Archive for category: Blog

Automation has become a necessity in every type of business and Dynamics 365 CRM is one of the most preferred automation systems implemented by various organizations around the globe. But its success totally depends upon its users, which leads us to the question, how to make the Dynamics 365 portal good so that adoption is high.

Dynamics 365 Portal Best Practices

• Brand it- make it look good. ​​

Your portal can be branded!

While it was a complex activity earlier, with bootstrap framework becoming the standard, your portal is responsive and views fantastically on devices too.

Use your brand colors and fonts to make as close to your Org. brand guidelines. The bottom line – Give it the same detailed attention as your Internet-facing site!

• Give it a Title and a Name

The simplest name is to continue with the Microsoft nomenclature – Portal. But, give it some thought – this is the site that is going to be used by your existing esteemed clientele. You need to title it as you want them to perceive the Portal. A few other simple name options – Engage, Connect, Collaborate!

• Update the URL

Give your portal a URL that your clients can relate your Org with. A “microsoftdynamicscrmportal” or “powerappportal” should be updated to your org. domain name

Create a subdomain on your DNS and if there is consensus, link it to the Internet site as a database portal

This portal, linked to your Dynamics database will potentially hold secure information, so remember to encrypt the data via an SSL certificate

• Simplify and channelize Authentication and Authorization​

While there are several modes of authentication mechanisms available, choose one or more as required, which your clients may need and more importantly, which you and your team can maintain and troubleshoot with time

Simplify the registration process and sending of invitations – out of the box it’s cumbersome ​!

Set up the right roles and provide authorized gated access to teams to access correct and specific data shared with them.

• Consolidate all knowledge – forums, KB articles, manuals and guides​

Use the Portal to share collateral with your clients – be it documents, Live Help, helpdesk Support, or discussion forums.

Consolidate all knowledge – forums, KB articles, manuals, and guides. The

Search is a great feature, but it can only work if the content is one place. ​

• Drive Adoption internally​

Train and educate your team so that they are enabled and realize how the portal can increase their productivity.

Once the content is surfaced, it will be your team whose usage and constant reference to the portal and data sharing on it will bring the customer to it.

• Portals are work in progress

Customer experience is about choice. Portals are an extension and provide an alternate mode of engagement. It is not a substitute.

Kick-off the project go Live with a basic portal and use anyone data share with your clients – like any below and then keep adding more

• Case creation Or
• Invoice sharing Or
• Knowledgebase Or
• Project data Or
• Invoices

Get feedback from your clients and scale-up.

Lastly, add analytics and identify Dynamics 365 portal traffic to find out what is working and what needs to change!

• Implementing duplicate detection from the Dynamics 365 portal
• Activating Inactive users

Situation

• The Portal Contact form was being used by Admin for managing contacts to Create, Edit & Deactivate from Portal.
• When new Portal contacts were created from the portal, Duplicate records were getting created despite the Duplicate Detection rule on Dynamics. It, however, showed a system message which was not understandable.
• If the new user to be created was an Inactive user, he needed to be activated rather than be created.

Challenges

• Liquid code could not be used since it could not be triggered on change event of the email address field.
• Defining a custom solution which worked in parallel with existing features.

Requirement

• To detect and restrict duplicate contacts getting created from the portal and provide an appropriate message there.
• If contact is “Inactive” in CRM, rather than create a new contact, the same should be activated.

Solution

Since the duplicate detection Rule on dynamics could not be extended to the Portal, a custom process to be created using JavaScript and Liquid code  –

• JavaScript to trigger the event of the Create Page
• Liquid to query data on another Page.

1. The Redirect web template:
   • Go to Portals ➤ Web Templates and Create Web Template “My Custom Web Template”, paste the below code in source property

     {% fetchxml contacts %}

     <fetch version=”1.0″ output-format=”xml-platform” mapping=”logical” distinct=”false” count=”1″ returntotalrecordcount=”true” page=”1″ >

          <entity name=”contact”>

          <attribute name=”contactid” />

          <attribute name=”statuscode” />

         <filter type=”and”>

            <condition attribute=”emailaddress1″ value=”{{request.params[’emailId’]}}” operator=”eq”/>     

         </filter>

       </entity>

     </fetch>

     {% endfetchxml %}{  

       {% if contacts.results.total_record_count > 0 %}

       “value”: [{  

           “contactid”: “{{contacts.results.entities[0].contactid}}”,

           “statuscode”: “{{contacts.results.entities[0].statuscode.label}}”}      

       ]

        {% else %}

        “value”: []

        {% endif %}

       }

2. Its Page template
   
   Go to Portals ➤ Page Templates and create page template named “My Custom page template”, Website->Select your website, Type ➤ Web Template, Web Template ➤ “My Custom Web Template”, Entity Name ➤ Web Page(adx_webpage). Click Save.
3. Its Web page so that it can be accessed.

Go to Portals->Web Pages and create web page give any name “My Custom Web Page”, Website ➤Your website, Parent Page->Home, Partial URL ➤”any name of your choice”, Page Template➤ “My Custom page template”, Publishing State->Published and click Save.

4. On the Create Contact page – add the below JavaScript to trigger on the change event of the Email ID Text field.

Go to Portal ➤ Web Pages->Open your page and click on a web template and paste the below code in source property of web template and click Save.

Note: If you are using default web template then create a new one

  <script type=”text/javascript”>   

      $(document).ready(function () {  

   $(“#emailaddress1”).change(function() {

       $(‘.notifications’).remove()        

      var httpReq = CreateHTTPRequest(“GET”, “/mycustomwebpage/?emailId=” + $(“#emailaddress1”).val(), false);

        httpReq.send(null);

        if (httpReq.status == 200) {

      var contactId = JSON.parse(httpReq.responseText).value;

            if(contactId.length > 0)

            {

                if(contactId[0].statuscode == “Inactive”)

                {

                   $(‘.breadcrumb’).append(‘<div class=”notifications” style=”display: block;”> <div class=”notification alert alert-danger error alert-dismissible” role=”alert”><button type=”button” class=”close” data-dismiss=”alert” aria-label=”Close”><span aria-hidden=”true”>×</span></button><span class=”fa fa-exclamation-triangle” aria-hidden=”true”></span> Note: This contact already exists in CRM, in InActive mode. Click <a href=”/updatecontact?id=’+ contactId[0].contactid +'” target=”_blank”>here</a> to open the record and Activate.</div></div>’); 

                   $(‘#InsertButton’).attr(‘disabled’,true); 

                }

                else{

                   $(‘.breadcrumb’).append(‘<div class=”notifications” style=”display: block;”> <div class=”notification alert alert-danger error alert-dismissible” role=”alert”><button type=”button” class=”close” data-dismiss=”alert” aria-label=”Close”><span aria-hidden=”true”>×</span></button><span class=”fa fa-exclamation-triangle” aria-hidden=”true”></span> Note: This contact is already exists in CRM</div></div>’); 

                   $(‘#InsertButton’).attr(‘disabled’,true);

                }              

            }

            else{ $(‘#InsertButton’).attr(‘disabled’,false); }       

        }

        });

      });

      CreateHTTPRequest = function (action, url, async) {

    try {

        var httpReq = new XMLHttpRequest();

        httpReq.open(action, url, async);

        httpReq.setRequestHeader(“Accept”, “application/json”);

        httpReq.setRequestHeader(“Content-Type”, “application/json; charset=utf-8”);

    }

    catch (ex) {

        throw ex;

    }

    return httpReq;

}

</script>

Note: In the above script change the click here to open and the activate link to your edit contact page. Steps to create Edit contact page below.

• Create Edit contact page to activate contact on portal
• Create a new web Contact form in CRM. Fields
  • Full Name
  • Account
  • Work Email address
  • Contact details
• The update contact form on Portal
  • Go to Portals ➤ Entity Forms ➤ New and Create new entity form for update Contact. Select Entity name ➤ Contact, Form Name as created above in Dynamics, Select mode as Edit, Record Source type ➤ Query String, Record ID Query String Parameter  ➤ id. Website ➤ Select your website.
  • In Additional setting ➤ Action Button Configuration ➤ Actions ➤ Click on +Activate
  • Go to Portals ➤Web Pages ➤ New and Create a web page for update contact entity form.

You can add some emails and templates to be triggered on any changes to be tracked!

Also, check out Contact Management from Dynamics 365 Portal – Part 1

Dynamics 365 Portals

Dynamics 365 Portals provide multiple authentication mechanisms and features which are very easy to configure. Having said that, rather than allow all modes [which may ultimately result in clutter and confusion] answers to a quick survey of the below questions should be collated when finalizing them.

1. Who are the Potential portal users – Internal employees and Partners who are available as dynamics contacts or prospects and customers who are external?
2. Which mechanism would make it easier for them to login?
3. Do you have the required manpower and systems to manage any requests/ issues which may be reported?
4. What is the information/ collaboration expected on the Portal?

While authentication is the gateway for a user to access the portal, the below 2 configurations are equally important to be set up for user access.

Basic set up for a Dynamics 365 Portal User

1. Contact set up: In a portal application, an authenticated portal user is associated with either a Dynamics 365 Contact or System User. The default portals configuration is contact-based. The contact can be created
2. Web Role: Portal users must be assigned to a web role to gain permissions beyond unauthenticated users.

Authentication

Portal users can sign in ether with authentication provided by Dynamics 365 contact membership provider or with an external account based on ASP.NET Identity.

Local authentication: Local authentication is the common forms-based authentication uses the contact records of a Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement organization for authentication.

External authentication: External authentication is provided by the ASP.NET Identity API. In this case, account credentials and password management are handled by a third-party identity provider. This includes OpenID based providers such as Yahoo! and Google and OAuth 2.0 based providers such as Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft. Users sign up to the portal by selecting an external identity to register with the portal. After it is registered, an external identity has access to the same features as a local account.

Options available

1. Windows Authentication
2. Windows Live ID Web Authentication
3. Form Authentication
   • External (social provider) user sign-in through third-party identity providers
   • Open registration

The Dynamics 365 Portals login screens

Sign in by using a local identity or external identity

Sign up by using a local identity or external identity

Redeem an invitation code manually

Dynamics 365 Portal Features

1. Email address confirmation
   1. Authenticated users manage their user accounts through the Security navigation bar of the profile page. The profile page is also where the user is reminded to confirm their email address by requesting a confirmation email to be sent to their email account.
2. Password recovery and Password reset
   1. Returning visitors who require a password reset (and have previously specified an email address on their user profile) can request a password reset token to be sent to their email account
3. Redeem invitation
   1. Both local and external account registration can use invitation codes for sign up, as well as the email confirmation workflow. These invitations can be generated and sent out from Dynamics by permission users by email
   2. Redeeming an invitation code allows a registering visitor to be associated with an existing contact record that was prepared in advance specifically for that visitor.
   3. With open registration enabled, however, users are not required to provide an invitation code to complete the sign-up process.
4. Two-factor authentication with email
   1. The two-factor authentication feature increases user account security by requiring proof of ownership of a confirmed email in addition to the standard local or external account sign-in.
   2. A user trying to sign in to an account that has two-factor authentication enabled is sent a security code to the confirmed email associated with their account. The security code must be submitted to complete the sign-in process
5. User Lockout
   1. When a certain number of failed password attempts are detected in a short period of time, the user account is locked for a period of time. The user can try again after the lockout period elapses

Meanwhile, another interesting related information about the portal which supersedes authentication is that while the Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement Portal is public when provisioned and accessible by anyone from any computer, now you can restrict access to your portal from a list of IP addresses.

For example, a government organization might want to surface their content only within their corporate network. A commercial organization might want to display the portal only when it is published and not while it is in development to avoid any data leak.

When a request to the portal is generated from any user, their IP address is evaluated against the allow list. If the IP address is not on the list, the portal displays a web page with an HTTP 403 status code!

While each Organization must find its own trigger, I’ve laid out some common underlying set of reasons which resonate across Organizations 

1) Productivity

• Repeated and redundant Tasks of creating, updating and maintaining data, especially when it is worked on by multiple groups within and outside the organization is done away with.  
• Setting notifications and alerts on relevant Portal activity, ensures users are informed of updates pertaining to their concerned areas. 
• Effective use of Dashboards can showcase synopsis of updated information 
• Allowing external users to create, update and view requisite information – data and documents, using inbuilt application validations and security, saves the Organization time and effort consumed to update it on the System from the shared location

2) Cost-effective 

• Did you know that you have a free portal? * Every Organization who has 10 Enterprise licenses has a Portal which can be used for Collaboration and Service 
• Its hosted for free on the Microsoft cloud – which means that there is no monthly hosting charge 
• It comes with an inbuilt SSL certificate and a domain name– so no hassle of any purchase or renewal there too 
• The only cost is what it takes to build and configure it. Provided that the required skillsets on Html, JavaScript, and Liquid are available, adding pages and content are completely do-able tasks

3) Inherent Integration

• The Portal has seamless Integration with all CRM objects and entities. No external tools or services are needed for the communication
• Real-time data updates and transfers make it an extended arm of the core CRM application.  

4) Secure sharing 

• Multiple authenticating options – LinkedIn, Facebook, Azure AD, etc. are available along with the ability to implement Single Sign-on with O365 enable sharing data from secure CRM   
• Being equipped with SSL, data transfer over the web transfer over an Encrypted pipe which is backed up with Microsoft certifications  

5) Real-time 

• While the Organization can easily only surface specific data which it wants to from within CRM, real-time updates make it seem like working on the same database with 2 front ends.   

6) Choice of interaction 

• The portal allows Organizations to provide an alternative mode of communication to its Customers, Employees and Partners. Take an example of a Customer Service department being able to service not merely through Email, Chat and Phone, but now through the web too.
• Time can be booked for Field Service Visits and Pre–Sales meetings from within the Portal itself and directly integrate with the CRM Resource Board and Target achievements, making it a great choice or Self- servicing 

7) Transparency 

• Being real-time, Sales and Customer Service Organizations are benefitted. Be it the closure of Opportunities or meeting and beating SLAs, everything can be easily recorded and shared transparently. 

8) Always on 

• Portals come in build with the Microsoft assurance of being 99.99% on. 

9) Marketing, Analytics, and Insights 

• Quickly link your Portal web pages to Google Analytics to understand adoption and effectiveness.  
• Link to the Portal from your corporate website for users to Login to create a seamless experience of viewing secure information pertaining to their engagement only 
• Display Events and Announcements on your Portal to inform your niche audience about the most important happenings, achievements, and Offers 
• Understand if your Portal draws an audience to your knowledge base, your Shared Invoices, Project Status/ timesheets, or available field service schedules.

10) Choose your Audience and Content 

• Send invitations to your niche clients and partners and let them view and add to your data store. You can roll out the portal in phases and expose data as its ready. 
• Grant roles in CRM to your Portal Users and allow them to access only to specifically surfaced data

If you are an organization using Dynamics 365, and you have identified that the time is right to invest in a Dynamics 365 portal *– do it now. Your free to use Portal is lying wasted!

*Check the blog “Introduction to the Dynamics 365 portal” 

**check the blog “The right time to invest in the dynamics portal”