This post is the final part of our two-part series on Implementing Machine Learning in D365. Head here to read part one if you haven’t been following along yet.

In part one, we built an Azure Machine Learning (AML) algorithm against our Opportunity data in D365 to come up with a probability that the Opportunity will win. In this post, we will use AML to generate a web service for us and then we will use Microsoft Flow to retrieve the probability and update newly created Opportunities with the value.

Within AML, after you successfully ran the experiment, select Set Up Web Service –> Predictive Web Service

Once it is finished, you will then have to click Run to go through the experiment again. Once that is finished you can click Deploy Web Service –> Deploy Web Service [New] Preview. You will have to create a new Price Plan (fortunately there is a free one with 1,000 transactions) and then click Deploy. Once it is deployed, you will want to click Use Web Service. On the next page you will want to make note of the Primary Key and Request-Response values as we will need this shortly.

Next, head over to Microsoft Flow and sign in with a Microsoft account. Click “Create from blank” and then search for the “When a record is created” for D365 trigger.

You will need to authenticate to D365, select your organization and then select the Opportunities entity.

Click + New step –> Add an action. Search for and select the “HTTP – HTTP” connector. We will use this to call our AML web service that we just deployed earlier. Set the Method to Post and the Uri to the value of the “Request-Response” that we noted earlier from AML. Next, add a header and set the key to ‘Authorization’ and set the value to ‘Bearer xxx’ where ‘xxx’ is the value of “Primary Key” that we noted earlier from AML. Then add a new header value with a key “Content-Type” and value “application/json”. Lastly, set the Body to the following:

{
    “Inputs”: {
        “input1: [
          {
            “description”: <description>,
            “estimatedvalue”: <estimatedvalue>,
            “statecode”: 0
          }
        ]
    },
    “GlobalParameters”: {}
}

Using the dynamic content helper on the right, replace <description> from the Body by selecting Description from the list of dynamic content. Do the same for the <estimatedvalue> so that the whole HTTP action looks like the following screenshot:

Next, click + New Step –> Add an action and select Parse JSON. Using the dynamic content helper, set the Content field to the Body from the HTTP action. Set the Schema field to the following text:

{
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
                "Results": {
                    "type": "object",
                    "properties": {
                        "output1": {
                            "type": "array",
                            "items": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "estimatedvalue": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    },
                                    "description": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    },
                                    "statecode": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    },
                                    "Scored Labels": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    },
                                    "Scored Probabilities": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                },
                                "required": [
                                    "estimatedvalue",
                                    "description",
                                    "statecode",
                                    "Scored Labels",
                                    "Scored Probabilities"
                                ]
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

This will help parse the response from the AML web service call so we can get to the actual probability value that is returned.

Lastly, click + New Step –> Add an action and select the “Update a record (V2)” for D365. Set your organization and the Opportunities entity again. Then using the dynamic content helper, set the required fields to the respective values from our first trigger from D365. For the probability, I created a custom Decimal field called Predicted Probability. This field will show up in the “Show advanced options” section in Flow. Click that and find the Predicted Probability field and set the expression to the following:

mul(float(body('Parse_JSON')?['Results']?['output1'][0]['Scored Probabilities']), 100)

This expression is using the Parse JSON action we added to get to the Score Probabilities value from AML, converting it to a float and then multiplying by 100 to show as a percentage in D365. The “Update a record (V2)” trigger should look like the following screenshots:

Now you can save the flow and make sure the trigger is set to “On”. Now in D365, we can create a new opportunity. I set the Description to “Wine” with an Est. Revenue of $90. Back in Flow, you can check the Run History and make sure the Flow ran and was successful. It may take a minute or two for it to run.

Once you see a successful process in Flow, refresh your D365 Opportunity and you should see the Predicted Probability updated.

Now we have a complete round-trip from getting the data out of D365 to train it and then pushing the predicted probability back into D365. For existing records, you will want to build a process to retrieve them all and call the AML web service for each one.

Azure Machine Learning has many different algorithms (here is a nice cheat sheet) for all different types of business processes. This is just one example and will hopefully give you an idea of what you can accomplish in your own organization. If you have an questions or are interested in enhancing your organization with machine learning, contact us.

Happy Machine Learning!

Microsoft's relationship with Adobe took another step forward today as the companies announced integration of Adobe Experience Manager with Microsoft Dynamics 365. The new offering aims to provide "hyper-personalized engagement" by connecting more marketing content and data with CRM-related data and activities.

In joint announcements, the companies are emphasizing the integration as a way to bring together vast sets of data that traditionally separate the marketing and sales roles. Adobe offered the example of a woman shopping for a gym membership online. If the b...

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Every entity in Dynamics 365, both OOB and custom, has a field named [Version Number]. It can’t be seen from the UI, as it is a system field, but it can be seen from when querying the database or when fetching data using FetchXML. This field is used by the system to track changes in a single record, and can be leveraged when doing data migrations/integrations to check if a record has changed from its source.

What is Version Number?

At the database level, Version Number is a rowversion data type (sometimes called timestamp).

Some key details from TechNet:

Each database has a counter that is incremented for each insert or update operation that is performed on a table that contains a rowversion column within the database. This counter is the database rowversion. This tracks a relative time within a database, not an actual time that can be associated with a clock. A table can have only one rowversion column. Every time that a row with a rowversion column is modified or inserted, the incremented database rowversion value is inserted in the rowversion column.

So, to summarize, each time any field on this record gets updated, Version Number will change (tick up an increment).

How to track changes with Version Number

In the context of a one-way integration from one Dynamics 365 to a staging database, version number could be leveraged using SSIS by:

From the Source to Staging Table

• Check to see if the record exists in staging by comparing uniqueidentifier
• If record doesn’t exist, create the new record in staging table
• If record exists, compare Version Number
  • If Version number is same, no action is needed (nothing changed)
  • If version number is different, delete existing record in Staging and recreate with new attributes.

A dataflow might look like this:

Here, we stage with some records including the Version Number (account in this example). From there we do a lookup in our staging table, matching the accounted to see if it exists and passing the version number stored in the staging DB. If there is no match, we create the record. If there is a match we compare the version number from the source with staging. If these values are different, we delete the current record in staging, and recreate the record with what was queried from the source.

A thing to note, when querying the data directly from on-prem SQL, version number will be a binary data type and must be cast to a string to compare the values in the conditional split. However, if the data is being queried using FetchXML this value will be cast as an integer, but the functionality works the same way.

Why you would use Version Number

There are two main reasons why version number might be a good choice to track these changes. First, because it works at the database level, the version number will change even when a record is updated using a direct SQL update (not recommended or supported, but we’ve seen it happen none the less). Other values, such as modified on, will only update at the software level. Using version number will allow you to catch all changes, even unsupported ones.

The second reason is the simplicity of development. Most people here tend to think that development is simpler using this method, requiring you to log less information in auditing (much as modified on) allowing for more rapid and streamlined development.

Itching to learn more? Explore our blog!

Happy Dynamics 365’ing!

Overview

It can be argued that Microsoft has done a great job with their landing page for https://office.com. From one page you can choose and pin any of the online Microsoft applications you want to run. This functionality is great when needing to access Mail and jot down notes in OneNote. However, one click might not be enough to get you to the Dynamics 365 application you prefer.

Dynamics 365 Home Page

The default landing page for browsing Dynamics 365 is https://home.dynamics.com and shows all the apps that you have available to use, not just your preferred default application.

Enter an Auto-Launch URL

You can now set your default app to open when selecting Dynamics 365 from Office.com.

In the upper right corner of the home.Dynamics landing page, click the settings cog and select Preferences.

A new side-bar will appear. Paste the URL from your favorite Dynamics 365 app into the Auto-Launch URL field, click Apply and then OK.

Conclusion

Now that your auto-launch URL is set, anytime you select Dynamics 365 from your Office 365 screen, it will open your favorite Dynamics app directly, saving you time and increasing your productivity!

If you would like to know more about Microsoft Dynamics 365 please give us a call (1-800-880-1960) or send us an email at info@toplineresults.com.

About the Author
Chuck Wojciuk is a CRM Engineer for TopLine Results.  Chuck specializes in developing CRM databases for clients and supporting Microsoft Dynamics 365.

The post Open a Dynamics 365 App Automatically appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365.

Calling all Dynamics 365 (CRM) Administrators! If you are looking for Admin focused tips, tricks, and best practices to make all your users think that you are a Dynamics Super Hero, we invite you to join our upcoming complimentary monthly user group webinar on November 15^th.

In our October webinar, our Dynamics 365/CRM experts provided Part 1 of our “Top Admin Tips” that included data management, auditing, cascading rules and solutions that included third party imports.  If you missed that episode, you an easily catch up on-demand.

On November 15^th, we will be firing up Part 2 with more Admin Tips that include specialized and read-only fields, XRM Toolbox, Microsoft Flow and a list of resources available that all Admins should bookmark and visit.

If you cannot attend the live session, you can register and we will email you a link to access on-demand once the webinar is complete.

You do not need to be a customer of Ledgeview Partners to attend the webinar, just have a passion for Dynamics 365/CRM and a mission to drive more productivity and results from your solution. This webinar is open to Admins, Users, Developers, Managers –  well everyone!

Webinar: Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM User Group
Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Time: 1:30pm – 2:00pm CST
>> Click to register

The post Webinar: Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM User Group – November 15th appeared first on Ledgeview Partners.

We live in a mobile world of tech savvy users whom expect an “app for that.” These apps should be bug free and should help make our lives more productive. For example, imagine if end users could have the ability to trigger their swimming pool light to turn on as the result of receiving an email from Olympic superstar Michael Phelps. While achieving all of this is possible, the inherent value of the tool should outweigh the costs of acquiring it.

Luckily, we now have connected logical workflow engines like IFTTT and Microsoft Flow. If you’re not familiar with these services, they simply allow web accessible applications to trigger actions within or across other web accessible applications. The application requires an API connector to the service, but luckily, many connectors have already been developed. In our case, Microsoft Flow is our logical engine of choice, a connector, and a few templates already exist. The template acts as a good starting point and can be customized to meet one’s needs.

Rather than going for the gusto and turning on our pool light, let’s take baby steps and do something more familiar. We’ll create a new contact by tapping on a Flow button from our mobile phone. A Flow button is a button that lives on a mobile device and when clicked, triggers something to happen. In our case, when the button is clicked we want it to create a contact in Dynamics 365, and then send a welcome email to the new contact. It’s pretty simple, but a good introduction to Microsoft Flow with Dynamics 365.

The description of the template we’re using from Flow is, “Create a new contact in Dynamics 365 with a button tap. Enter the contact’s info (name, phone number, email address and additional notes) and it’ll be created for you, as a new contact in your Dynamics 365 account. You’ll get a notification for successful flow runs.”

Below is the Contact information which will be captured in the predefined template:

Let’s say this Flow button will be used at a trade show and we will be meeting a lot of people. We only want a few fields to enter and we would like to shorten the field titles and descriptions. We would also like to know the Contact’s mobile number rather than the template’s Business Phone, and we don’t need a personal note. Lastly, we would prefer to send an email to the contact with our personal contact information as opposed to creating a Flow system notification. Luckily, Flow provides the ability to customize and expand the logical conditions to meet our needs.

The benefits of this sample are:

• No coding
• Non-Related Accounts/Systems/Orgs/Services speak to one another
• Short concept to production time

The perquisites are:

• A Microsoft Flow account
• A Dynamics 365 account (with CRM)
• Cloud based email account (like Office 365 Outlook or Gmail)

The steps:

1. Sign into Dynamics 365

2. Sign into Flow

3. Search within Flow using the keyword “CRM”

5. You will be taken to a confirmation screen, Click the “Continue” button at the bottom of the screen. Edit the Form Fields:

• Change “First Name: to “First”
• Change “Please enter contact’s first name” to “First Name”
• Change “Last Name” to “Last”
• Change “Please enter contact’s first name” to “Last Name”
• Change “Contact email” to “Email”
• Change “Please enter contact’s email address” to “Enter a valid email”
• Delete “Business Phone”
• Delete “Personal Note”
• Add a new field to the form by clicking the “plus sign”
  • Enter field name as Mobile and the description as Mobile Phone

7. Mobile Form Mapping: We need to add the mapping of the “Mobile” field we added in the form above. To do so, click on the “Edit” link in the Create a new record step, then click “Show advanced options.”

8. Scroll to Mobile Phone and click inside the textbox. Then select “Mobile” from the dynamic content list and click “Hide Advanced options.”

9. Next, we want to remove the push notification and replace it with a custom welcome email to our contacts. To do so, delete “Send Push Notification,” by clicking on the ellipses and then “Delete.”

10. To add our new condition, we will click the New Step button on bottom of page. Select “Add an Action” and search for “Office 365 Outlook – Send an Email.” Note: You can search for other email provider such as Gmail or MailChimp or send the contact a Tweet

11. Click “Sign in” and enter the credentials of the email you’d like to send emails from (such as, donotreply@example.com)

12. Next, we will configure the welcome email template with the dynamic fields we’d like to send to our new contact. Start by clicking inside of the “To” text box and select the “Email” field from the list. Continue to populate the template of the email subject and body as desired, then click “Save flow” at the bottom of the page.

Note: In this example, we’re using post condition values that were entered in the Form and accepted/processed in CRM. One may require running post condition data cleansing or updates within CRM. An example would be duplicate checks or checking against do not email rules. This requires a wait condition in the Flow, however, that is not covered in this blog post.

13. Download and install the “Microsoft Flow” App from the app store.

Note: In our case, we’re using an Android Device, although not much different, the remaining steps will be specific to Android.

14. Once the mobile app is installed, login with your Microsoft Flow credentials.

15. Add a new widget to your phone’s home screen and select Flow followed by the Flow you’d like to use:

16. Now you’re ready to use the Flow Button. Simply tap on it and complete the form.

17. Check your test mailbox and find the new welcome message.

18. Check CRM to validate your new contact and details.

The power of Flow is exceptional and the possibilities will continue to grow as new connectors are developed and templates are created. Flows can be personal or shared within an org. Like CRM workflows and plugins, the logic can be as simple or as complicated as one desires. The value of Flow is in the openness of the framework paired with rapid growth of APIs and the Internet of Things.

So, can Flow help turn on my pool light when Michael Phelps sends me an email? You better believe it! Will Michael Phelps email me? You decide.

Happy Dynamics 365’ing!

Websites allow us to extend various functionalities and bring information into Microsoft Dynamics 365. By being connected with these websites, we can bring together different web components while also offering extended solutions to our users. In this blog, I will show you how to embed websites using IFrames from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 sitemap.

By embedding web content into Dynamics 365 brings with it different advantages. This includes a more fully-fledged immersive experience within Microsoft Dynamics 365, as well as the ability to navigate more fluidly in between the website and Dynamics 365. By allowing the website to be accessible in the sitemap, we can easily access the chosen website from anywhere in Dynamics 365. Having it as an IFrame also allows the user to access the website within Dynamics 365 without ever leaving the web client.

Setting Everything Up

A possible scenario for this requirement is that users frequently need to access a search engine for resolving customer issues. In this blog, we are going to use www.bing.com as our example website. The first thing we need to do is set up the sitemap components in Dynamics 365. I’ve made a Sub Area called Bing Search under the Resources Group, which refers to a HTML Web Resource called mag_/html/bingsearch.html.

We can then construct a simple IFrame within our HTML Web Resource. The best practices for this is to get the website URL into my HTML Web Resource from a configuration file or a custom Setting entity for configuration maintainability and portability of code. Since we’re possibly accessing CRM components, we would need to use the Global Context with JavaScript. But for purposes of this demonstration, I’ve hard-corded the example website URL into the IFrame tag below.

This would yield the example website embedded into Microsoft Dynamics 365 in the screenshot below.

This would obviously not be feasible for our users accessing the embedded web content. The IFrame is too small to be usable. For a more immersive look-and-feel, we would want to take advantage of how much real estate we can cover by having it cover the whole screen space. We need to set the attributes of the IFrame HTML tag to spread over the whole screen available in Dynamics 365. By setting the height and width within the style attribute allows us to specify the height and width of the IFrame as a percentage of the containing element. This is a workaround to changes in HTML5 where the width and height attribute can no longer take percentages (width and height attribute values in HTML5 must be in pixels).

Testing This Through

Now that we’ve finished setting this up, we can test our embedded website by first navigating through the sitemap Sub Area we’ve created. In the screenshot below, I’ve navigated from the Active Accounts View into the Bing Search Subarea in the Dynamics 365 sitemap.

What we end up getting is our web content embedded in the Dynamics 365 as we would expect. The IFrame being configured to take over the whole screen adds to the immersive look-and-feel of the website being within Dynamics 365. This gives Dynamics 365 an extended functionality of having websites available within the web client, while also giving the user the ability to easily navigate to other parts of Dynamics 365 as they are still within the application.

Further Application

The beauty of having this available in an HTML Web Resource is that we can reuse this in Dynamics 365. A common customer requirement is having web components available from the navigation pane of an entity form. This is so that the client can have this readily available from an entity record. This could save users 1 to 2 clicks when they have to frequently access the web content. In our current setup of having our embedded website available from the global sitemap we need 3 clicks to access it. In our current setup (screenshot below) we need to click the 1) Root sitemap button, 2) Fruit Box Area, then the 3) Bing Search Sub Area.

Let’s say users need to access the Bing Search frequently to search across the web when they are managing Cases. If we have our embedded URL into the navigation pane of the Main Form of the Case entity, users only need 2 clicks to access the web content. Saving 1 click may not be a lot in terms of how much extra effort we have to put into replicating our embedded website across a form. But this is big from a usability perspective. We can save a lot of unnecessary user actions over time, and can make the lives of our users happy. The screenshot below is the number of clicks taken to access the embedded Bing Search from the Case record navigation pane.

To set this up, we can configure this on the form by inserting it via Insert Navigation Link in the Form Editor for the Case Main Form.

From here, we can simply refer to our Bing Search Web Resource that we used earlier. Do note that if we are accessing CRM components from a Configuration or Settings entity to retrieve our website we can use the Xrm.Page.context instead in our JavaScript.

Once we’ve finished setting that up, we can now access the embedded website using an IFrame from the navigation pane of the Case record. As you can see, the IFrame takes up the space where we usually find an associated entity view.

IFrames allows external webpages to be embedded into an HTML document. By embedding it into Dynamics 365 and having it readily available globally via the sitemap gives your users great flexibility, additional functionality, and have its users immersed in having it embedded with Dynamics 365 content.

A few hundred custom fields, another hundred or-so workflows, and twenty tabs; all for one form? Sounds like you’re building an XRM. Here are some useful tips and tricks to help you along the path of implementing large-scale XRM’s in Dynamics 365.

1. Establish a naming convention early

Having 300 custom fields for a single form can be cumbersome enough, but a well thought out naming convention can save you hours of hassle down the road. Identify similarities between multiple fields and use them in your naming convention. For example, if you have tens or hundreds of fields that all represent different data in the current year, and another set of fields that represent data from the past year, add something like “CY” and “PY” at the beginning or end of each field name to easily separate data that looks similar but varies by year. Naming conventions go beyond fields, however. Make sure to establish conventions for naming sub-grid views, entity names, relationships, tabs, sections, and more. All of these will come in handy later on in the process when you need to link a specific tab or sub-grid to a portal webpage, for example.

2. Take steps to reduce system stress

Consolidate and delete unnecessary bulk. The first strategy to tackle a large XRM project may include an excess of fields, workflows, tabs, etc. Later on, you may want to revisit this extra “stuff” and see if it can be better managed. Have 300+ workflows on a single form? That’s not unheard of for an XRM, but maybe you can combine workflows together that share some common ground; like belonging to the same entity, and using the same steps but with different fields for each. Suppose you want fields that display the increase/decrease between two decimal fields, and you want this data displayed on two new fields- one field showing the increase/decrease as a percent, and the other showing the difference of the two as a decimal number. You could create two separate workflows for this, or you could combine these two workflows, as they calculate from the same two fields, and just set two update steps for each of the two fields to be calculated.

3. Pay attention to duplicate fields and workflows

Take steps to resolve these issues as soon as possible. It happens; when you are working inside of a massive system with hundreds of fields and workflows, you’re bound to add a duplicate field here and a doubled-up workflow there. Take the steps necessary to remove duplicates early on as they can slow down performance and cause errors in your data.

4. Test thoroughly.

Try your hardest to break your creation. Large projects require a degree of thorough testing just like any other CRM build before the product can be pushed out to production. Systematically test until every field and workflow is proven to be working as they should.

5. Find ways to improve efficiency

Remove the extra time spent doing redundant tasks. Do you have dozens of workflows that have similar steps, but work off of different fields? Create a template workflow to start with a base to work from. Finding yourself constantly copying and pasting different lines of text over and over? Use an application like Ditto to hold multiple ctr-C’s and paste whichever one you need at that time, without the need to go back and copy that next line before pasting it. When you find yourself doing a redundant task, ask yourself- is there a way I can make this work more efficient?

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution. We also provide expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing and Unified Communication Systems.

The post Tips for Implementing an XRM appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365.

Microsoft believes its overall cloud portfolio, from Azure computing resources up through analytics, Dynamics 365 business solutions, and add-on apps, provides differentiation over competitors.

Speaking at eXtreme365 2017 today, Microsoft Technical Fellow and Dynamics 365 CTO Mike Ehrenberg encouraged partners to shift their focus from selling a single Dynamics product to solutions that tie in the complete portfolio as needed. In his keynote address, he argued for Microsoft's commitment to improving the use of data and tools drawn from LinkedIn, Office 365, and Azure cognitive services to compose differentiated scenarios.

"We want [business solutions] to work together, but we want to make it easy to buy and implement just what you want and bring ...

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