Is Dynamics 365 data now “free” in Microsoft Teams?
At Microsoft Inspire 2021, an announcement was made on supporting Collaborative Apps scenarios in Teams at no extra cost. What does this mean for Dynamics 365 customers in terms of exposing their CRM data to wider audience? Continue reading Is Dynamics 365 data now “free” in Microsoft Teams? at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog...
Power Apps pricing drops by 50%
From October 2021 onwards, the Power Apps per app & per user plans will become very affordable. What’s behind this sudden drop in pricing for premium features? Continue reading Power Apps pricing drops by 50% at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Power Apps pricing drops by 50% – Jukka Niiranen It’s not that common to see Microsoft make an announcement where the price...
Virtual Dataverse tables with no code, via Connectors
How to bring external data from SQL Server tables into your Model-driven Power Apps with the new Virtual Connector Provider. This blog posts demonstrates how you can transparently combine the virtual & physical data onto a single screen for the users to work on. Continue reading Virtual Dataverse tables with no code, via Connectors at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Virtual Dataverse...
One-to-one relationships and forms within forms
Splitting data into multiple tables for security purposes and still providing a nice UX to work with business records on a single form. You can achieve both goals with Dataverse and Model-driven Power Apps! Continue reading One-to-one relationships and forms within forms at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog One-to-one relationships and forms within forms – Jukka Niiranen There’s...
Making Model-driven Power Apps visible (and hidden)
Managing end user access to Model-driven apps isn’t as straightforward as with Canvas apps. Here’s how the list of Power Apps actually works and what the “share” feature does & doesn’t do for Model-driven app. Continue reading Making Model-driven Power Apps visible (and hidden) at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Making Model-driven Power Apps visible (and...
Dataverse for Teams as your CoE platform
Power Platform Center of Excellence Starter Kit can now run inside a Microsoft Teams based environment. How can all those features fit in there? Continue reading Dataverse for Teams as your CoE platform at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Dataverse for Teams as your CoE platform – Jukka Niiranen If you’re serious about leveraging Power Platform low-code tools in your...
Democratizing code
Could low-code platforms like MS Power Platform democratize app development the same way Web 2.0 did it for social content creation and sharing? Here’s a collection of thoughts around how using less code may impact the business applications ecosystem. Continue reading Democratizing code at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Democratizing code – Jukka Niiranen Throughout my whole...
What will Power Fx mean for Model-driven Power Apps?
Will the common low-code programming language turn business app customization from GUI based tasks to a jungle of formulas, or will we just gain new powers? Continue reading What will Power Fx mean for Model-driven Power Apps? at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog https://jukkaniiranen.com/2021/03/what-will-power-fx-mean-for-model-driven-power-apps/ Blog Syndicated with Jukka Niiranen’s...
Account address capture & mapping with Power Apps
Using the new geospatial controls in Canvas apps to combine Azure Maps features with customer address data from Dataverse. Continue reading Account address capture & mapping with Power Apps at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Account address capture & mapping with Power Apps – Jukka Niiranen In the Power Apps team blog there was an announcement of the GA availability of...
Relational data on Model-driven forms, part 2: Form Component Control
How to make fields from a related table editable on a Power Apps Model-driven app form with the new “forms within forms” PCF control. This second part shows how to go beyond Quick View Forms and create a seamless data entry experience. Continue reading Relational data on Model-driven forms, part 2: Form Component Control at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog...
Relational data on Model-driven forms, part 1: Main Form Dialog
How to improve the user experience of Power Apps forms that reference data from multiple related tables in Microsoft Dataverse. In the first part we’ll explore the use of Quick View Forms together with Main Form Dialogs. Continue reading Relational data on Model-driven forms, part 1: Main Form Dialog at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Relational data on Model-driven forms, part 1:...
Year 2020 in Microsoft Business Applications
Here are the three most important topics that shaped the world of Power Platform and Dynamics 365 in the year 2020. Continue reading Year 2020 in Microsoft Business Applications at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Year 2020 in Microsoft Business Applications – Jukka Niiranen Recently I had the privilege to make my sixth appearance in the CRM Rocks podcast run by Markus Erlandsson....
How naming works in the Power Platform universe
Dataverse instead of CDS, tables instead of entities, Customer Insights instead of… Customer Insights. Don’t get too attached to any particular name in the Power Platform and BizApps world, as the only constant here is change. Continue reading How naming works in the Power Platform universe at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog How naming works in the Power Platform universe...
Make your Power Apps search experience more Relevant
5 tips for improving the search results that your Model-driven Power Apps or Dynamics 365 apps provide via the Relevance Search feature. Continue reading Make your Power Apps search experience more Relevant at Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Make your Power Apps search experience more Relevant – Jukka Niiranen Microsoft recently launched a brand new search experience for Model-driven...
Renewed Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide for October 2020
Microsoft has removed the Customer Engagement and FinOps buckets from their licensing documentation and now offers a single menu of Dynamics 365 apps. What should the CE professionals now identify themselves with in this new world? The post Renewed Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide for October 2020 appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Renewed Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide for...
How Microsoft Teams can scale up low-code: my 5 min explanation
Video of my presentation from Microsoft Ignite 2020 event: “How Power Platform Now Empowers All Microsoft Teams Users”. The post How Microsoft Teams can scale up low-code: my 5 min explanation appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog How Microsoft Teams can scale up low-code: my 5 min explanation – Jukka Niiranen At the virtual Microsoft Ignite 2020 event I had...
Microsoft Teams as a platform
Teams started out as a pure collaboration tool, but it’s now becoming a platform for no-code, low-code and pro-code business apps. Here’s an analysis of the potential impact Teams will have for Power Platform and Microsoft 365 application development. The post Microsoft Teams as a platform appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Microsoft Teams as a platform –...
There never was a “Microsoft Dataflex”
Due to trademark issues, Microsoft had to back off from their plans to rebrand CDS as “Dataflex”. How does something like this even happen? The post There never was a “Microsoft Dataflex” appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog There never was a “Microsoft Dataflex” – Jukka Niiranen There are a lot of benefits in taking long enough...
Dataflex: the day after
How did the outside world react to Microsoft’s announcement of Dataflex and what questions should we focus on after the dust settles from Inspire 2020. The post Dataflex: the day after appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Dataflex: the day after – Jukka Niiranen Microsoft dropped a big bomb this week with their Dataflex announcement. I don’t think I’ve...
Dataflex is more (and less) than CDS
The new name for Common Data Services is Dataflex Pro. What about the non-Pro version then? That’s where the story gets really interesting, with a Microsoft Teams licensing bundle that will allow the creation of Power Apps on top of relational data for pretty much all Office users in the world. The post Dataflex is more (and less) than CDS appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their...
Why Power Platform licensing is complex, part 4: the role of CDS
The Common Data Service is a foundational element of Power Platform, yet it isn’t an actual software product that would be sold directly on a per user basis. The history as well as the future of CDS make it a complex part of the licensing puzzle for customers – and Microsoft. The post Why Power Platform licensing is complex, part 4: the role of CDS appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s...
First impressions on Power Platform 2020 Release Wave 2
The low-code platform from Microsoft is becoming an increasingly mature foundation for business apps of all shapes and sizes, based on this latest roadmap. Uniting citizen dev & pro dev tools and offering pahts from Power Platform tools to Azure is a common theme in 2020 Wave 2. The post First impressions on Power Platform 2020 Release Wave 2 appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on...
PPAC is your new Dynamics 365 Admin Center
Power Platform Admin Center has taken the place of the old CRM era admin tools. Where are the features now and what’s different for Dynamics 365 admins? The post PPAC is your new Dynamics 365 Admin Center appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog https://jukkaniiranen.com/2020/07/ppac-is-your-new-dynamics-365-admin-center/ Blog Syndicated with Jukka Niiranen’s...
ALM for low-code: are we there yet?
Application Lifecycle Management often deals with tools and concepts from the pro-developer world that aren’t necessarily easy to apply as-is to the new world of low-code applications. What do you need to consider in your ALM strategy to align it with the citizen developer language and mindset? The post ALM for low-code: are we there yet? appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their...
Why Power Platform licensing is complex, part 3: light use scenarios
Whether you are using a particular feature on a daily basis or once a year doesn’t make a difference when it comes to the licensing requirements of Business Applications. Why is it so hard to offer a license type for the “light touch” scenarios? The post Why Power Platform licensing is complex, part 3: light use scenarios appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog...
Why Power Platform licensing is complex, part 2: multiplexing
The low-code tools are making it easier than ever to have data flowing between different systems and presented in a custom UI that may bypass the original enterprise applications altogether. However, this does not free you from the requirement of having a license for these systems. Welcome to the world of multiplexing. The post Why Power Platform licensing is complex, part 2: multiplexing… Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s...
The Social CRM that came to be: from 2010 to 2020
Looking back at what we expected from the emerging Social CRM landscape 10 years ago and what actually happened. A journey through Microsoft’s efforts in embedding social into the core features of what still used to be called Dynamics CRM. The post The Social CRM that came to be: from 2010 to 2020 appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog...
Why Power Platform licensing is complex, part 1: products
The changes in how Microsoft positions the various products in its portfolio are a common source of confusion and misunderstanding on Power Apps licensing. This blog post will examine the impact that the rise of Power Platform has had on the surrounding product offerings of Office 365 and Dynamics 365. The post Why Power Platform licensing is complex, part 1: products appeared first on Jukka… Continue Reading Jukka...
Time to go Forward with 2020 Wave 1 (webinar)
The Business Applications 2020 Release Wave 1 is here – and so is the first ever webinar for Team Forward Forever. Come and join us on Monday, April 6th! The post Time to go Forward with 2020 Wave 1 (webinar) appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Time to go Forward with 2020 Wave 1 (webinar) – Jukka Niiranen Our company, Forward Forever, is 1 month old today!🥳...
United at last: Dynamics 365 Dual-write goes GA
After nearly two decades of trying to bring Microsoft’s ERP and CRM systems closer together, there is now finally a standard mechanism for moving data in near real-time between Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps and Common Data Service. What does having ERP data available in CDS mean for business applications customization and new app experiences? The post United at last: Dynamics 365… Continue Reading Jukka...
CDS FAQ for the Power Apps Makers
10 questions and answers that you may have when approaching the Common Data Service as an app maker that doesn’t come from a Dynamics XRM background: connectors, solutions, security. The post CDS FAQ for the Power Apps Makers appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog CDS FAQ for the Power Apps Makers – Jukka Niiranen Microsoft is commited to making Common Data Service...
Price points of Power Platform
Microsoft doesn’t provide a single page from where to look up the prices for each of the license types for various products included under the Power Platform umbrella. Since this information is spread out and offered in various different formats, I decided to create a landing page with the core price info as well as links to documentation that’s been the source of this pricing information. The… Continue Reading Jukka...
Highlights from TechDays Finland 2020
The annual TechDays event offers a window into the broad Microsoft ecosystem. In addition to pure Power Platform topics, I also explored interesting sessions covering products like Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Teams and of course plenty of Azure – to understand how it all ties together. The post Highlights from TechDays Finland 2020 appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog...
Why we’re betting on the Power Platform
We have launched a new technology agency, Forward Forever, that focuses 100% on Microsoft Power Platform. Here is some background information about the analysis we’ve made of the market direction and 3 main factors that are driving the change. The post Why we’re betting on the Power Platform appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Why we’re betting on the Power...
Dynamics 365 & Power Platform licensing FAQ, February 2020
There are certain details in Microsoft’s licensing model for Dynamics 365 Team Members, Power Apps and environment capacity management that tend to raise questions among customers and partners. Here are answers to some of the licensing questions I’ve encountered during the past few months. The post Dynamics 365 & Power Platform licensing FAQ, February 2020 appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka...
New Team Member apps for Dynamics 365
In 2020 Release Wave 1, Microsoft is shipping new App Modules for Sales Team Member and Customer Service Team Member. Let’s look at the Early Access features and see what you can do with these apps, prior to the coming technical enforcement of Team Member access rights. The post New Team Member apps for Dynamics 365 appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog New Team Member...
My agenda for TechDays Finland 2020
How can you keep up with the broader Microsoft stack that should be leveraged when designing modern business solutions? In addition to blogs, courses, documentation, sometimes you just need to leave the comfort of your work desk and meet other experts in person. If you’re in Finland for TechDays 2020 on March 5-6, here are the top 3 sessions to catch from each key area: Power Platform, Data… Continue Reading Jukka...
Moving forward: my career retrospective 2000-2020
For the past 20 years, I have worked in many different roles around CRM data, processes, technology and people. As I’m now taking the next step as an entrepreneur and building a new company, I wanted to look back on my professional career and reflect on the experiences that have gotten me to where I am today. The post Moving forward: my career retrospective 2000-2020 appeared first on Jukka… Continue Reading Jukka...
Microsoft FY20 Q2 earnings and the rise of CDP
The revenue growth from Microsoft’s cloud business across Azure, Office and Dynamics is not slowing down, based on the recent quarterly results. But how will they keep up this momentum in the future? In the earnings call Satya Nadella talks about one key concept we can expect to hear a lot more in the future: Customer Data Platform (CDP). The post Microsoft FY20 Q2 earnings and the rise of CDP… Continue Reading Jukka...
First impressions on Power Platform 2020 Release Wave 1
On Jan 27th Microsoft published their plans for the upcoming 2020 Release Wave 1. We have a lot to digest once again, so here are my top picks from the Power Platform side of Microsoft Business Applications. If you don’t have time to read through 100+ pages, then maybe you should start checking out these features and work your way through the rest. The post First impressions on Power Platform… Continue Reading Jukka...
Get ready for licensing enforcement in Dynamics 365
The tricky part about ensuring your solution design is aligned with the planned set of licenses that the system users will be assign is that there is often no way to technically validate this. Many aspects of the MS Business Appliciations licensing model nuances have been implemented only on paper. Things are about to change, as we’ll see a specific access rights enforcement around the App… Continue Reading Jukka...
Using CSS color names for SVG icons in Power Apps Canvas app
In addition to standard color picker options, Power Apps also supports CSS color names to define the appearance of text and icons. To make these color names work in conjunction with our custom SVG icon library from the previous blog post, let’s also build a custom color picker for grouping and visualizing the available colors inside Canvas apps. The post Using CSS color names for SVG icons in… Continue Reading Jukka...
Using SVG icons in Power Apps Canvas apps
To create high quality visualizations for apps that can both scale to high resolutions as well as be dynamically manipulated via formulas, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) would be a great choice for Canvas Apps. While there is no native support for SVG features in Power Apps, you can bring in their XML definition and work with it to create a gallery to browse a complete library of icons… Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s...
Year 2019 in Microsoft Business Applications
What were this year’s top 3 most notable themes in the world of MS business applications? We saw the rise of the low-code movement, a number of changes in the already complex licensing model of Power Platform, and the evolution of Microsoft’s data story to help organizations make better use of new AI innovations. Here are some thoughts on why these will continue to have an impact in 2020. The… Continue Reading Jukka...
Why would you store images and files in CDS?
Binary data is getting better support in Common Data Service, thanks to the new image and file datatypes. How could we leverage these in Power Apps? Here are some use cases for binary data storage in CDS, as well as comparison to the familiar Attachments feature and the built-in SharePoint document management integration. The post Why would you store images and files in CDS? appeared first on
Life after CRM: farewell to SurvivingCRM.com
Welcome to Thinking Forward – my new blog built on top of the foundation that was laid by Surviving CRM in 2008-2019. As we’re approaching the turn of the decade, it’s a great moment to push myself into more actively exploring the world beyond CRM. The post Life after CRM: farewell to SurvivingCRM.com appeared first on Jukka Niiranen. Continue Reading Jukka Niiranen’s Article on their blog Life after CRM:...
End of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Online
I always prefer to use precise terminology when talking about the technologies that are part of my trade. Some might consider me a pedantic guy who’s always correcting some insignificant details in documents or presentations that cover Microsoft technologies but aren’t using their correct names. Yeah, the customers reading them probably wouldn’t notice the difference, but if you let go of your… Continue Reading...
Licensing is NOT a security mechanism
Licensing remains a topic that no one claims to like yet everyone keeps on talking about. October 2019 saw what was undoubtedly the biggest number of changes to Microsoft Business Applications SKUs (i.e. items that MS sells), with the end of Dynamics 365 Plan licenses and new models for licensing PowerApps & Flow. Not to mention the new structure that ties licenses closely to API call limits…. Continue Reading Jukka...
Sharing Apps Is Caring
A while ago there was an announcement made on the PowerApps team blog about “Share canvas apps with guests in your organization”. Launched in public preview, this feature makes it (almost) as simple to share apps with a guest user as it is with internal users from your company. Basically all you need to do is invite them as guests into your tenant, by leveraging the Azure AD B2B… Continue Reading Jukka...
PowerApps licenses and a Dynamics 365 environment
Believe it or not, Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement applications from Microsoft are built on top of Power Platform. No, they didn’t originally start that way, but as the Citizen Application Platform technology from the PowerApps side merged with the former Microsoft Business Solutions product that was originally built to be an extendable CRM system, that is the end result today. As an… Continue Reading Jukka...