If you want to see a really cool combination of Power Platform Model Driven Apps and Power Platform Canvas Apps you definitely want to listen to the December Power Platform Community Call. 

The Holiday Themed Apps were so much fun!! 

Power Apps Community call closing out 2020 with amazing holiday themed Apps December 16th | Microsoft Power Apps 

Well it took 10 years longer than we all anticipated, BUT you can now purchase a 1 Terabyte Solid State Drive for less than 100 dollars. 

A big kudos to the Microsoft Documentation Team for the Power Platform Documentation. Any and every time I need to reference a bit more depth or details on a feature in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, Sales, Service, Marketing or many other applications I have found that the documentation has been reviewed and updated in 2020.

This was a huge undertaking and one that is often not well appreciated so today I am saying a big green (for success)

Thank You 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/

We are not talking about a new application, we are talking about the shift from an Office 365 culture and mindset to a Microsoft 365 Culture utilizing the entire stack of Microsoft Applications.

I had the chance to attend the Seattle PowerAppers meet up on Saturday and what a gift. The subject of the meeting was backing up your Power Apps into GitHub. Definitely very geeky and the session was intermediate to advanced, but because it was presented so well I was able to keep up and learn. I learned more about Github and the source code repository and about the difficulty of pulling/extracting the source code from a Power App. 

Samples were not only shared, but we walked through updating, using and adding to our own Power Platform library. 

If you want to get access to all the goodies you can find them in GitHub https://github.com/SeaDude/seattlePowerAppers 

For those of you in the Seattle area that are NEW to Power Apps, the group also has a session each month on GETTING STARTED WITH POWER APPS, the BASICS. Signup for the Meeting Up Group here https://www.meetup.com/Seattle-PowerAppers/members/115970512/ 

Originally posted at https://www.avanade.com/en/blogs/avanade-insights/business-apps/new-dyn-365-ft-ai-mixed-reality

The Microsoft product teams have finalized a huge list of new wonderful features for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Applications stack.

James Phillips, corporate vice president of business applications and one of the most authentic stage presenters there can be, prepared and presented part of the October 2019 Business Applications Virtual Launch.. You can watch the virtual launch event presentation for free, but they do ask that you register so they can keep track of total views and interests and use those numbers to drive even more wonderful.

This time around, it is all about proactive data, data collected from devices, data streaming in from a huge number of sources and data impacting our long-held habits. The systems are not waiting for us to enter data, such as in the old days, systems are providing us with data and waiting for us to react. Habits need to change. The habit of waiting to enter the data and then getting results is old news. We now have the data; we need to react to the data and the automated results.

The systems must be masters of understanding and filtering the data as floods of data pour in. They must be automated to interpret, filter and surface and have more and more embedded artificial intelligence. They must also understand the automation and as such the bots that can be built must be built with handoff at the right times, to the right systems or humans. A chatbot can help many, but not all and the chatbot must know when to “involve” a service person.

The new systems must deal with duplication of data in a way that no previous system had to deal with. Authoritative sources must be determined not once and for all, but dynamically depending on business user decisions or business rules. Duplication requires merge and as such merge features must be more mature and more automated.

Additionally, we are no longer only using siloed or small defined and pointed integrated systems, but fully interacting systems and applications. Applications that react to what is happening in other applications all interlaced together with business rules and different scenarios. The October features show the movement into these new ways of working.

Our business worlds have never been simple, and now we can see the dawning of and adoption of even more revolutionary digitization of these often complexly changing worlds.

Check out the complete list of new features in the October 2019 Business Applications Wave 2 release.

The CRMLady Blog started in 2004 when I shifted to focusing exclusively on the Microsoft CRM Platform.

The product has continued to mature over the years into Microsoft Dynamics 365 and now as part of the powerful MICROSOFT POWER PLATFORM (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual)

Dynamics 365 now is considered a set of Power Apps (sales, service, field service, connected field service, Talent, Finance, Operations, Marketing, Connected field service, CUSTOM, and more)  A great way to communicate this new full stack usage concept and to clear confusion on the term Power Platform.. 

I am glad I have been able to share my personal knowledge base with you.

I will continue to strive to add content. Learning is a daily event in my world. 

For many years ideas would drop into the difficult vortex of millions and millions of requests. We are seeing some significant changes and solutions to this Vortex problem. 

Go take a look at the ideas. EVERY IDEA has a status and a response from the product team AND you can vote on ideas if they are important to your use of the system.

Voting has a big impact so please go vote. 

Here is an example

A new blog post has been added into the world of buzz: IT starts like this and you can follow the link to read even more 

"The Microsoft product teams have finalized a huge list of new wonderful features for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Applications stack.

James Phillips, corporate vice president of business applications and one of the most authentic stage presenters there can be, prepared and presented part of the October 2019 Business Applications Virtual Launch.. You can watch the virtual launch event presentation for free, but they do ask that you register so............"

                          READ MORE HERE 

At the Microsoft Business Applications Summit this week I had a chance to take a look at and discuss Microsoft Product Visualize. I loved seeing how it worked, but more importantly I had dug into the details of where data is stored and how is it created. 

So first What is Microsoft Visualize? 

Consider the Microsoft Dynamics Product Catalog. You have a list of products associated with an opportunity and each item has a description. This doesn't really offer the most efficient way to quickly grasp all that you want to know. We then consider the flat, 2D ability to add a picture. Great! Wonderful, but can we do more? This is where Product Visualize for Dynamics 365 comes into plan. 

I have my Tablet (Surface/iPad/etc), I am at a client site and I am discussing an opportunity that includes a number of products. I might even have two similar products, because my prospect or client has not decided on what they want.  Product Visualize offers not only a 3D Image of the product, but it offers the ability to show a full 360 Degree 3D View of the product depending on how the "user" (myself, the prospect or customer) moves the tablet. 

So how does Product Visualize technically do this? 

Product Visualize uses a product .glb file stored in an integrated SharePoint library. The library that can be configured when Dynamics 365 is setup and configured. The file contains the 3D model saved in GL Transmission Format (glTF).  gITF offers the ability to store such information such as node hierarchy, cameras, materials, and animations and a GLB file is the binary version of .GLTF files.  

Note: For those of you who are old hands at gITF and glb, please feel free to expand on this.. 

BUT how do we actually get the images and the data for the GLB file? 

I have my product and I have Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement, but I don't have a glb file. This is where the growing momentum in partnerships between the new worlds within the graphical industries and the ever evolving world of customer engagement becomes a huge win/win.  

In March there was a small update released for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement On-premise users.

Look for Version 9.0.3.7 Here

It includes some improvements for working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 on Google Chrome and a few other cumulative updates. 

DYN365CE Online gets updated almost weekly with these tiny patches, notice the last four digits of the version (v9.1.0000.3653) so the online folks don't need to think about this one. 

It is also worth noting that one of the bigger updates for the year  (APRIL 2019) is PACKED with cool and depth. You definitely want to get consuming and embracing the release notes for this release on your To Do List.  

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2925359/microsoft-dynamics-crm-online-releases

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3142345/microsoft-dynamics-365-onpremise-cumulative-updates

Microsoft R&D guru's Grant Geiszler, Daren Turner, and Mike Huguet moved from guru/guru premier field engineers to an internal R&D team and have been working really hard for the last couple of years on a new toolset which provides automated UI testing, stability & performance checks on Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions and instances. 

Catch the details at the Microsoft Dynamics 365 User Group Focus event in Houston March 11-12th at these sessions https://goo.gl/qYG8H8 & https://goo.gl/vFUuDV at hashtag#UGFocus2019 .

To Register or to Learn More

https://www.ugfocus.com/focus/locations/houston  

New Hampshire and Vermont Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement Regional User Group

Next Meeting

• When:  Wednesday, Feb 27, 2019 from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM (ET) 

  Topic: All things Dynamics 365 and Document Management!
  
  

  • Lunch Included
  • Location: The Howe Library, Hanover, NH https://www.thehowe.org/
    
    

  AGENDA

  • 1/3 Vendor       Clint Higley from CRM Add-Ons will present on the documents core pack.
  • 1/3 Customer  Nick Hogan and Stephen Gavosto from BC/BS of Vermont will present on their Health Insurance Customer Service Implementation
  • 1/3 Partner      Knowledge Shared, notes from the field - An open discussion on document management using Azure Blob Storage vs. SharePoint Online 

Spring is just around the corner and in addition to the drip updates that continue for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement ONLINE users the semi-annual update has been documented and announced. 

Take a look at the Spring 2019 release notes

In Support of my Sister

OREGON FRIENDS: MARK your calendar.
Start your December with great food and gifts at the annual Holiday Farmers Market & Grange Luncheon on Saturday December 1st from 10 am to 3 pm at White Clover Grange of Mohler, OR. #Christmas2018 #holidays #Oregon

It is time to register for the NH/VT Upper Valley CRMUG Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement User Group Meeting! 

https://www.crmug.com/crmug/events/calendar?CommunityKey=6178ebc2-51fb-4a17-ab26-5b68420fd48c 

If you are familiar with www.crmug.com you can register using the above link OR send me an e-mail.

For my Albany, Boston and Montreal friends - You are also welcome to attend and are within a 2 to 3 hour driving window so perhaps an excuse to get out of the office and to do a little touring. 

I am in  St. Louis this week and I will be heading over to the CRMUG Chapter meeting on the morning of Oct 4th.

Come on over and knowledge share on the greatest platform on earth! Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement.

CRMUG Missouri (St. Louis) Chapter Meeting - October 4

Where: Hanover, NH
When: 9-12am
Date: Thursday, November 15, 2018 
Topic: What's New in 2018 (Spring and Fall editions of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement

Get out of the office, take a nice drive, come join some peers and learn about what is new in Microsoft Dynamics 365! 

Send questions, requests, difficulties or any interests in advance for even more value add!!! There is no charge for this meeting; however, if you are not a Microsoft Dynamics CRMUG Member then the number of free meetings is limited.

Are you in Boston? The Dartmouth Coach (www.dartmouthcoach.com) travels to Hanover, NH from Logan and South Station a couple of times a day.

Come help us kick off the initial meeting of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRMUG NH/VT New England Chapter Meeting!

• Where: Hanover, NH
• When: September 27, 2018
• Time: 10:00am - 12:00pm
• Questions: Reach out to Anne Stanton, Evan Workin or Jeff Hudgins
• Subject: What's new in Microsoft Dynamics 365 v9.x.x.x !

Let's deep dive on what came out in the Spring 2018 release and what is about to be released as part of the

Fall 2018 Release. We will also round table questions and share industry wide experience and knowledge.

Want to help? Invite your friends, put together your questions, create a carpool, get involved!

If you have extensions that you have upgraded or that your partner has upgraded on your behalf, you will want to schedule a review for the following reason:

"Beginning with the Dynamics 365 (8.0) release, a new OData 4 endpoint was added to the Dynamics 365 application stack. This endpoint is known as the Web API. The Web API provides a development experience that can be used across a wide variety of programming languages, platforms, and devices. The Web API is intended to replace the CRM 2011 endpoint, also known as the SOAP endpoint, for accessing the Dynamics 365 organization web service and other provided web services."

"As of the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016 Update 1 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Service Pack 1 (8.1.0), the CRM 2011 endpoint has been deprecated. The 2011 endpoint will be removed some time after the release of Dynamics 365 version 9. We plan to provide updates to the Dynamics 365 SDK assemblies and tools over the next several minor releases, retargeting them to use the Web API instead of the 2011 endpoint."

"We strongly encourage developers to use the Web API for accessing Dynamics 365 web services when writing new application code. You must update existing applications to use the Dynamics 365 Web API for accessing Dynamics 365 web services between now and the removal of the 2011 endpoint. When you develop plug-ins and custom workflow activities, continue to link those projects to the Dynamics 365 SDK assemblies. The Dynamics 365 SDK assemblies will be updated to use the Web API. This update will be fully transparent to you and any code written using the SDK itself will be supported."

"Additional details will be published in future SDK releases. For more information about the Web API, see Use the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Web API "

One of the benefits of cleaning out a closet and moving a bunch of "must save items" is you get to see what was old is new again! 

This is a Lunch and Learn that I presented a few years back in my pre-Microsoft and pre-Enterprise Client days.

Put on the hat "Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement" and the dimensions explode. There are so many different angles to think about such as 

• The Product
• The CRM Industry
• The Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and their extensions, applications and products
• The Project Methodologies
• The Communities
• The Support Resources
• The Training Options
• Certifications
• Industry Uses
• Usability and Adoption 
• Integrations
• Mobility
• IoT
• CRM -> ERP : Bridging the teams, the products, the features and more
• Failures and the Why behind them 
• Working with the Microsoft teams (product, support, services, executives, sales, etc.)

and the list goes on! 

I recently completed a Solution Architecture Assessment engagement and was amazed at all of the categories of discussion and knowledge sharing that bubbled out of a three month, intense, team empowerment project.

So where to start??

Now Live in the US (and soon to come Globally)!

Dynamics 365 Trial Sign Up Service & Customer Engagement Viral Trial

Have you looked at the new trial? Go ahead and sign up to test out the service for all Dynamics 365 apps + viral sign up for Customer Engagement in the United States. This includes Operations, Financials, Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, and Project Service Automation.

What’s New?

• Simplified sign up – business email & phone number
• All apps utilize Microsoft Office viral sign up framework.
• Information Worker (IW) sign up – IW’s can now sign up for a trial and add it to an existing tenant or create a new unmanaged tenant.
• Prospects are joined together in one tenant based on the domain of their work email address for easy collaboration and management.
• Customer Engagement prospects can now have up to 5 trial instances with 5 users each at any one time.
• Customer Engagement trials are still licensed for Enterprise Plan 1, but you can choose a single app or all to trial.

Things you should know: 

• No consumer or government email addresses (outlook.com, gmail.com, .gov, .mil, etc.) are accepted in the viral framework.

• All members of a viral trial must have the same email domain.
• The first user to create a trial instance is the trial or instance owner.
• Review the FAQ for all details.
• The traditional admin based sign up you all know is still available and should be used if you plan to customize a trial for a customer to join (since you don’t share an email domain.)

Trial links:

• Financials
• Operations
• Sales
• Service
• Field Service
• Project Service Automation

You have heard the buzz about Microsoft Dynamics 365, but you are not really sure what it is all about. Is it Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or something in between or better yet something beyond?

You are thinking that perhaps you have or are using applications that are holding you back, that need to be upgraded or replaced. You are perhaps reconsidering what you are getting out of the technology you currently have. You want to leverage more of the power of the cloud and more from the latest and greatest technologies. You want to be empowered by technology to help you make even more business decisions.

You can start planning now to attend Microsoft Envision the week of September 25, 2017.

Microsoft Envision

Book your tickets to Orlando, FL! Start thinking about interviewing and aligning the right internal and external people and teams for your project. Think about your business processes and at a minimum start documenting what you do today and what you want to be doing tomorrow. Pick the right product, one that can grow with you and can be configured AND extended to meet your needs. Honor the three People, Product and Processes to a successful project.

Come Swim in the Sun in Orlando!

And think about these awesome words from the Microsoft Envision Website

“Longevity in this business is about being able to reinvent yourself or invent the future.” Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

"Relevance Search brings a more Bing-like, global search experience to your mission critical business applications (think Dynamics 365) powered by Azure Search! "

Want to deep dive on this relatively new cool?

You can do that too!

"Search within Documents in Dynamics 365: One of the best new capabilities of Relevance Search is that you can now search for text in a document stored in Dynamics 365! These include documents in a Note and Attachments on an Email or Appointment. We support several document formats, including Microsoft Office (Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, etc), PDFs, EML, HTML/XML, ZIP, and rich text format (RTF). "

The Dynamics Communities 2017 CRM User Group schedule for the Washington D.C. Area has been posted.

Get out and mix and mingle in 2017 on the following dates:

February 22

May 17

August 2

November 15

It is a whole new world!

"See how analytics and built-in intelligence will make you and your organization more productive and processes more efficient & effective" with Dynamics 365

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W390S2NIOo4

You are starting to hear about Microsoft Dynamics 365 and you want to learn a bit more?

You might want to listen to The First Look: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/dynamics-365-first-look

There is nothing like connecting with other people who are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the best way to do this is to get involved in the Dynamics Communities.

How do you get started? Check out http://www.crmug.com and signup for the upcoming local chapter meeting

The next meeting in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. Area is on November 16 at the Cobalt Office in Alexandria. Full Details and registration here. This is a special meeting and it is in Virginia. 

Most meetings in the D.C area are in the Microsoft Chevy Chase Office and if you want specific chapter information check out: http://www.crmug.com/washington​

You can still catch some of the sessions by starting here ...

I might have to take some time away from projects to go to this intimate and intense seminar that includes not only training, but also real life sharing from the field.

If you are working with Dynamics CRM then this is a must attend.

Now this session looks like a real winner!

Learn More!

Given all the BUZZ coming out of Envision it looks like the conference was a success in meeting it's goals of sharing the vision!

If You Are Planning for Next Year?

"Big things are happening in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM world"

Learn about the ground-breaking service capabilities, portal solutions, and more coming in the spring 2016 wave: http://bit.ly/1nhl2cQ

Check out this great new write up on working with Microsoft Social Engagement and Microsoft Dynamics CRM

1 + 1 = so VERY much more than 2

Check out this great new write up on working with Microsoft Social Engagement and Microsoft Dynamics CRM

1 + 1 = so VERY much more than 2

So you think you are the ultimate master of Microsoft Dynamics CRM! This is totally awesome, because now you can empower your entire team with new PowerShell Awesomeness for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Organization Data!

AND don't forget to send some feedback and love to the developer!

Read More and Download Here

Are you thinking about moving your Microsoft Dynamics CRM instance to Azure? Or perhaps you want to move to CRM Online? Maybe you just want to upgrade from a much earlier version to the most current version?

Microsoft Consulting Services has a set of services that will provide you with an upgrade assessment.

Now is a great time to get that assessment done and to start thinking about polishing up the heart beat technology of your company. The products every one of your staff use : Microsoft Office (or O365) and Microsoft Dynamics CRM!

Learn More

I have to admit, this is pretty exciting!

"Next Generation Sports Network (NGSN) wanted to make international soccer matches available live and on-demand to a global viewer base. It required a wide array of solutions to create the next step in in the evolution of the online sports viewing experience. With Microsoft Azure and support from Microsoft Services, NGSN was able to build a global broadcasting network in just six months – just a fraction of the time required for an on-premises solution."

READ MORE HERE

Interesting Press Release:  Lithium and Microsoft

"SAN FRANCISCO – June 2, 2015 – Lithium Technologies and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) have signed a strategic alliance agreement to integrate Lithium social interactions and community data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM"

Read More

Do you know about the Microsoft Dynamics CRM TRUST CENTER?

Dynamics CRM 2015 Update 1 Content (Spring 2015)

YouTube Videos

• Microsoft Social Engagement Overview https://youtu.be/ZLZk2reTr-Y
• Microsoft Social Engagement Alerts https://youtu.be/lQKzwulgnmM
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Trial Quick Start Guide: https://youtu.be/owqW6WTjTc0
• Microsoft Social Engagement Quota Management - coming soon!
• Microsoft Social Engagement Search Setup - coming soon!

Subscribe to the Dynamics channel to stay up to date: https://www.youtube.com/user/msdyncomm/DynamicsCRM

CRM Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 (7.1.0) Product Documentation is Available! http://bit.ly/1JfsMl9
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing 2015 Update 1 Product Documentation is Available! http://bit.ly/1JGVOxz
• Microsoft Social Engagement 2015 Update 1Product Documentation is Available! http://bit.ly/1QIgxmq
• Parature, from Microsoft 15.2 Product Documentation is Available! http://bit.ly/1Pd1625
• AND SEVERAL MORE excellent blog posts by our field and PMs - check it out!

Dynamics CRM 2015 Hierarchical Security

There is so much depth to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Security that it is amazing that they can add more and yet, more has been added. A great post is available on all the new options which you can reach using the link above.