Service uses the Azure IoT device twin capability. The device twin, which is kept in sync with physical devices, is a JSON document that holds metadata and configuration data, as well as a virtual cloud representation of physical devices.
      Connected Field Service communicates with device twins to allow devices to report operating conditions such as device state, heartbeat for connectivity speed, and machine vibration. Field service operations managers gain visibility into device conditions and properties on a graphical dashboard. For example, the capacity of a tank can be monitored through IoT Hub and represented on the dashboard. When capacity reaches a threshold, an alert is sent to designated users for follow-up action. 
      • Synchronization of device tags with device twins - Device twin tags allow grouping of devices to make them easier to search and find. Tags for device twins are created in Connected Field Service, and then converted into JSON that is understood by a device. 
      Tags make it easy to group by device usage, identification, or other properties. For example, customer assets needing a similar repair can be grouped using a tag.
      • Configuration of device properties and commands through device categories - When IoT devices are registered, connected, and configured in Azure IoT hub, Connected Field Service is able to retrieve properties and configurations from device twins.
      With the Spring ‘18 release, field service managers and technicians can define device properties individually or in bulk. For example, field service managers can add measurements, such as temperature or vibration, which are common to devices in a category, and then update properties, configure thresholds, or send commands.
      Field service managers or technicians can also use pre-defined commands to control a piece of equipment, such as when to restart or shut down.

      What’s new in Voice of the Customer (VoC) in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      The Spring ‘18 release of the Voice of the Customer (VoC) solution includes cascade deletion of surveys, survey translation enhancements, the ability to dynamically insert question responses into subsequent questions, and improved analytics capabilities with the Voice of the Customer Analytics content pack for Power BI.

      Main features and enhancements in Voice of the Customer (VoC) for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Cascade deletion of surveys

      When a user deletes a survey, the dependent entities of the survey are also deleted. Any required actions needed for deleting a survey are displayed on the screen for easy resolution.

      Restore configuration of Voice of the Customer

      Admins can repair or restore the configuration if it is accidentally deleted or misconfigured.

      Survey translation enhancements

      Survey translation files are validated for any missing translated strings or incorrect HTML formatting when a survey is previewed or published. Error logs identify which strings in the translation file have issues. Users are able to translate the survey link text in the invitation email to personalize it for the respondent’s locale by providing the language as input in the survey snippet.

      Personalize surveys by dynamically adding customer responses into questions

      Personalize a survey by inserting the response to a question into subsequent questions and response option texts, using the Answer Tag field. When building the survey, provide a value for the Answer Tag for the first question, and then use the same value in the subsequent questions.

      Enable self-troubleshooting

      Self-troubleshooting makes it easier for administrators and survey designers to identify issues with the configuration of surveys. Validation tests verify the survey configuration or the survey itself, depending on the context. Results are displayed on-screen with the option to download a log file.

      Voice of the Customer analytics using Power BI

      The Voice of the Customer Analytics content pack for Power BI enables organizations to glean insights about surveys and responses. Administrators or survey designers can track metrics, such as average Net Promoter Score (NPS), average customer satisfaction (CSAT) score, and response ratio. The dashboard and reports provide charts and analytics for survey questions, and allow users to explore and analyze survey data.

      Survey page accessibility

      The portal used by survey respondents to submit their responses is accessible for users who require assistive technologies to interact with the survey page.

      What’s new in Portal in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      With the Spring ’18 release, the search experience includes the ability to search within attachments. In addition, improved debugging makes troubleshooting easier for developers.

      Main features and enhancements in Portal for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Renewal of authentication key

      Dynamics 365 Portal connects to an organization using an authentication key linked to Azure Active Directory. The authentication key expires every two years. The administrator receives notification on the key expiration date, and can renew the authentication key. For more information, go to Renew portal authentication key.

      Troubleshooting improvements

      Dynamics 365 Portal provides detailed, contextual error information and diagnostic logging, and enables developers to define custom error messages for consistent and reliable troubleshooting. For more information about debugging and troubleshooting, go to Viewing portal error logs.

      Searchable attachments for knowledge articles

      Knowledge article attachments are searchable to increase the likelihood of relevant search results.

      GDPR and accessibility

      The customer data sent to and processed by Dynamics 365 Portal can be configured to address requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted by the European Union. The solution allows configuration of custom terms and conditions, age gating, and parental consent requirements.

      What’s new in Customer Service in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      The Spring ’18 release delivers investments in user experience, performance, developer productivity, and compliance across the Customer Service Hub, Dynamics 365 Portal, Voice of the Customer (VoC), and Unified Service Desk.

      Main features and enhancements in Customer Service for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Customer Service Hub
      • Interactive dashboards - Customer Service Hub dashboards are a one-stop workplace where agents and supervisors review their workload and take actions to resolve issues. Dashboards make it easier to review and act on information coming from various entity views and queues, and make it easier to apply additional filtering with visual, global, and timeframe filters to quickly narrow down what is most actionable and urgent.

      • Tier 1 dashboard for agents
      • Tier 2 dashboard for service managers or Tier 2 agents
      • Business process flows for standardized case handling - Business process flows ensure that agents enter case data consistently and follow the same steps every time they interact with a customer. Business process flows support floating and docked mode for process stages, which lets agents view case information and update the process stages simultaneously.
      • Timeline view of customer interactions and activities - Capture customer interactions and communications by adding them as activities in the timeline section of the dashboard. The timeline section presents a unified view of everything that has happened with a case, such as email received, follow-up tasks, and automatically generated system posts, plus any notes taken during customer interactions. 
      • Search for knowledge articles on the reference panel - Reference panel tabs allow agents to quickly find related records, or search knowledge articles for accounts, contacts, cases, and other knowledge articles. 
      • Support for authoring, searching, publishing, and translating knowledge articles - Author and edit well-formatted content for knowledge articles using a rich text editor. The editor brings common word processor features like advanced styling, linking, find and replace, and insert images and tables. Search, publish, and translate knowledge articles. Preview how the knowledge articles render on different devices before publishing.
      Best practice analyzer for Unified Service Desk
      • Best practice analyzer for Unified Service Desk - Best practice analyzer is a developer tool that identifies defects in customizations and extensions, to help developers build and deploy efficient customizations and extensions.
      • Unified Interface apps integrate with Unified Service Desk (Public Preview) - Unified Interface apps integrate with Unified Service Desk to provide consistent user experiences for session management, customizable layouts, agent guidance, line-of-business applications, and channel integration.














      What’s new in Sales in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      The capabilities in the Spring ’18 release empower your sales team with more intelligence and analytics, deeper integrations with LinkedIn and Office 365, and consistent user experience for web, mobile, and clients using the Unified Interface framework.

      Main features and enhancements in Sales for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Sales intelligence (Embedded intelligence)
      • Relationship assistant
      • Auto data capture
      • Email engagement

      Embedded intelligence lets sellers focus on selling

      Embedded intelligence (previously known as Relationship Insights) collects, manages, and analyzes the diverse data and communications throughout the sales process, and then automatically suggests relevant actions and captures relevant activities to let salespeople spend more time selling.

      Dynamics 365 for Sales Insights add-on (Relationship analytics)
      • Relationship health - Relationship analytics helps salespeople manage the opportunities pipeline by analyzing relationships and presenting data and insights about the health of customer relationships. Relationship Analytics includes sentiment analysis to enhance relationship health calculations.
      • Sentiment health - Sentiment health analyzes customer interactions and signals to inform salespeople how satisfied their customers are with their relationship.
      LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration
      • LinkedIn Sales Navigator (SNAP) controls on forms
      • LinkedIn profile pictures for contact records synchronized with Sales Navigator

      What’s new in Marketing in Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2

      Dynamics 365 for Marketing delivers comprehensive capabilities for creating and running multi-channel campaigns to generate leads for your sales team using simple drag-and-drop design tools. The application includes event management, lead management, embedded intelligence for segment targeting, lead scoring, and interactions insights.

      The marketing application is built on the same platform as Dynamics 365 for Sales, so your marketing and sales teams share common information and business processes to help them collaborate closely throughout the sales cycle.

      Main features and enhancements in Marketing for Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release:

      Multi-channel campaigns with personalized customer journeys
      • Customer journey designer - Use a drag-and-drop designer to set up a customer journey that guides your buyer based on how they engage during campaigns.
      • High-volume email - Send email with dynamic content, and respond to interactions such as opens, forwards, clicks, and bounces.
      • Bring in and nurture leads using a connector to LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms.

      Content creation
      • Template-driven design process - Includes professionally designed templates for emails and marketing pages, with customizable color palettes and support for custom templates.
      • Email designer - Use a graphical tool for creating personalized emails with dynamic content.
      • Marketing page designer - Use a graphical tool to create web pages with forms for collecting information from new and existing contacts.
      • Email previews - Quick in-browser preview of responsive designs, plus third-party Litmus integration for pixel-perfect email inbox previews.

      Event management
      • Manage and track event registration and attendance.
      • Comprehensive event logistics - Manage speakers, venues, sponsors, session schedules, event passes, and more.
      • Webinars - Integration with the ON24 webinar service enables global participation in both web-only and hybrid live/web sessions.
      • Comprehensive event portal – Makes it easy for attendees to view speaker bios, review the session schedule, register for events and sessions, and manage their event calendar.

      Lead management
      • Lead generation - Generate and manage leads throughout the customer journey.
      • Multiple lead scoring - Set up automated scoring rules to help identify your hottest leads, with multiple models running concurrently, and automatic forwarding to sales when ready.
      • Score leads based on behavior, demographics, and firmographics.

      Embedded marketing insights
      • Analyze all interactions recorded for each lead and customers.
      • In-place insights - View relevant interaction records for each customer journey, email message, and landing page for easy drill-down.

      Compliance

      Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update 9.0.2 - Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release

      Exciting times!

      Microsoft is coming out with Update 9.0.2 for Dynamics 365 V9.0.

      Microsoft has named it as Dynamics 365 Spring 18 Release.

      Any new organization created on or after April 2, 2018 will be provisioned on the updated version. Any updates from version 8.x to version 9.0 that are scheduled on or after April 2 will automatically get this update, and no change of schedule is needed. For existing ORGs running Dynamics 365 (Online) version 9.0.1 or higher, Microsoft will start deploying this update starting April 7 through their normal deployment process.

      This update is primarily focused on performance and reliability improvements, but it also contains some new features and capabilities. The new features are opt-in and will not change your default experiences. 

      Thursday 29 March 2018

      Dynamics 365 Multi Select Option Set is a Virtual Field

      One of the new data type introduced in Dynamics 365 V9.0 is MultiSelect Option Sets.

      Behind the scenes they are not of the same type as an Option Set (Picklist). They are of type Virtual.

      Thursday 1 March 2018

      How to check for Opportunity Business Process Stage Changes in a Dynamics 365 Version 9 Workflow

      In the new Dynamics 365 there are many Business Process changes.

      There are times when you need to check for a Business Process Stage change in Opportunity out-of-the box entity. On the change of a Business Process Stage, you might need to run create/update a record.

      The best way to achieve this is through a Synchronous workflow, on Opportunity, which checks

      • Either the "Stage Category" field value for the corresponding "Stage Id (Process Stage)" entity 
      • Or "Pipeline Phase" field value within Opportunity
      Create a new Business Process on Opportunity. This Business Process will have 4 stages "Apply", "Estimation", "Documentation", "Approval".

      Opportunity Business Process

      Opportunity Stages

      Let's say you need to execute certain steps for every business process stage. To perform this either create one Synchronous workflow with four check conditions or have four Synchronous workflows with one check condition each. Synchronous workflow below, on Opportunity, checks for stage "Approval".

      Synchronous workflow with Approval Stage Check

      Also, in the Synchronous workflow select the field "Pipeline Phase on change of which the workflow will be executed.

      Select "Pipeline Phase" field from "Records Fields Change"






      Wednesday 28 February 2018

      Dynamics 365 Data Types and Equivalent SQL Server Data Types

      Dynamics 365 Online makes it very difficult to analyze the Microsoft SQL data type equivalents for Dynamics 365 data types. 

      Now a days almost all Dynamics 365 projects involve some form of data Migration from third party applications. The most common way is to create a staging area on Microsoft SQL Server and create tables resembling the entities and fields in Dynamics 365. If Dynamics 365 is on cloud then you have be careful when creating staging tables as the data types should match the data types of CRM attributes. 

      List of SQL Server equivalent of CRM attribute data types:

      • CRM Two-Option (Boolean) - In SQL Server the data type is [bit]
      • CRM Currency (Simple or Rollup) (for Precision = 4) - In SQL Server the data type is [decimal](38, 4)
      • CRM Date and Time (Date only) - In SQL Server the data type is [datetime]
      • CRM Date and Time (Date and Time) - In SQL Server the data type is [datetime]
      • CRM Lookup - In SQL Server the data type is [uniqueidentifier]
      • CRM Unique Identifier - In SQL Server the data type is [uniqueidentifier]
      • CRM Multiple Lines of Text - In SQL Server the data type is [nvarchar](max)
      • CRM String (single line of text for maximum length of 160) - In SQL Server the data type is [nvarchar](160)
      • CRM Picklist (option set) - In SQL Server the data type is [int]
      • CRM Status - In SQL Server the data type is [int]
      • CRM Status Reason - In SQL Server the data type is [int]
      • CRM Whole Number - In SQL Server the data type is [int]
      • CRM Decimal Number (for Precision = 2 and Precision = 10) - In SQL Server the data type is [decimal](38, 2) or [decimal](38, 10)
      • CRM Floating Point Number (for Precision = 5) - In SQL Server the data type is [decimal](38, 5)
      This will help in creating SQL tables resembling the entity field data types in CRM.

      Wednesday 10 January 2018

      What's being Deprecated in Dynamics 365 Version 9

      Microsoft is deprecating certain CRM features. Meaning Microsoft will be removing these features completely from future releases of Dynamics 365.

      As of now these features will continue to work. By announcing these deprecated features, Microsoft is providing enough notice for all of us to either remove or replace them.  

      • Dialogs are deprecated
      Dialogs are now being deprecated and can be replaced by using Business Process Flows or the new Mobile Task Flows. Dialogs were introduced by Microsoft starting Dynamics CRM version 2011.
      • Standard SLAs for Customer Service are deprecated 
      Service level agreements (SLAs) are a formalized method to help organizations meet service levels when they provide customer service and support. They are being replaced by Enhanced SLAs.
      • Mail Merge is deprecated
      Mail merge had many limitations and was cumbersome to use. Instead the new Word Templates functionality can be used.
      • Outlook Client is deprecated
      Outlook Client should be replaced by the new Dynamics 365 App for Outlook.
      • Relationship Roles are deprecated
      Relationship roles should be replaced by Connection Roles.
      • Silverlight (XAP) web resource is deprecated
      HTML 5 should be used instead of Silverlight in web resources.
      • Email Router is deprecated
      Email router should be replaced with server-side synchronization feature. This feature is easy to use and configure. 
      • Service Scheduling using the Service Activity is deprecated
      Service Scheduling using the Service Activity should be replaced by Unified Resource Scheduling included with Dynamics 365 for Field Service.
      • Parature is deprecated
      Parature can be replaced by Knowledge Management feature.
      • Announcements are deprecated
      Announcements never really provided any value within CRM and will be deprecated.
      • Some of the Client APIs are deprecated
      Some of the Client APIs are deprecated in the current release to reorganize the Xrm client API object model to better align with the need of using the same client scripts without having to change them based on the context or the client (web client or the new Unified Interface) where they run.
      • Contracts, Contract Line Items and Contract Templates are deprecated
      This has been replaced by Entitlements in Dynamics 365 for Customer service.