CDS Virtual Entities with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

Hello the Community,

In this article, I will talk about a new feature that will be in GA with the version 10.0.12 of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, coming in July 2020.

During MBAS 2020 in May, Microsoft already presented this new feature. I was really wondering how it could work well, especially since we already have the CDS DualWrite in terms of sync CDS with Finance and Operations Data. But you will see that it’s here to achieve completely different use cases and the configuration is very simple. How can you access in the Common Data Service, data coming from an external data sources like here D365 F&O without to sync it. How can you achieve that in order to use this Data like in a PowerApps Portal with the Supply Chain Management template, PowerApps CanvasApp or even PowerAutomate. Let’s jump in !

Dynamics365Aurélien ClereJuly 1, 2020CDS, VirtualEntities Comments

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Reporting : DataLake and PowerBI Dataflow

Hello the community !

New article for you about a Technical Architecture optimized for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations about Reporting purpose - BI.

Here I will present with Azure Data Lake and PowerBI Dataflow how you can deliver a global Datawarehouse for your ERP D365F&O and also CDS or other data sources ; how you can achieve to propose an easy & comprehensive DATA model for end-users (business users) in order to let them built their own report in PowerBI Desktop….

Expense Management with AI Builder for Dynamics 365 F&O

One of the fundamental challenges with artificial intelligence is that it has historically been out of reach for the many. With limited access to highly sought after resources, drawn out development times, compounded with the added complexity of needing special purpose infrastructure to facilitate the AI development process, there has understandably been various barriers of entry for the broader user base to harness the types of capabilities that fall under the AI domain.

AI Builder is part of Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to democratize AI, empowering users of all skill levels to build, train, and publish AI models in a no-code, guided, point and click environment. It’s now in Global availability state, anyone can infuse AI within their business applications with PowerApps, or add intelligence to automated work processes with PowerAutomate, especially like in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations use cases !

For example, do you have the idea of an employee being able to just quickly take a picture of his expense report without having to recreate all the elements in your ERP? AI Builder scans the expense report, with approval to his/her manager and all this generates the elements automatically in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, magic isn't it? Let’s have a look !

Dynamics365, PowerAutomateAurélien ClereMay 5, 2020AI, PowerAutomate Comments

Automate your tests for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

Automate your tests of all your business process before an upgrade or just before a rollout of a new package in production as ever been a mirage for you ? Well… in all of my previous experiences of deploying Dynamics 365, I have always had several questions about this. However the saving of time and therefore of money is stratospheric ! Believe me, spending your time testing all of your ERP processes every month before a monthly update, or even before a rollout is clearly still the majority of cases in companies. I will therefore demonstrate in this article all the capabilities possible with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations to generate automatic test cases and the interests of each. Take a break, a coffee before reading more, it will be long but rich in information….

Dynamics365, AzureAurélien ClereApril 20, 2020Test, ATL, SysTestFramework, RSAT, DevOps Comments

LCS API Database Movement with PowerAutomate

As a Technical Consultant for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations projects, you are surely using Lifecycle Services portal in order to manage your environments (package deployment, upgrade, database movement, monitoring etc…). As you maybe know we have now for few months an API to call LCS with just few methods but still… it’s a massive improvement because it will help you to setup automatic refresh database from production to an UAT Instance !

Here in this article, and also with my Github samples Flows, I will share with you some examples to call this API without any code in few minutes with PowerAutomate. Let’s go !

Dynamics365, PowerAutomateAurélien ClereApril 14, 2020LCS, ALM Comments

PowerApps Portal with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

If you have seen my previous article about Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations with the CDS Dual-Write, I especially highlighted that this feature will be used in order to have a bidirectional sync between F&O and CRM of Dynamics 365. BUT, we can achieve a lot more now, since all DATA for F&O can be available of course in the Common Data Service (CDS), we can NOW use PowerApps Portal to bring a private or public Web Portal on top of your loved ERP. Indeed, if you have been like me as an AX 2012 Consultant, you are still wondering how I will replace my Enterprise Portal that was part of the solution with a Sharepoint. So here we are, we can now do that in a faster & easier way, thanks to the PowerPlatform ! Let’s deep in….

Dynamics365Aurélien ClereApril 7, 2020PowerApps, PowerApps Portal, CDS Comment

Bring Dynamics365 ERP and CRM together with CDS Dual-Write !

Dual Write is the magic that Microsoft has created that allows near real time syncing of data between CDS and F&O auto-magically! Dual Write provides a tightly coupled near-real time and bi-directional integration between Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and Dynamics 365 Sales. Once an entity is enabled for Dual Write, any create, update change in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations results in writes, in near-real time, to the Common Data Service and vice versa.

For example, a change in the Customer entity in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is reflected in near-real time in the Account entity in the Dynamics 365 Sales and vice-versa. While all this happens with minimal setup, an advanced user interface is provided with drag and drop mapping and transformation capabilities for all your customization needs. Quite magical!

Let’s jump in !

Dynamics365Aurélien ClereMarch 18, 2020FinOps, CDS Comments

Azure Data Lake with Dynamics365 FinOps - CustomerInsights and Power Platform !

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is a set of capabilities dedicated to big data analytics, built on Azure Blob storage

Data Lake Storage Gen2 makes Azure Storage the foundation for building enterprise data lakes on Azure. Designed from the start to service multiple petabytes of information while sustaining hundreds of gigabits of throughput, Data Lake Storage Gen2 allows you to easily manage massive amounts of data.

I will show you the benefits for this type of this model based on the CDM (Common Data Model) among Dynamics 365 FinOps, AI with Customer Insights and Power Platform.

Dynamics365Aurélien ClereFebruary 18, 2020DataLake, Azure, PowerBI Comments

Dynamics 365 FinOps Demand Forecasting with Azure Machine Learning

Demand forecasting is used to predict independent demand from sales orders and dependent demand at any decoupling point for customer orders. The enhanced demand forecast reduction rules provide an ideal solution for mass customization.

To generate the baseline forecast, a summary of historical transactions is passed to a Microsoft Azure Machine Learning service that is hosted on Azure. Because this service isn't shared among users, it can easily be customized to meet industry-specific requirements. You can use Supply Chain Management to visualize the forecast, adjust the forecast, and view key performance indicators (KPIs) about forecast accuracy.

Dynamics365Aurélien ClereJanuary 2, 2020AML, FinOps Comment

Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations with Power Automate !

With version 10 of Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations, fifteen (15) application events from Procure to Pay and Quote to Cash are now available out of the box in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. They promise to be a powerful addition enabling self service for certain events, and better cloud integration by triggering an integration instead of periodically checking if something had been posted. Possible business scenarios are infinite and we will cover this with Power Automate (aka Microsoft Flow) in this article !

Dynamics365Aurélien ClereDecember 18, 2019FinOps, PowerAutomateComment