Disconnected systems cause your business processes to be inefficient. How quickly can you get new products up on your eCommerce store? How long does it take you to update inventory counts? When these processes are too slow, it negatively impacts your performance. You can’t keep up with your competitors. Overall, these issues can lead to poor customer experience. You won’t be able to process orders quickly enough or give customers the accurate information they need to make a purchase. Coordinating with CRM NAV integration permits you to consequently synchronize information between your ERP and different frameworks. You don’t need to contact any catches. You get the opportunity to characterize rules on how information is shared by your operational needs. Introduction: SMS Messages can be sent from a D365 CRM Online to an individual using the Twilio Web Services. In this blog, we will see how can we send SMS Messages from CRM using Twilio Web Service Scenario: We will create a message record from CRM which on save will call the Twilio web service via a plugin and send the message to the destination based on the information passed to Twilio from the D365 CRM. Process: Step 1: Creating Entities Create the following 2 Entities which are ‘SMS Configuration’ and ‘SMS Message’. The SMS Config entity will only consist of three fields which are Username which will have the value of ‘Account Sid’. Password which will have the value of ‘Authentication Key’. From which will have the value of Twilio ‘Account Phone number’. The SMS Message entity will consist of the following two fields which are as follows To which will have the value of the ‘Receiver’s Phone number’. Message Body which will have the value of the ‘Message text’ that the receiver will receive.  **Note: The purpose is to provide dynamic data and to not hardcode any value. Step 2: Creating Plugin Code to Call the Twilio Web Service The plugin code will be consisting of two main code blocks: Web Service Code Block Main Execute Code Block Web Service Code Block We will be using the Web Service code in our plugin code while calling the Twilio Web Service from CRM. For more information on how to call Web Service using plugin refer the following link : https://www.cloudfronts.com/call-web-service-plugin-dynamics-crm/ In this case we need to make modifications to the Web Call Service function block of the Web Service plugin code. Changes made to the ‘Try Block’ of the Web Service Call. We won’t require to make any changes to the WebClientEx code block of the Web Service Call Code. Main Execute Code Block In the Main Execute Code Block we will be calling the above Web Service Code Block. Retrieving of the SMS Configuration Record can be done using fetch XML method. Conclusion: Thus, in this way we can send SMS Messages from D365 CRM Online using Twilio Web Services. Hope you find this helpful.

Overview: The new July 2017 update of the D365 is the latest update to Dynamics 365 and is called v9. This is a major change from not only functionality perspective but also from a visual perspective as well. And one such part of the visual upgrade is the refreshed web client UI. This is a major change since it’s 2013 Online version! What has changed: The traditional UI has been redesigned to appear more intuitive and eliminate issues with the previous UI. Some of the changes are: Removal of White Spaces: They’ve removed all the extra white spaces from the current version making the UI look more occupied and tightly bound. As you can see in the screenshot above. Boxes have been added to house the sections on the form. This makes the white spaces disappear making the UI look more occupied. In the previous UI, the short length of fields and unexpanded subgrids used to leave a lot of white space causing a disjoint in the UI. That has been taken care of here. Word Wrap Fields: With the new refreshed UI, the lengthy field names are taken care of. In the previous version, the lengthy field labels used to disappear behind the field making it a hassle to hover over the label and read the name of the field. With the new UI, the field labels are not wrapped and if you have lengthy field labels, the entire text is seen as below: Color Coded Subgrid on Form: Further, they’ve enhanced on how sub-grids should appear on the form. Example, if you have a  lot of sub-grids on the form and you need to read to know which sub-grid is where. Now, you can have colored Sub-grid headers that give you a visual feedback of what entity sub-grid it is. See sample screenshot below: As seen above, I can have a uniform color for Contact across all forms where I have Contact subg-grid. This is available only on the form level. The color can be modified from the Sub-grid properties on the Form as shown below: Other Improvements: Along with these, there are other significant improvements that can be seen across the new UI: Improved Form tab formatting. Standardise fonts. The new UI looks promising and will provide an easier visual feel.

Background: In Dynamics CRM, one of the common requirement customer have is to Run a report and save the copy of the report (PDF/ Word/ Excel) as notes/ attachment on the record or send the created document as email attachment to customer. Sounds an innocent requirement, right? With CRM online, it is NOT. What we do to achieve this till now We do one of the following when the customer asks this request: Ask user to manually run report, download PDF and create email record or attach to record notes. Use some paid 3rd party tool. Tell the customer it is not possible For CRM Online. 😀 For On-prem CRM, developers would tweak the Report Viewer and somehow manage to achieve this with lot of effort and custom plugins. Alternative: With Dynamics 365, you have one alternative which does not exactly give you the above solution but is very close or may be acceptable adjustment to client. We all know CRM 2016 also introduced word templates. But with D365, CRM has inbuilt Action to Run a word template and attach that to document without user action. Since it is an action, it can be used in Workflows, Plugins, other actions and even in JavaScript using Web API. Example: I have created a workflow on Account Credit limit update, such that when credit limit is more than 10,000 an Account summary will be created using the Account Summary template and attached to the record. See screenshots below of the workflow and generated document. All this without user intervention. Limitations: We cannot create PDF documents using this approach This is limited to Word templates and they are not yet as powerful as SSRS reports Next Steps: We can extend this functionality by may be having plugin on notes creation to send an email to customer or any other thing? Please post your comments/ suggestions below. Happy CRM’ing

Introduction: In this blog, we will have a look on new updates on Business Process flow. Previous Release Updates: Business Process Type Run process as a task flow (Mobile) Run process as a business flow (Other clients) New Designer New Toolbar introduced with edit buttons, connector, new snapshot button to take screenshots of your business process flow design which can be used in technical documentations Security Note:  Your process will not show up in this tab until you Activate the process.  If you Deactivate it after updating security roles, the process will remain in the available in this tab so you will NOT need to go back and update your security roles again.  It’ll only be removed from the security role tab once you delete the process. Action Workflows Stages can execute workflows with a trigger of Stage Entry, or Stage Exit. Example: You can have the completion of a specific Business Process on an opportunity kick off a workflow that creates a Case, and activates a Business Process on that newly created Case. Stage Active Duration Out of Box feature, to see duration details in BPF- Total time for the BPF being in active state Additional Status Reasons available – Abandon, Finish Maximum number of processes, stages, and steps To ensure acceptable performance and the usability of the user interface, there are some limitations you need to be aware of when you plan to use business process flows: There can be no more than 10 activated business process flow processes per entity. Each process can contain no more than 30 stages. Multi-entity processes can contain no more than five entities. New Release Dynamics 365 July 2017 Update: Business Process Flow entities are now available on Site Maps, Views, Charts: Now the BPF are available in the form of entities and personalized views can be created and we do not need to write any code for getting the BPF in particular stage. Sales BPF will be visible in Sales area and Service BPF will be available in Service area. Site Maps Views Charts Action Steps: Calling an on-demand workflow or a process action from within the Business Process. Action will appear on the UI in the form of a button Business Process Flow in Unified Interface: Different stages of Business Process Flow When you click on pin the stage, the stage is pinned on the right side of the screen and we can see for how much duration the stage was in active stage as shown below The activity duration of the stages is visible even on the Business Process Flow Hope you like the new feature of Business Process flows with some new required functionalities.

Introduction: This blog explains how to add learning path to your solution. Prerequisites: Dynamics 365 (online – latest version, or Dec 2016 update installed). Steps to be followed: Steps for enabling learning path Steps for adding users to Learning Path Authors Creating Learning Path content Stpes to create Guided Task Steps to create Sidebar 1. Steps for enabling learning path: Opt-in to Learning path by going to Settings->Administration->System settings (under General tab). Select Yes for Enable Learning Path and Enable Learning Path Authoring. Confirm that Use Custom Help for customizable entities and Append parameters to URL are set to No. OK. 2. Steps for adding users to Learning Path Authors: Go to Admin Portal. In Admin center Groups->Learning Path Authors security group. Click Edit in the Owner row to add owner of the group. Click + Add Owner, and then select the user from list or search for the user(s). Click Edit in the Members row to add users to the group. Click + Add members, and then select the user from list or search for the user(s) you want to add to the group. Save and close. 3. Steps for Creating Learning Path content: Go to help. Click on content library button Content Library will open. There are two types of learning path content: Guided Task: Interactive “bubbles” which form a sequence to provide help or guide users on specific tasks. Sidebar: Vertically formatted help content, which is initially shown as a “table of content” with items that the user can expand, revealing relevant webpages, videos, or links to existing guided paths content in Dynamics 365. 4. Steps to create Guided Task: Click on + Guided Task to create a new Guided Task. Fill Details. Save. Click on + Add New Steps to add steps to your Guided Task. Step with Next Button: This step has a Next button that can be used to navigate to the next step in the flow. Step with User action: This step does not have a Next button. The user is prompted to click the UI element on which the step is pinned. User action with Next Button: This step does have a Next button. Clicking the Next button has the same effect as clicking the UI element on which the step is pinned. Learning Step: This step can only be at the end of a guided task flow. Drag and drop the step where you want. Give step title. Click on content type to add content it can be text or video. Save. Repeat step number 5 until all steps are added. Click on Preview to see how it will work before publishing. Click on publish select your publishing environment. Output of Guided Task:   5. Steps to create Sidebar Click on + Sidebar to create a new Sidebar. Fill Details. Save. Select the section and add what type of content you want to add in that. Repeat step number 4 to add more sections to sidebar. Click on Preview to see how it will look. Click on publish select your publishing environment. Output of Sidebar: Conclusion: Using learning path newly created  users can easily navigate through the system with ease. It provides basic guidance to the users.

Introduction: In this blog, I will be giving an overview about access teams and a quick demonstration of the same. Brief Description : Access teams provides a way to share records between different functional teams without having to change or update the base security rule in Security roles. Access teams does not mean ownership of the record. The record is only shared so that other users can work on it. Scenario: There are two sales teams “Sales India” and “Sales US” in different business units.The users of both the teams can read the whole organizations data but can write/edit data to only those users data who are in the same business unit.Here if one team member of “Sales US” wants to write/edit a record of “Sales India” it is not possible. This is where access teams comes in the picture. Some users from “Sales US” can be given access to write/edit records of “Sales India” Steps: Step 1: There are two business units “Sales India”  and “Sales US” Step 2: Tom is a part of “Sales India Team” and Harry is a part of  “Sales US Team”. Step 3: Assigned both the users a custom role in which they can do the following as shown below: Read account records of the whole organization Create records at user level Write/edit records at business unit level Step 4: Now to enable access team we must navigate to entity for which access teams needs to be enabled as shown in figure below Here we go to Accounts entity and enable Access Teams then to save the changes made publish all the customization. Step 5: To use access teams we first create an access team template by navigating to Setting > Security > Access Team Templates Step 6: Here create a new template with an appropriate name and select the Access Rights and the Entity as shown in the figure below. Note:The entities field on which Acess Teams are enabled only those entities will be shown in the Entity field dropdown. By adding users, you are granting them the access rights to that record that are defined within the access team template, even if their base security role does NOT grant them those rights. Note, the access rights are ONLY being granted for that specific record. Step 7: Now we add a Sub grid on the Accounts main form so that the users can be added to the access team on the fly. Here in the Team Template field select the template made for the access team. After setting up the subgrid Save and Publish all the Customizations. Step 8: Harry is the owner of two records(Crook Motor Company & Lamborghini) as shown below. Tom is the owner of one record(Tata Motors) as shown below Step 9: Harry can view every record in the organization but cannot write/edit. As seen below harry can only read record created by Tom. Step 10: Now as harry wants to write/edit this particular record, the admin has to add him in the access team sub-grid to give him access to write to this record. Step 11: Now Harry can write/edit to that particular record as shown below. Conclusion: Using this technique we can easily make different user access teams and assign specific records to work on without having to deal with their base security roles.

Introduction: There may arise a situation where we may want to link one report to a more detailed report dynamically in Power BI. Although we can link dashboards to reports and also provide a custom link for a tile in a dashboard, report to report linkage is currently not a feature available in Power BI. There is a way to achieve this by using URL filtering. Below is a report which shows Card transaction details based on Expense Type. We want to link this report to a more detailed report after clicking on the URL link icons in the table. You can download the sample CSV file from here http://bit.ly/nitincsv1 After clicking on the URL Link icon a report like this should open up which is filtered by Expenditure Type. Steps: The steps to achieve this are mentioned below: 1. We first need to understand how URL filtering works. The syntax for URL filtering is URL?filter=Table/Field eq ‘value’ • Table and Field names are case sensitive • Value should be put in single quotes The Table and Field can be found under Fields in Power BI Desktop The URL can be found on the web page in Power BI Online. Every page in a report has a unique URL in Power BI.  You can find it in the browser address bar of the report. The URL filter for filtering ExpType in CardDetails for the value ‘Bills’ would be, https://app.powerbi.com/groups/me/reports/6ea11c00-85ca-4b8e-907a-42979eaadcaa/ReportSection1?filter=CardDetails/ExpType eq ‘Bills’ 2. The above is a very static example for filtering ExpType but this can be made much more dynamic by using DAX Create a new Calculated Colum for CardDetails   3. Enter the following line as the DAX Code: Link = “https://app.powerbi.com/groups/me/reports/6ea11c00-85ca-4b8e-907a-42979eaadcaa/ReportSection1?filter=CardDetails%252FExpType%20eq%20%27″&CardDetails[ExpType]&”%27” In the above function we have put the ASCII values for blanks, apostrophes and equal to sign for ensuring that the URL works efficiently • Blank -> %20 • Equal -> %252 • Apostrophe -> %27 We append the CardDetails[ExpType] in place of value in the URL Syntax. The rest of the URL remains the same. After pressing Enter the column generated will look something like this in a table visualization 4. The String generated in our column needs to be converted into a hyperlink. Click on Link in Fields, Go to Modeling and select Data Category as Web URL The Link Column should now look like this, 5. We can convert the hyperlink into a more pleasant URL link icon by going to Visualizations->Format->Values->URL Icon(Turn On) 6. The final Report generated looks like this 7. Clicking on the URL icon will dynamically filter a new detailed report in a new tab in your browser. To confirm whether the report has been filtered or not, we can look at the Filters section in Power BI Online as well as the URL. Conclusion: As you can see, we have successfully created a Report with Links which on being clicked generates a detailed report with dynamic filtering.

In our day to day life we are more concern about our data security and sensitive information’s when we fill out some purchase form and other billing application which requires your Credit card and other personal information. This data can be viewed easily in the backed users if it’s not secure controlled. SQL Server 2016 provides a feature known as Dynamic Data Masking which is a security feature that limits the access of unauthorized users to sensitive data at the database layer. As an example of the need for such a feature is allowing the applications developers to access production data for troubleshooting purposes and preventing them from accessing the sensitive data at the same time, without affecting their troubleshooting process. Another example is the call center employee who will access the customer’s information to help him in his request, but the critical financial data, such as the bank account number or the credit card full number, will be masked to that person. Dynamic Data Masking, also known as DDM, is a simple security data protection method allows you to determine your “sensitive” data, by field in order to configure the suitable masking function to hide it from queries. This feature requires no coding effort from the application side or encrypting or applying any change to the real data stored in the disk. Features: Provides configurable masking policy using simple T-SQL command. Database is not changed physically and database operations are not affected. Flexibility to define a set of privileged SQL users or roles for unmasked access. Types of Masks: There are 4 types of masks are offered by SQL Server 2016. 1. Default Mask The default mask masks the full data according to the assigned data type. For string types (char, nchar, varchar, nvarchar, text, ntext), it replaces the data with XXXX or fewer Xs, in case size of field is less than 4. For numeric datatypes (bigint, bit, decimal, int, money, numeric, smallint, smallmoney, tinyint, float, real), it uses 0 value. For binary datatypes (binary, varbinary, image), it uses a single byte of binary value 0. 2. Email Mask The email mask especially for the fields that stores emails. It exposes only the first letter of email followed by XXX, followed by @ sign, followed by XXXX and a constant suffix “.com” to form an email. E.g. aXXX@XXXX.com 3. Custom Mask SQL Server 2016 allows you to define your own mask for a specific field. In this method, you can define the prefix and suffix characters to be exposed, and the padding will be shown as it is. “prefix,[padding], suffix”. 4. Random Mask Random mask can be defined over any of the numeric fields. It exposes a random number within the defined range. Example 1. Create a table with different mask functions CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Contacts] ( [ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL Primary key, [FName] [nvarchar](30) MASKED WITH (FUNCTION = ‘default()’) NOT NULL, [LName] [nvarchar](30) NOT NULL, [CreditCard] [varchar](20) MASKED WITH (FUNCTION = ‘partial(2, “XX-XXXX-XXXX-XX”, 2)’) NULL, [SalaryINR] [int] MASKED WITH (FUNCTION = ‘default()’) NULL, [OfficeEmail] [nvarchar](60) MASKED WITH (FUNCTION = ’email()’) NULL, [PersonalEmail] [nvarchar](60) NULL, [SomeDate] [datetime] MASKED WITH (FUNCTION = ‘default()’) NULL ) Insert Some data in the table 2.  Create a user with only select permission. CREATE USER [ReadOnlyUser] WITHOUT LOGIN; GRANT SELECT ON Contacts TO ReadOnlyUser; 3.  Now select the data with the Existing using and the new User that is created The data will be masked for the ReadOnlyUser. Conclusion: This technique allows a developer to debug the Production environment without breaching security or confidentiality for a user.  

Introduction: Sharing policies enable users to share calendar information with different types of external users. Sharing polices are assigned to mailboxes and allow users to share their free/busy information with recipients in external Office 365 organizations. Creating a sharing policy in Exchange Online. Allow users to share calendar information and contacts with external organizations. Navigate to EAC Organization > Sharing. Under Individual Sharing, click+. In new sharing policy, type a name for the sharing policy in the Policy name. Click + to define the sharing rules for the policy. In sharing rule, select one of the following options to specify the domains you want to share with (as shown below): Sharing with all domains Sharing with a specific domain If you select Sharing with a specific domain, type the name of the domain. To specify the information which can be shared, select Share your calendar folder check box, and then select one of the following: Calendar free/busy information with time only Calendar free/busy information with time, subject, and location All calendar appointment information, including time, subject, location and title Click save to set the rules. If you want to set this sharing policy as the default sharing policy in your organization, select the Make this policy my default sharing policy check box. Click save to create the sharing policy. After creating the policy, User can share their calendar from Outlook. The person to whom you have allowed to share calendar will receive an email (as shown below). By clicking on Add this calendar, the calendar of yours will be shared with that person. Create an organizational relationship. Set up an organization relationship to share calendar information with an external business partner Navigate to Organization > Sharing in Exchange Admin Center. Under Organization sharing, click +. In new organization relationship, in the Relationship name  box, type a name for the organization relationship. In the Domains to share withbox, type the domain for the external Office 365 organization. In Enable calendar free/busy information sharingcheck box to turn on calendar sharing with the domains you listed. To set the free/busy access level, select one of the following: Calendar free/busy information with time only. Calendar free/busy with time, subject, and location. To set which users will share calendar free/busy information, select one of the following: Everyone in your organization. A specified security group – You can browse and select the group for whom you want to enable the sharing. Click save to create the organization relationship. For users to share calendar: Go to Outlook > Calendar. Click Share. Send a sharing invitation in email. Conclusion: So, in this way we can share the calendars between organizations and external users.

Introduction: In this blog article, I will demonstrate how to enable ArcGIS in PowerBI, its features and how to use it to display data. The ArcGIS Visual, created by Esri, displays data in a unique and immensely customisable way. The Visual allows the User to select the type of map, various ways to represent data points and additional features like distance mapping and reference layers to make the visual interactive and informative. In order to enable ArcGIS, the User must agree to Esri’s terms and conditions. Enabling the ArcGIS Visual: To do this in PowerBI Service, go to the ‘Settings’ menu. Select ‘ArcGIS Maps For PowerBI’ and select the checkbox next to ‘Use ArcGIS Maps for PowerBI’. Click Apply. Now you can go to the ‘Editing View’ and select the ArcGIS icon from the Visualisations Pane. To enable it in PowerBI Desktop, select ‘Options and Settings’ in the File menu. Select ArcGIS Maps for PowerBI in the Preview Features section. Now, select the ArcGIS icon in the Visualisations Pane to get started. Using the Visual: After loading the data into PowerBI, drag your data in the appropriate fields in the Fields pane. Now here is where the fun begins! Click on the ellipses and select the ‘Edit’ option to start customising your visual. A task pane appears at the top of your visual. The first option is ‘Basemap’. In this option, you can select the type of map you would like to use and that would best showcase your data. The next option is Location Type. Here, you can select how you want your location data represented. Points will show you data points and Boundaries will display data by state boundaries. Map Theme, the next option, will let you select different visual ways to display trends in your data. ‘Size’ displays points variating by size based on your data, while ‘Heat Map’ shows where the values are high, medium and low by color. Symbol Style allows you to select which symbol you want to use to represent the data and customise the symbol by style and size. Pins allow you to highlight locations in your map that you want to showcase other than what your data is displaying. Just type the location in the search bar and select the correct location to add a pin there. You can also change the color of the pins if required.   The Drive Time option allows you to show which data points are within a given distance or driving time from a pin. This feature can also be customised by selecting color, transparency and outline preferences. Reference Layer is a feature that allows you to add data to the map based on common statistics like the country’s population, gender ratio and various other demographics like age and diversity. This allows the user to add more information to their map that could be of significance to the data being represented. One can also hover over states to see the reference data of that state. Conclusion: As you can see, the ArcGIS Visual is designed to make your data easy to understand and interactive while providing additional relevant data. Its customisability combined with its power-packed features makes this one visual that could really add immense value to any report or dashboard.