Getting to know "Biz Apps"

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Almost 4 years ago, I was introduced to the world of Dynamics 365 CRM and the Power Platform. Discovering that the work I would be doing exposed me to the inner workings of many different businesses in many different sectors, rather than only the company I would be working for, was a very attractive trait of this career path for me. The idea of a web-based application took a while to sink in for me, but the benefits of a flexible, cloud hosted system that you can build up like a box of Lego just sells itself. Most of my work has been using Dynamics and Power Apps on top of Dataverse. This is described as a "Data Service" rather than a "Database" as it is rich in metadata and has layers of security embedded in. One difference between Dynamics and Power Apps, is that Power Apps can be built to work on top of a different "Data Layer" i.e. not Dataverse, perhaps SQL Server, another CRM or even a simple excel sheet. 

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The role of the Consultant

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Throughout the time I have worked with Power Apps and Dynamics 365 CRM, I can see the huge demand for a "Consultant" type role, who can help to guide others to understand how a digital transformation or adopting Dynamics/Power Apps can benefit their business tremendously. Automating business processes and reducing the time agents or users need to complete tasks has a profound, positive effect on both sales and revenue. Despite knowing this, the main role of the Consultant is actually implement it, rather than focus on pre-sales. A Consultant should be knowledgeable enough to workshop client requirements and work with them to understand and design the best fit solution for their business.

One of the first clarifications made in a first meeting, is the difference between Power Apps and Dynamics 365. Both are web based, "Model-Driven" applications that are hosted on the cloud and are accessed through a browser on any internet connected device. Dynamics 365 CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or Dynamics 365 CE (Customer Engagement) are a range of Power Apps which come pre-configured by Microsoft to be used in a certain way. Underneath Dynamics 365, you get products such as Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service and more. Microsoft have taken the "Lego" pieces and put them together for you so that allegedly, they are ready to go "out-of-the-box". This is rarely the case, and some level of customisation is always needed to meet specific business requirements. On the other hand, Power Apps are applications that can be built from scratch, i.e. the maker starts with the Lego in pieces and can put them together however they so choose. Power Apps also includes 2 other types of apps - Canvas Apps and Portal Apps. Canvas Apps are flashy and designed to work well for smaller jobs or tasks that would most likely be performed on a phone or tablet. Portal Apps, or as they are now called Power Pages, essentially allow makers to build a front customer facing "website" or more accurately, "web portal" to allow interaction with both customers and employees.

The Power Platform is then a range of tools that can be used to extend your Power Apps, or indeed other software that a business might be using, and even connect them to third party software using "Connectors". Tools found here include Power BI Reporting, Chatbots, Power Automate and more. 

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So with this ever-growing sprawl of functionality Microsoft is providing, Consultants and Developers and Architects too, suddenly get labelled with types such as Power Platform xxxxx or Dynamics 365 CE xxxxx. In reality, unless you've been working with this for a very long time, the level of proficiency and knowledge into these areas usually vary from person to person and many different job titles and roles vary in what each company defines as that type of Consultant/Developer/Architect. You can go even further, with a Consultant not just being "Functional" (low-code orientated), but you can get a "Techno-Functional" Consultant, who is able to write a good level of pro code as well - sometimes referred to as "the dream Consultant". If I know how to use OData, PowerFx, FetchXML, SQL, manipulate FormXML, write JavaScript does that make me "Techno-Functional"?

 

My view and mentality here is learn it all, label it later.

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The "technical" side of things

 

​I enjoyed learning how to create solutions, customise components as required and manage them between sandbox and live environments. I actually learned to do this via the classic user interface first, before learning to use the maker portal. When a Consultant builds, there are many best practises to adhere to, mostly put out by Microsoft and widely accepted. One such practise is the "low-code" mentality. Depending on the project, the majority of functionality can be implemented without the need for any "pro code" to be used. This not only lowers the cost for both the partner company and the client's company, but allows what Microsoft call "Citizen Developers" to automate processes and webpage controls without needing the ability to write and deploy real code. There are definitely cases, more often for bigger companies and especially for enterprise level projects, where pro code such as JavaScript and C# are required to extend capabilities and integrate with other systems however. Back to low code, Microsoft do implement their own, more conserved languages that are not considered to be pro code, but are very useful to know as they enable you to use certain tools, such as Power Fx for Canvas Apps (and the new Power Fx field available in Model Driven Apps), FetchXML for querying data and "OData" for Power Automate and queries.

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Useful tools outside the box

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As a Consultant, you will be introduced to and start using other little tools that don't live inside Dynamics. The "Level up for Dynamics 365/Power Apps" browser extension is fantastic. It allows you to manipulate the UI to show you information you'd take longer to find out otherwise. For example, it can show you the logical names of elements on the page without the need to see a solution. It can show you option set values, unlock read-only fields. More powerful features include the ability to clone records, and my personal favourite - impersonate. This allows you to impersonate another user; now this works to an extent, but not always fully. Using this last feature, you can test if another user can do something based on security roles or can more easily diagnose a problem without needing to login as that user in another browser, or get that user into a screen-sharing call.

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The most well known is the XrmToolBox. This is a downloadable desktop application which comes with storable login credentials for different tenants and a library of useful tools made by various people around the world who have worked for years in this area and have the know-how to create something useful that might be long-winded via Microsoft's out of the box methods. I have probably managed to use over 50 different tools by now, but I will mention some of my favourites as I have used them extensively due to their usefulness, easier to use UI/UX and as they speed up my work.

Bulk Workflow Execution Tool - this one is fantastic for running a workflow against multiple records on a table. You simply need to select the workflow and the tool will thus know which table you are pointing at. Then you select a view for the records you want to update, either a system or a personal view, and choose how many records to process in batch (default 200). This comes in useful especially as the maximum number of records you can view in one page is 250 when looking at a View in Dynamics (at least before the April 2024 update).

SQL 4 CDS - Mark Carrington's brainchild, this tool allows you to run SQL against Dataverse to query both data and metadata. This tool technically allows you to view and update data without logging into the app in your browser if you know what you're doing. In this way, it can bypass UI controls in order to update a field (or column) directly. Seeing the efficacy and convenience this tool provided, it prompted me to learn how to use SQL and I'm now confident in up to intermediate level SQL for querying. In addition, it allows you to look at the tables that Microsoft hides even from Advanced Find and solutions, such as the intersect table for a N:N relationship. It teaches you more about what's "under the hood" of Dataverse.

View Layout Replicator - this tool has undoubtedly saved people around the world many hours of time, by allowing makers to copy the format of one view onto other views. This feature is not available in either the classic editor or the maker portal as of yet.

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The wider picture

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Eventually my knowledge grew wider here as I gained experience in using the wider M365 space. Starting with the M365 admin centre and learning how to utilise and manage Users, M365 roles, the different M365 group types and provisioning licenses directly or through an third party vendor, I was also exposed to using the other admin centres such as Security and Compliance, Exchange, SharePoint and Teams.

Furthermore, Dynamics 365 and Power Apps can be extended through the use of third party products provided by "ISVs". Knowledge of when to use and how to implement at least some of these, especially the more widely used products are an important article in a Consultant's box of tools. I have extensive experience with DocumentsCorePack, Adobe Acrobat Sign, and some experience with DocuSign and ClickDimensions.