Introduction: In this article, we will learn how to dynamically use Dynamics 365 CRM option set/ CRM picklist in Power BI. As you may be aware that CRM picklist stores Integer value in the backend and not the actual display name. So, whenever you query an entity with picklist fields in Power BI you will get picklist Integer value and not the display names. Pre-requisite: The option set/picklist should be a global. You can check the IsGlobal property for the picklist field in the Metadata Browser. In Metadata Browser, when you expand Get Options for OptionSet there is a (+) button. Click on that button and option set properties will appear. Steps to get Option Set Values: Login in to Power BI Click Get data Select Odata Feed as the connector Enter the OData URL for querying the Global option sets and click Ok. URL Format: https://orgname.api.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v8.2/GlobalOptionSetDefinitions(OptionSetMetadataId) Example: https://contoso.api.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v8.2/GlobalOptionSetDefinitions(ae2a3b9d-395a-4dbd-9abc-c32aeb10888b)Note: OptionSetMetadataId is highlighted in the Pre-requisite screen capture Once the query is loaded, the Edit Query window will pop up.  Click on Advance Editor and modify the code as below (Add null and MoreColumns parameter) and then click Done: let Source = OData.Feed(“https://fasttrackleasingllc.api.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v8.2/GlobalOptionSetDefinitions(ae2a3b9d-395a-4dbd-9abc-c32aeb10888b)”, null, [MoreColumns = true]) in    Source After loading, an additional row will be added to the table named More Columns. Click on the Record field beside More Columns. A new view of the table will be loaded as shown in the below screenshot. Right Click on List and Select ‘Into Table’ Once the table is loaded, expand the Value column by clicking on ‘Expand to New Rows’ Expand the Value Column and select ‘Value’ and ‘Label’ Columns. Click Ok. Expand the Value.Label Column and select ‘UserLocalizedLabel’ Column. Click OK. Expand the Value Column and select ‘Value’ and ‘Label’ Columns. Click Ok. Finally, we get the Option set Code (Value.Value) and Option Set Value (Value.Label.UserLocalizedLabel.Label) from CRM. Conclusion: As the above method creates a separate table for option set, you have to add relationship (1-*) between the newly created Option Set table and the Main table.

Introduction: This blog explains how to enable custom field in Filter section of Schedule Board in D365 Field Service & PSA. Scenario: Need to filter resources on Schedule Board by custom fields other than standard fields like characteristics, roles, business units, terriotries etc. Pre-requisites: Configure 2 Custom Entities with below Details 1. Crew Entity with Name as text field. 2. Crew Member Entity with Crew and Bookable Resource as lookup field. Steps: Below are steps to configure custom field “Crew” of type lookup in filter section of Schedule Board. 1. Open Schedule Board to Customize 2. Customize the Filter Layout Template Open Filter Layout as highlighted below. Insert below code above controls closing tag. <control type=”combo” source=”entity” key=”ResourceCrew” label-id=”Crew” entity=”cf_crew” multi=”true” /> Click “Save” button to save the changes to Schedule Board. Crew field will be shown in filter section as highlighted below. 3. Customize the Retrieve Resources Query. Open Query Template as highlighted below. Insert below code in Query template above closing tag of filter. Click “Save” button to save the changes to Schedule Board. 4. Click “Apply” button to save the changes to Schedule Board. 5. Select Crew and click Search button in Filter Section and  Resources are filtered as below Refer this link for more information. Conclusion: This blog explains steps to filter resources based on custom entities in Filter section of Schedule Board in D365 Field Service and PSA.

Overview: Now, you often must have noticed that the field Est. Revenue on Opportunities is either locked or is open to enter value into it. There’s a reason for this as well. Revenue Field: So basically, there is a field on the Opportunity that drives this operation. It is called as Revenue field! System Calculated- If you select System Calculated, the Opportunity Lines’ Total Amount will add up to the Est. Revenue field and the field will be locked for you. User Provided- If you select User Provided, the Est. Revenue field will be unlocked with whatever value it already has and you can change the same. It will no longer be driven of the Opportunity Lines.

Introduction: In this blog we will discuss some extended custom functionality of uploading documents to SharePoint and CRM. Purpose: By default, document location is enabled for some OOB entities like Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities and by default document location gets created for records on first time load of Document Location associated view. This is the OOB functionality but sometimes we might need some different structures for document storage according to the organization need. In this blog, we will discuss one scenario where we can have a need to customize this Document Locations and automatically create a predefined folder structure in CRM and SharePoint which will help us to store our documents according to needed structure. This functionality is described using the below screenshots. Open Documents view for any record. As you can see by default, document location gets created and documents get stored in highlighted location. We have created a custom button which takes parameters and create or update the folder structure. On click of Custom button, window opens where you can enter values and click Ok. Type: Create or Update Structure: Tree or Acyclic (Depends on Organization) URL: This is the SharePoint URL Site where you want to create folder structure. You can see the predefined folders getting created. You select the folder you want to upload the file. Chose file and click Ok. In below screenshot you can see the file gets uploaded in the selected folder. Similarly, you can see in SharePoint how the folders get created and file automatically gets uploaded.

Introduction: While starting the AOS service if you face above error then check 2 things, Check your System log as mention in error (Event Viewer-> Windows Log -> System) it will give you error ‘Cannot create another system semaphore’. Also, Check your Application Log (Event Viewer -> Windows Log -> Application). Cause: This error means simply means your AX 2012 Kernel version is lower than your Application version. As, the kernel version is lower it does not support your current Timezone version. Solution: Upgrade your AX 2012 kernel version to higher version. Run below script to modify your Timezone version Update SQLSystemVariables set value = 4 where parm = ‘SYSTIMEZONESVERSION’

Introduction: This blog explains how to view Resource Skills and Role in D365 Field Service / PSA. Scenario: We often get inquiry from Clients do we have option to view Resource Skills or Roles on Schedule Board before scheduling a Work Order to Resource. Steps: Open Schedule Board and follow below steps to view skills / roles of Resource. a. Select Resource in Resource Panel as highlighted b. Right Click on Selected Resource and Click on View Resource Card. c. Resource Details will displayed as shown below screenshot with details like Time Zone, Sills, Roles of Resource and many options to connect Resource like chat/email/phone call. Note: Above explained blog is with Reference to D365 Field Service Version 7.5.1 Conclusion: Using  above mentioned steps, you can view Skills or Roles of Resource and many options to connect Resource like chat/email/phone call on Schedule Board in D365 Field Service and PSA.

Introduction: In this blog we will demonstrate how to create Customer Journeys in Dynamics 365 for Marketing. As you engage potential customers, they start by discovering your product, evaluate whether it meets their needs, look for a good offer, and finally make a purchase. This process is called as Customer journeys. Pre Requisites: Before we start we need to have live segments towards whom we can target our marketing initiatives. Check out how to create segments here. We also need to have our Marketing emails designed and ready to go. Check out how to create marketing emails here. Implementation: In our scenario we have taken an example where CloudFronts wants to organize a web development webinar and as a marketing initiative we send out emails to web developers. Below shown is the view of the Customer Journey. Step 1: First take a segment tile from the right toolbox panel and drag it on the canvas and we enter the name of the segment that we want to target. Here as stated earlier we have selected a target segment consisting of web developers. Note: The segment will appear only if it is in the “Live” state. Step 2: We drag and drop the Marketing Email tile, and then add a Marketing page in the Marketing email.  We have done this as we have added a link to a marketing page in our marketing email. Step 3: The marketing page designed is as shown below. When the users click on the link in the email they will be redirected to this page which contains a Marketing Form. Step 4: Then we add a trigger tile in the customer journey with the condition to check if the user has submitted the marketing form in one hour as shown below. If the user has registered in one hour then he/she will receive a “Thank You” email with the details of the webinar. And if the user has not registered within the given period of time he will receive another email which says visit us as www.cloudfronts.com to know more about us. Once the everything is set, the customer journey will begin at the specified Start time and accordingly end at the specified End time. Once the customer journey is run completely we can get a lott of insights regarding the events that took place. Step 5: We can go to the Marketing emails section and click on the insights option as shown in the pic below: Below shown are the insights generated: Similarly we can also view the insights generated for the Customer journeys. The below image shows the number of contacts on each of the tiles as they progressed throughout the journey. The arrows show that only 2 contacts out of 7 submitted the Marketing form and hence received the Event details while the rest 5 contacts received the “Visit Us” Marketing email. Conclusion: Using this feature we have a control of how we want our users to interact with the emails and hence generate more and more leads and also gain insights on the process as a whole.

Introduction: This blog explains how to Create Case in Dynamics 365 from Microsoft Social Engagement Posts. Steps to be followed: Steps in Dynamics 365: Go to Settings –> Service Management –> Automatic Record Creation and Update Rule.  Click on +NEW. Enter Name and Set the Source Type to Social Activity. Save the record Under Channel Properties section for additional properties select the search button and Create new record. Enter details. Save record Create Channel Properties Under Newly Created Channel Property Group. Enter Name and Data Type. Save record  Add specify record creation and update details Enter Name and save the record. Under Condition, choose Select, and scroll to the bottom of the drop-down list to find Channel Properties under Local Values. Then, select userPreferredTargetEntity Equals incident. Under Action, select Add Step, and then select Create Record. Set the value to Case. If you want to set or change any field value you can do it by clicking on set properties and changing the fields accordingly. Save and close the record. Finally select Activate to activate the rule. Steps in Microsoft Social Engagement: Go to settings –>Automation Rule Click on + to create new automation rule. Enter Name. Filter according to your criteria. Click on + ADD NEW ACTION to add actions. Click on link to Dynamics 365. Select Instance and Entity. Click on Apply. You can also Assign this case to user from MSE. Click on Apply Click on ADD NEW ACTION Select Set label. Click on Apply. Record Details: Save the rule. Case in Dynamics 365:

Introduction: Business Recommended a cool feature in Business Rules which came out last year in D365 that can be used by simple configuration in Business Rules rather than writing JS code to achieve the same. Here’s how we do it – Setting Up Business Rule for Recommendation: Now, can you setup a Business Rule as below which can be shown on a certain condition Select Add Recommendation is a Business Rule condition is met. And then define the Recommendation you added to the condition Click Apply. Then, inside the Details of the Recommendation, we can set the value of the Price List which will take effect if the user selects Apply on the Recommendation. Seeing Recommendation work: Now as designed, Recommendation is supposed to show up when you select the Relationship Type as Customer. Recommendation is designed to not appear for other values of Relationship Type other than Customer. Recommendation would ask you to Apply the default Retail price list if you select Relationship Type as customer. Once you click on the blue ‘info’ icon on the field, a recommendation will pop-up asking if you want to apply a default price list for the same. On clicking Apply, the specified action will be performed. In this case, the Product Price List will be set. Pretty easier than writing code!

Introduction: If the Voice of Customer solution is accidentally deleted or misconfigured, it might not be able to receive survey response. You can repair or restore the Voice of the Customer configuration. Steps for restoring configurations are listed below for Web client and Voice of Customer app. Web client: Sign in to Dynamics 365. Go to Settings > Voice of the Customer Configurations. Select Configure from the toolbar at the top of the screen. Voice of the Customer app Open Voice of Customer app. Go to Settings > Configurations. Select Configure from the toolbar at the top of the screen. Hope you find this helpful!