Whilst on the commute into the office this morning, I got to thinking about the last year or so, and how far I’ve come along in that time. If I went back in time to spring/summer 2018, I don’t think I’d have ever (accurately) forecast my development and status that I’ve undergone over that time (both personally and professionally).
A major impetus and assistance for some of the progression has been down to the wonderful people that I’ve met (as well as my family, of course). Without the network that I’ve built up, I would most certainly not be where I am now.
So this post is to say….
…to all of the people who I’ve met:
The Dynamics Community (CRMUG and others)
The MVP’s who I’ve reached out to with questions (ok – some of the questions ‘may’ have been silly, in hindsight!)
The SME’s who I’ve pinged to find out more
The people who helped me with setting up this blog (as I had no idea what I was doing)
The conversations where I joined in, even though it wasn’t directly relevant to me
All of the assistance with introductions and interviews
The training for taking exams (documented in blog posts here already)
The great suggestions
The social meets
And last but NOT least, to the support and patience that my family provided me with.
I can only pay back in a small part. What I can do, however, is copy your examples and do my best to help others as well – ‘Pay It Forward’ (which has been touched on before).
So if I may be able to help with something, even in a small way, please reach out 🙂
At the same time, I’ve also been studying for the MB2-15 and MB2-716 exams, in order to attain the MCSA qualification. These had an inherent deadline, as the 716 exam and MCSA qualification are ending at the end of June 2019.
Once I felt that my knowledge level was up to the necessary levels, I went to book all three of them! My preference is to take the exam using the Remote Proctored method, whereby you use your own system, and the audio/video is monitored by a remote exam proctor. They check the workspace, room (to make sure that no-one else is there), and keep an eye on things.
The date for my exams was June 19th 2019 (yesterday). I staggered the exams to give some time between each to relax and get ready for the next one.
Amusingly as part of the whole process, I memorised the script that the proctors use…which didn’t necessarily endear me to them, as they’re not allowed to skip any part of it 😀
Having taken the 715 and 716 (and passing!), this then resulted in the MCSA award. Knowing that the MCSE was tantalisingly in reach (and also stopping at the end of June 2019), and only needing one more exam to attain, I decided to book the 717 exam for late afternoon – I’ve been looking at the material for it, but wasn’t sure if I would be able to pass it or not.
The next exam was the MBP-900. This is the new format of exam (only lasting for an hour, with around half the number of questions of the previous exams…at least that’s what I had during it). Thankfully due to the marvellous course by Julian, I was extremely well prepared, and sailed through it. One question didn’t make sense at all, so had to guess it – not sure if I answered correctly or not….
Then the last exam of the day was the 717. I took more time on this than any of the others (almost ran out of time), due to not having spent a lot of time studying the material. Thankfully….I managed to JUST scrape in with a PASS!. And as a result, also got the MCSE for Business Apps.
Many thanks to Mark Smith for the motivation, Julian Sharpe for the MBP-900 training course, Neil Parkhurst for the materials on his blog, and many others as well.
All in all, an intense day, but with a real feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment from it. And not to forget – I also get badges! Woop woop
Microsoft Office 365 is a
software-as-a-service which allows access to a suite of applications through a
subscription-based model. Office 365 can be used for both home and business
use, and is available on premises and through the cloud (note that some of the
extended functionality is only available through desktop applications; access
to these will depend on the level of license purchased).
Word
Word is a word processing application which is used to create, edit and format written documents for both home and business use, and it is available in every subscription level across the Office 365 platform. It can also be purchased separately outside of a subscription.
Word has wide applications in the business world as it can be used to create any sort of business document, such as proposals, reports, plans and memos. Templates for these documents can be found in both Word itself as well as online, allowing users to create their documents without having to waste time formatting documents. Also, due to the range of design options available in these templates, users can choose templates which fit the culture of the organisation.
With collaboration, it is
possible for multiple people to be viewing and editing a single document at the
same time.
Excel
Excel is a widely-used
spreadsheet software that allows users to calculate, analyse and visualise
data. Like Word, it is part of the core applications suite and is available as
part of every subscription package for both home and business use. It can also
be purchased separately.
At the most basic level, Excel
can be used for entering and storing data. The program, however, has far more
capabilities than this, and contains around 500 functions to carry out a vast
amount of different tasks, ranging significantly in complexity. The functions
available range from simple, everyday functions such as sum, average and count,
to more complex and specific functions such as the ACCRINTM function which
calculates the interest accrued on a security which only pays interest at
maturity. Due the vast capabilities of the program through the functions
available, Excel has wide application in the business world and can be a
powerful tool for organisations.
Excel also has the ability to use
the data within it to create graphs, charts, pivot-tables and other items. This
allows for data to be able to be presented visually, enabling people to quickly
see an overall picture of the data.
It’s also possible to connect
Excel to other data sources (either as a once-off, or with a continual link).
This can allow data held elsewhere (e.g. Dynamics365) to be manipulated further
within Excel itself. Examples of scenarios for this include comparing and
utilising multiple data sources to create an overall dataset.
With collaboration, it is
possible for multiple people to be viewing and editing a single spreadsheet at
the same time.
PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint is a program
which offers users the ability to create presentations to display information.
PowerPoint come with a wide range of templates for a number of different kinds
of documents which can be used to customise the way in which information is
presented on the slides. This allows staff to focus their time on the
information and data rather than on formatting.
Further information can be found
in the documentation for ‘Microsoft Presentations’
OneNote
OneNote is a notebook software
which enables users to capture ideas, take notes and create task lists. Notes
can be created using text, audio recordings, videos and highlighting and
annotating text. Users can organise their notes into pages and sections and
notebooks, and can easily share their work with others.
Benefits of OneNote include:
Taking notes & gathering information on any
device.
Synced on all devices for anytime access to
notes.
Create notebook sections inside books.
Create notebook sections inside notebooks
Create pages & subpages inside sections
Handling mathematical formulae natively
OneNote is also optimised for
touchscreen and tablets, allowing users to enter data directly without using a
keyboard. Benefits of this include being able to draw diagrams directly into
documents, placing flow diagrams easily, etc.
It’s also possible to directly
implant other files that can then be referenced, such as saving images from the
web, articles from news-sites, and other items.
Access
Access is a database software
which allows users to collect, store, sort and manipulate databases. Access and
Excel are similar in that they both store data in columns and rows, and can carry
out similar tasks, but there are important differences between the two
applications and how they are used by organisations. Access is more focused
towards for working with databases, and as a result it has a much greater
storage capacity than Excel, which is not designed for storing large amounts of
data. It is also preferable to use Access to handle large amounts of records,
for example, as the manipulation of the data is more productive and it can ensure
consistency and accuracy.
When looking at implementing
database systems, it could also be useful to consider using Microsoft SQL
Server as the database layer for large/complex solutions.
Access is available in the more
premium subscriptions for home and office use. Alternatively, it can be
purchased separately outside of a subscription.
Publisher
Publisher is a publishing
application (only accessible through a desktop application, not as a hosted
product) that comes with the more enterprise Office365 licenses, or as a
stand-alone application. Publisher differs from Word, which is Microsoft’s
flagship word processing application. Word is for writing documents, whether
they be long or short with the tools to add page numbering, footnotes, tables
of content, indexes, references and annotation. Publishing on the other hand
specialises in creating newsletters, brochures, and greeting cards that have
graphically rich content and require precise positioning of text and graphics.
Publisher comes with many
templates specifically designed for most printed media with pre-positioned
placeholders for text and graphics. This makes it easy to choose the layout
that best suits the application, for example a newsletter and then start adding
text and graphics to suit.
Everything that Publisher does is
about creating an aesthetically pleasing layout, formatting and the control
that the designer has over objects on a page. Images and even blocks of text
are all elements to Publisher and they can be positioned anywhere on the page.
Additionally, all these elements are independent of one another. Changes to one
element’s position, colour or size doesn’t affect any other element.
Outlook is a communication and
information management software that allows users to connect and organise their
email accounts, address book, calendars and task list. Although Outlook is
mainly used for its email functionality, users can also enter appointments and
events on the calendar application, add contact information in the address book
and create lists of tasks to carry out.
It is possible to be able to
connect to different types of email account (Exchange, Office365, POP3, IMAP etc).
Different functionalities within Outlook will depend on the account and
integration type (eg the Outlook Calendar will not synchronise back to a cloud
provider if connecting to it through POP3). However there are various
third-party add-ons that can provide and extend the functionality to accounts
and devices
Outlook is available for both personal and business use across the Microsoft Office suite in every level of subscription offered. It can be accessed through the Outlook desktop application, or the Outlook web interface
Mail
Mail, the email component of Outlook allows users to send and receive emails, create folders and set filters to sort incoming emails into these folders, send emails at a future date, edit and manage rules for specific events and use conditional formatting.
It’s possible to flag emails
visually with different colours, or to mark them as a Task (which will then
appear in the Task list).
Using Rules, workflows can be set
up to auto-route emails to specific folders based on the sender, subject, etc.
This can assist with de-cluttering the general Inbox for users, allowing them
to be more efficient. It’s also possible to set up more complicated workflows
(eg auto-responders) quite easily
Calendar
The calendar component within Outlook can be used to create, edit and search for appointments and reminders, track RSVPs, manage multiple calendars, share your calendar with specific people and use the scheduling assistant to check whether attendees are free on certain dates.
There is the ability to be able
to delegate control of a calendar to other people, with varying degrees of
access. This can allow someone else to manage the calendar on behalf of the
user, as well as arrange meetings for them.
Appointments can be scheduled
with both internal company contacts, as well as external contacts.
Outlook lets users schedule
resources like meeting rooms, projectors, etc simply by adding them as a
resource to a meeting. The resource then functions just like any attendee,
including the ability to auto-respond to the meeting invite as well as the
ability to see the free/busy schedule.
People
The contacts part of Outlook, known as People, allows users to create, edit and search for contacts, place contacts into folders, and link contact accounts to Twitter and LinkedIn. Users of People can also import their contacts from friends, followers and connections on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
When using Exchange, the People
section of Outlook can be used to import information for other company users
and/or contacts from the Exchange Global Address Book.
Tasks
In the task manager component of Outlook, users can create, manage and organise the tasks that need to be undertaken as part of a project. Tasks allows users to create tasks, share and assign them to others, prioritise and categorise them, track tasks by time and monitor their status and progress, amongst other things.
One of the things that I’m constantly being asked by non-technical people is to explain what exactly Microsoft has in terms of products (or applications), and how they can possibly be used.
There’s a lot of material out there obviously on the different parts, deep-delving into functionality, case scenarios, configuration etc.
However I haven’t come across one single location that provides a high-level overview of this (if anyone has, then please let me know!).
So together with a colleague, we’re drawing up an overall brief of the Microsoft Stack, as it relates to consumers (see note below). The aim of this isn’t to show full technical details for each product; rather it’s to be able to give people a taste, and expose them to parts of it that they may have absolutely no idea about.
Note: This is not going to becovering the development type items (such as SQL Server, Visual Studio) or operating systems (Windows OS, Windows Server OS).
A very good resource for seeing the overall landscape is https://app.jumpto365.com/ by Matt Wade and Niels Gregers Johansen. We’re going to be using the categories that they’ve grouped the applications into, for ease of use.
These will be posted as individual entries here, so as to form a series of posts.
I was lucky enough to be invited, as part of work, to join Microsoft at the London Paddington campus for a day focused on BVM (Business Value Management) for Dynamics. I was one of 30 or so people from several different Microsoft Partners that attended (saw other people I knew already, and made some good new connections).
Apologies that this wasn’t posted up last week – there were several factors that delayed writing this post, including our current kitchen installation. For those who haven’t ever undertaken to get a full new kitchen installed, be warned – it’s NOTHING like any other project (technical or non-technical) that you may have done previously. Any time forecast needs to be at least doubled, if not tripled. Thankfully we’re almost at the end of ours.
The day was structured well. It included some presentations (of course), but at more of a relaxed rate. There were challenges that we needed to work through, based around being involved in an airplane crash (kudos to the people who insisted they’d be able to walk through the snow at 5 miles an hour!)
The chart below shows the overall framework for working out what’s needed for each major stakeholder group
The aim is to fill it in (obviously). Some of the vertical items may overlap or be similar (eg reducing costs will generally cause an increase in revenue).
By inputting the different parts of this, we can concisely set out exactly what we’re aiming to do, how we’re aiming to do it, how we’ll measure the success of it, and what we are proposing to use to do it. It’s quite high-level, but at the same time very holistic, and can then serve as the blueprint for further detailed information.
Microsoft presented several case studies that they’ve been directly involved in using this model, and discussions took place as to how it can benefit the project.
Somewhat of a mouthful of a title, but well worth it! Not that I managed to find this on my own – this is courtesy of Gus Gonzalez, who’s a multi year Microsoft MVP.
This tip is wonderful – navigation can be difficult and annoying at times (remember when it was possible to just navigate to the previous page by hitting the backspace key?). It’s a good way to be able to swiftly move between records, though is only available in D365 Unified Interface. It’s definitely a good item to be able to mention to help with the adoption of the UI.
Without further ado!
Hopefully this helps you become even more efficient in your system usage
As part of my research into Portals and Forms, I’ve reached out to my channels for recommendations of where I could go to find literature, tutorials, etc.
It’s by Megan Walker (surprise surprise! – after all, it’s all about building the brand), who’s a Microsoft MVP in Business Applications.
Lots of amazing material there, which I’m currently wading through.
She also has a YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChUZXzskYml6q7IFn0VfI7w. I’ve only managed to set up a queue for those videos that I’d like to see, which hopefully I’ll be able to find some time for soon.
I’d highly recommend you to take a look if you’re interested
We’ve all been there. Trying to decide if we can use features that are standard as part of the product, or if we need to custom develop (program) them.
There are basic principles to this, of course. Microsoft itself is (slowly) pushing the No/Low code principle, rather than heavy development. The PowerPlatform supports this, and allows for ‘citizen developers’ as they are known.
Incidentally take a look at https://vimeo.com/280635091#t=3060sfrom MS Inspire 2018, where they showcase someone who did exactly this at London Heathrow Airport
There are times when it’s impossible to exist without custom functionality. Complex requirements and projects will inevitably take you down that route.
I’ve had a recent scenario where I was performing an initial investigation into their D365 environment. They’ve had work done by a D365 implementer previously, including some custom solutions.
However upon investigating, I immediately found the following – there was a custom entity for Addresses!!! Hold on – yes, I just did say that.
Address on the main contact/account forms were using the native fields. Any additional addresses were being saved into this custom entity (which didn’t have any more fields than the system entity), and then being linked to the contact/account.
I even made sure to confirm the default system Address entity by spinning up a CE trial and checking it out (I didn’t have any vanilla instances at the time I could use).
This is crazy. Even if you’re implementing a custom solution, you should use the system provided entities rather than re-create them yourself! It makes life much easier for the client, both in terms of using the system and understanding it, as well as from a data flow perspective.
Note: Microsoft actually enforce this in PowerApps – they’re restricted functionality so that you’re not able to duplicate the account or contact entities through a PowerApps
So the lesson to take out of this is to always use the default system functionality where possible, and don’t create your own entities that do exactly the same thing!
They sometimes reference in material in other locations, such as websites and blogs. Therefore it’s a good place to start to expand knowledge of areas that are being talked about.
It’s even possible to submit your own tip if you have one (something on my list of things to do – just got to find the right one!), or ask a question which they then may answer
