Unified Interface Lightspeed Navigation

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

Knowledge on Portals (& Forms)

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.

One of the responses that I got was to check out https://meganvwalker.com/blog/, which is really great and helpful.

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

When not to custom code

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=3060s from 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!

Useful links for checking Address features

CRM Tips

There are many places out there with tips for CRM. Lots of them are indeed good.

One of the main sites that I go to is https://crmtipoftheday.com/. They have a searchable archive, and are really quite amazing at times.

They also have a good logo (importance of marketing):

And of course a Twitter feed – https://twitter.com/crmtipoftheday?lang=en (yet another thing on my list of items to get up and running)

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

Microsoft MVP’s

Once people start getting exposed to the Microsoft community, they hear about MVP’s. What are these, you may ask? Well in a nutshell MVP stands for ‘Most Valuable Professional’.

Microsoft even has its own website about this – https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/overview. The definition of an MVP as listed there is:

“Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the “bleeding edge” and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies. They have very deep knowledge of Microsoft products and services, while also being able to bring together diverse platforms, products and solutions, to solve real world problems. MVPs make up a global community of over 4,000 technical experts and community leaders across 90 countries/regions and are driven by their passion, community spirit, and quest for knowledge. Above all and in addition to their amazing technical abilities, MVPs are always willing to help others – that’s what sets them apart.”

Note: MVP’s are not employed by Microsoft – in fact if an MVP joins Microsoft, they have to give up the MVP status

MVP status also needs to be renewed on an annual basis, though an MVP can change their MVP competency

To the ordinary person, MVP’s seem sometimes almost out of reach; hesitant to approach them or engage them. However, things should be almost to the contrary – a really good way of building your knowledge is to make friends with a few (or more) MVP’s. They won’t give you the answers, but will instead stretch your perception and challenge you.

There are no clear directions for becoming an MVP. The process isn’t quite shrouded in in secrecy, but there is nothing officially publicised by Microsoft (if you’ve tried searching the Web, you’ll have seen this). Good indicators are out there though. They include engaging with the community, helping others (and not just on company time), and be an expert on what you love and enjoy (and share that with others)

There’s a great webcast by Mark Smith (aka ‘nzguy365’). If you haven’t yet come across him, I’d suggest to check out his website (https://www.nz365guy.com/) and his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaqAVm5Al3zapsAFOQcwbqA)

On it he has a regular ‘MVP Monday’ where he interviews other MVP’s. He’s also just started a series about how you could become an MVP yourself!

As mentioned in a previous post (https://thecrm.ninja/2019/05/07/dynamics-community/) the CRM UG meetings are great places to meet MVP’s, as inevitably there are at least several attending. I’ve met some great MVP’s through attending the London Chapter, and have been trying to engage directly with them to expand my own skills and knowledge. I’m deeply appreciative to all of them for the time that they’ve given me, whether by phone, chat or email. It’s not just about their knowledge (which of course is amazing) but also how they approach problems and solve them.

Seeing D365 through fresh eyes

Today I had the opportunity to present to a technical graduate intake program about Microsoft Dynamics. In fact, it wasn’t just about D365, but about Microsoft in general.

Having spent a few days researching what I was going to talk about, I gained fresh appreciation for the journey that Microsoft has undergone, and where it could be going to.

As we all know, the landscape has changed beyond measure from when things started as a simple add-in for Outlook. When CRM 1.0 was launched as a standalone application, it was purely on-premise. Since then Microsoft has iterated through multiple versions, offering a cloud solution, and then flipping the product around so that the cloud solution is the primary product (we all know scenarios that still require on-premise, and it’s obviously annoying that on-prem is a release cycle behind at a minimum!).

Building out the additional capabilities, from F&O to Talent, AI to Forms, the full product stack really is now a wall-to-wall solution for clients, small to large. There are no other providers who can offered a single integrated solution (single sign on, same interface/GUI, etc).

It was rewarding to hear the questions asked in the session, and see how they were experiencing D365 for the first time 🙂

Although I’ve had much more time in the Dynamics sphere than the graduates, I’m experiencing my own firsts with D365. Be it PowerApps (shout out to Chris Huntingford – https://twitter.com/tattooedcrmguy for that) or Talent, I’m expanding my own knowledge and skillset. In doing so, I’m hoping to share that with others, to help them as well, and pay it forward

Training & Certifications

As many people know, it’s usually considered quite important to keep up to date with training and certifications. Sadly, although I’ve been doing the former, I’ve neglected the latter.

This is something that I’m now in the process of taking care of. Marvellously (where’s the sarcastic emoji when you need one!) Microsoft has now updated the curriculum. So most of the studying that I’ve done recently is now no longer applicable, and I need to re-do various things.

One of the best trainers that I’ve come across is Julian Sharp. Not only does he have one of the most impressive beards that I’ve ever seen across both devs and non-devs (see picture below, which isn’t up to date!), he’s been giving training for a LONG time. His approach is easy to follow, and although technical at times, is simple and clear to understand.

I’m currently enrolled in his MBP-900 Fundamentals course, which I’m thoroughly enjoying.

He also has a wonderful blog, located at https://ukcrm.wordpress.com/ . Take a look – it’s got some amazing resources published and linked on it

Another resource worth mentioning is Neil Parkhurst’s blog – https://neilparkhurst.com. When I started out recently on my learning and revision path, Neil’s site was extremely helpful with working out what I actually needed to take a look at

There are already a plethora of blogs and sites out there which have exam/revision content, so I’m not going to start my own (especially as I’m new to blogging).

Why Ninja?

Some people may ask why I’ve chosen the title of ‘Ninja’ for this blog?

There are several answers to the question 🙂

Firstly, I’m a keen amateur motorcyclist (aka ‘biker’). For the last 6 years, I’ve been riding a Kawasaki ZX9R (2002-F model) motorbike (I’ve had others prior to this model).

Stock picture

Mine is the same colour as the picture above, though there have been several tweaks that have been carried out on it (by previous owners as well as well as myself):

  • Suspension adjusted by BN Racing
  • R&G Heated Grips
  • R&G Race Crash Bungs
  • Upgraded brake pads
  • Scorpion exhaust
  • Reduced height undertray
  • Innovv K2 camera system (https://www.innovv.com/innovv-k2 )

Some performance tweaks have been carried out as well. The 0-60 stock time has been brought down, and there are less than a dozen cars in the world that can beat it! (Plenty of other motorbikes though)

Separately, I’ve also had an interest in Ninjutsu for many years (martial arts). Ninjas needed to have extensive knowledge in multiple areas, as they needed to work on their own for extensive lengths of time.

Being able to have the knowledge of multiple areas is vitally important to knowing Dynamics, as it allows us to be able to deliver correct solutions

Dynamics Community

For those who may be new to CRM, or possibly even those who have been working in with it for a while, I’d highly recommend to engage with the wider CRM Community.

I’ll freely admit that even though I’ve been working with CRM for around a decade or so, I’ve only started engaging with the community for just over a year. Of course I’ve been on the various forums (Technet, StackOverflow etc) to try to find solutions to problems and situations, but I haven’t really done much more.

This changed with attending Summit EMEA 2018 in Dublin.

I was exposed to a wider number of people in different roles, all of whom love CRM. I’ve also signed up to my local CRMUG (User Group) chapter here in London, and have tried to attend all of the events that they’ve had on.

As a result of this, I’ve met some amazing and wonderful people, and made some great contacts (including several MVP’s). My aim now is to continue engaging and learning, and hopefully be able to give something back to the Dynamics community.

I’d highly recommend to look up your local CRMUG chapter and join them. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn, and the people you can meet with to exchange ideas, concepts and thoughts!

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me! I’ve always considered starting a blog, and have now finally taken the steps to do so!

My aim is to be able to share some of the new technologies that are emerging, as well as my own research and challenges. I’d like to be able to give something back to the Dynamics Community, and help others along the way

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

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