PL-400: Microsoft Power Platform Developer Exam
I’ve been continuing with taking new exams as they come out. Having recently taken the MB-400 exam (see MB-400 Power Apps & Dynamics 365 Developer Exam), I was slightly surprised to see the announcement that it was going to be replaced! Admittedly, I was also surprised (in a good way) that I passed the MB-400, not being a developer! It’s been quite amusing to tell people that I’m a… Continue Reading...
Kaila Bloomfield on The Oops Factor
Discussing mutual interests of motorsport, racing motorbikes, seeing races, & having amazing adrenaline rushes! Also covering thoughts in our heads that we might have said out loud by mistake, and some quite interesting comments around dress codes at clients. If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here… Continue Reading...
Good news for Power Automate Flows!
As a starter for 10, this wasn’t actually the blog post that I was going to write today. In fact, the subject of the post wasn’t even going to be about Power Automate! However, there was some really amazing news that dropped today from Microsoft, which I just couldn’t pass up being able to talk about. You’ve guessed it – it’s about Power Automate! Well, I suppose that the post title was…...
Omnichannel & Operating Hours
I’ve recently been spending time looking at, and talking about, how we can handle company hours within Omnichannel. This has covered both how to use them within chat (Handling Company Hours) as well as being able to change the chat widget functionality (Handling ‘Out of Hours’). Imaging my surprise therefore when someone asked me ‘how do we go setting them up properly?’. When I… Continue Reading...
Beth Burrell on The Oops Factor
Finding out how exactly Beth took up golf, how that then progressed over time into relationships, and what exactly can happen when you’re too honest with people! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Beth Burrell on The Oops… Continue Reading...
Handling ‘Out of Hours’
Let’s face it – we can be quite spoiled at times. As a customer, we can sometimes expect that companies be available 24/7 to service our requests, needs, issues, etc. That would be wonderful, wouldn’t it! Imagine that you have a mobile phone issue at 2am – you could call up your provider, and have it handled (or a new handset sent out) immediately. That would be quite nice! Unfortunately… Continue Reading...
Reconnecting to previous chat session
We’ve all been there. We’re in the middle of a chat session with a support agent, or talking to a salesperson, etc. Suddenly things go wrong – our browser hangs, the internet loses connection, or something else… Alternatively, I do know of situations where kids have pulled out the internet cables during ‘playtime’ – it really does happen! Immediately we’re frustrated. Not only have...
Julia Simpson on The Oops Factor
Discussing the joys of camping in different countries, FinOps Consulting, and what exactly compromises standard functionality or not when pitching to clients! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Julia Simpson on The Oops… Continue Reading...
Dynamics 365 Admin Centre for Omnichannel
I’ll freely admit that the title for this post is a bit of a mouthful! I’ll also admit that I used the British spelling of ‘centre’, rather than what it actually is. You’ll have to excuse my grammar This post is about something that we all knew was coming. The old Admin Centre is no longer – and we shall miss it! It was inevitable that it would be moved over to the new Power Platform… Continue...
Lookup fields & Power Automate
This is an interesting post, for several reasons. Firstly, it’s the first one in 3 weeks – I was off on holiday, and decided to take an (almost) absolute break from all things digital, which included this blog. It was actually quite refreshing, though now coming back & starting to write again does seem a bit daunting, I’ll admit! Thankfully, whilst wondering what exactly to start with, a… Continue Reading...
Sheryl Netley on The Oops Factor
Finding out just how Sheryl is connected with the annual Glastonbury festival, the wonders of Direct Debit/financial payment runs, and what happens exactly when you might just be performing a backdoor system update into a database… If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other… Continue Reading...
Rory Neary on The Oops Factor
Discussing how he’s constructing a mountain bike course next to his house, accessibility in apps, and PowerApps4Kids. Also diving into what happened when a client asked him to build an app that a competitor of his came up with! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other… Continue Reading...
Laura Graham-Brown on The Oops Factor
Chatting about the joys of Lego, being a Terry Pratchett uberfan, house rules, and just HOW stubborn children can actually be! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Laura Graham-Brown on The Oops Factor appeared first on The… Continue Reading...
Carl Cookson on The Oops Factor
Hanging out & talking to Carl about various interests such as how Power Platform helps with the Charity sector, his local Diving Club (don’t push him in!), and the importance of a career pivot at the right moment. Also including just how amazing the community is! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click
Omnichannel & Knowledge Articles
One of the most useful features that Dynamics 365 has to offer (in my opinion) is the ‘Knowledge Base’ feature. The purpose that this serves is multi-faceted. It can act as a repository for internal information, serve as a FAQ store, or even be used to publish information externally. The amount of knowledge held within any organisation can be quite staggering at times. Think back to when… Continue Reading...
Joe Griffin on The Oops Factor
Talking to Joe about gaming, his first gaming console (ah, the memories!), switching positions, and what REALLY makes a GREAT manager (hint – it’s not what you think!) If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Joe Griffin on The… Continue Reading...
Omnichannel Agent Presence
One of the main parts of any system is to see who’s available to handle customer service queries. This is, of course, vitally important for any company – you wouldn’t want to overload an already busy agent! In the case of Omnichannel, the system uses something called ‘Presence’ to show this. When users are set up, they have a default presence set against them. These govern system behaviour,…...
PL-100: Microsoft Power Platform App Maker Exam
As many people are aware, Microsoft is changing the certification landscape somewhat. With the emergence of the Power Platform, there’s a need to test skills other than the traditional Dynamics 365 ones. To this end, a new series (the PL-XXX) has been created. The first (main) one of these exams is the PL-100, which is the entry level exam. You can take a look at the exam requirements &… Continue Reading...
Gustaf Westerlund on The Oops Factor
Talking to Gustaf about Sweden, sheep, martial arts, & how he started his CRM career by being thrown into the deep end of things! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Gustaf Westerlund on The Oops Factor appeared first on The… Continue Reading...
Keeping belief in oneself
Although I usually post around technical matters & such, occasionally I digress into personal reflection. After all, this is my personal blog, & I feel it’s sometimes good/relevant to share certain personal things. Today’s post is along those lines, though it does relate to a technical matter. Let’s set the scene. As many of you know (either from knowing me personally, or from reading my… Continue...
Prashant Shukla on The Oops Factor
Discovering the online courses that he’s creating, finding a major hole in a national website, & the importance of the right level of documentation! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Prashant Shukla on The Oops Factor… Continue Reading...
Strange behaviour with views
Normally when I write a blog post, it’s about sharing some cool features, new functionality, etc. However this post is going to be a little different, because I don’t actually have an answer (yet!) to what is going on here. Let me explain the situation. I’m needing to show some very specific data for reference purposes. For the purposes of this, let’s say that I’m looking at Contacts,… Continue...
Agent Notes in Omnichannel
Anyone familiar with Dynamics 365 will of course be aware of ‘Notes’. These are the very useful ability to for system users to add notes into records. For customers, these show up within the Activity timeline. Every time a note is added, it’s added to the activity timeline to be able to be viewed. It’s also possible to add attachments to notes, which can be very handy too. Each note is… Continue Reading...
Sam Smith on The Oops Factor
Discussing his love of opera, and how he came to make it a professional career for over a decade, including some very interesting things that happened during performances. If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Sam Smith on The… Continue Reading...
Omnichannel – Wave 2 2020
Yesterday was an extremely exciting day, for a number of reason! The main reason (& the purpose of this article) is that the release notes for Wave 2 2020 dropped. This covers Dynamics 365 (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365-release-plan/2020wave2/) and Power Platform (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2020wave2/). I’ve been quite eager to see (& talk… Continue Reading...
Canvas Apps, Collections & Dropdown Fields
This post is based around some recent work that I’ve been doing, which includes canvas apps. For those of you who aren’t familiar with canvas apps, imagine if PowerPoint & Excel had a baby! Though I’m expecting most people who are reading this to already know all about them So enough with the waffle, let’s get on with things…let me paint the scenario for you. The app is aimed to be used…...
Tricia Sinclair on The Oops Factor
Talking about her love of baking, & the joys of travelling when holding multiple passports. We also talk about the upcoming Global Community Quiz – go register for it using one of the links below! UK Tickets: https://lnkd.in/e4FXTMeANZ Tickets: https://lnkd.in/ey5XzZ6LATAM Tickets: https://lnkd.in/eSNNPp2US Tickets: https://lnkd.in/eZetgpH If you’d like to come appear on the show,… Continue Reading...
MB-400 Power Apps & Dynamics 365 Developer Exam
I haven’t usually been putting up posts around the exams that I take. A few months back I did decide to write one on the MB-600 exam (MB-600 Solution Architect Exam), which just took off! It was quite amazing (& pleasing) how many people were looking at it, & asking me questions around the exam. As a result, I’ve decided to continue this, and am therefore now writing this post on the MB-400… Continue Reading...
Omnichannel & LogMeIn
Overview Many people in the IT scene will know of LogMeIn (https://www.logmein.com/), or LMI for short. For as long as I can remember (which means going back almost 2 decades!) they’ve been one of the main remote access solutions. With their product range, it was possible to leave your computer at home, travel abroad, and easily log into it from practically any computer anywhere. It’s… Continue Reading...
Leon Tribe on The Oops Factor
Talking about how he loves astronomy, some inclusion of salads, but more importantly a very important message around lifestyles & health. Also touching on how the community use technology to help with health matters. If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are… Continue Reading...
AAD Security Teams, & saving personal views
Previously I’ve touched on how it’s possible to use Azure Active Directory for Dynamics 365 security. This can be of great benefit to an organisation, especially when needing to invite in external users. The details that I go into around it can be found at Dynamics 365 Security & AAD. As I point out there, it’s a very helpful feature, and can also help with onboarding new users within an… Continue Reading...
Canvas Apps, Patch command, & Business Rules
Recently I’ve been doing a LOT of work with canvas apps. As I think I’ve mentioned before (at least once or twice!) my background is the traditional ‘model’ style app. As a result, it’s been quite a steep curve to skill up, but I think I’m handling it alright. I’m (slowly) getting used to the way that canvas apps work, the ability to put different controls on the screens, and reference...
Jonas Rapp on The Oops Factor
Discussing Jonas’s love of sailing, boats, and growing up with them. Covering plugin recursions, the balance between a ‘perfect system’ & one that users can actually operate in, as well as the offer of a free XrmToolBox lesson for anyone who’ll build a specific tool! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on… Continue...
Power Automate & Lookup Fields
Recently I’ve been expanding my knowledge of Power Automate, and how it works. It really is a truly amazing tool, though there can be some quirks to things! There are so many connectors to use, though I haven’t really used that many of them to date. Truthfully, most of my work in Power Automate is around CDS & Office 365. Occasionally I’ll dip into another system, but for the most part that… Continue...
Rob Ashe on The Oops Factor
Covering his love of Brazilian JuJitsu, occasional wrestling matches with friends/colleagues, & how it can help with day to day life. Delving into a last minute RFP with a surprise inter-continental trip (such a shame that Concorde wasn’t around!), delivering a pitching session whilst carrying out discovery as well, and how the right approach can win what may seem to be an unlikely deal! <div… Continue Reading...
Dynamics 365 Security & AAD
I come from an ‘on-premise’ background. I’ve spent years in organisations with on-premise systems such as Dynamics 365. Take me into a server room that’s alive with whirring fans, and I get quite nostalgic. Those were the days…well, in some ways, anyhow. But having recently discovered some quite helpful functionality, I thought I’d share it with others! See, when it came to Dynamics 365…...
DateTime fields, XrmToolBox, & Dynamics 365 behaviour
Recently we’ve been rapid producing & deploying solutions, due to the current pandemic. One of the apps that I’ve been working on required quite a few fields for data capture. Well, truthfully most apps require quite a few fields, but I thought that I’d talk about this one in particular, due to something that I discovered. Now, we all know how to create fields in the Power Platform maker… Continue Reading...
Thomas Sandsør on The Oops Factor
Chatting with Thomas Sandsør about his celebrity status as one of the National Beach Football team, how he got there, and his experiences from the game. Also talking about starting on projects as a junior consultant, & why it’s SO important to ask questions & not just blindly follow instructions. If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d… Continue...
New functionality for Routing Rules
Within Omnichannel, we have the ability to route conversations based on different factors. At this point in time, there’s Skill-Based routing (covered at https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-skills-part-ii/), and Workstream routing (covered at https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-pre-survey-responses-routing/). Routing is used to send customer interactions to specific queues, in… Continue Reading...
Omnichannel Macros
I’ve previously touched on macros in https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-productivity-tools/, but with some new functionality that’s now come out, I thought it would be quite interesting to dive deeper in them. By doing do, we can see how they work, the functionality that they offer, and some really cool & interesting scenarios! Let’s have a quick reminder of what macros are all about (for… Continue Reading...
Omnichannel & Application Tabs
One of the really nice things about the Omnichannel Agent experience is that it uses tabs. The conversation itself is in the left side of the screen, with the Customer Summary open in the right side of the screen. However this isn’t fixed into place – it’s possible to open additional tabs next tot he Customer Summary tab, and navigate to various places in the system. This allows agents to… Continue Reading...
Omnichannel & Sentiment Analysis (II)
I’ve previously touched upon sentiment analysis within Omnichannel in several articles (https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-sentiment-analysis/ and https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-supervisor-tools/). It’s really a great feature that allows agents to quickly & easily see how the customer is interacting. It also allows for supervisors to see at a glance how interactions are going overall. With… Continue Reading...
Matt Collins-Jones on The Oops Factor
Going into Matt’s love of films, and why we think we should set up a ‘Quiz Supper Night’ team as a service to others. Discovering the story of the first data migration that he ever did, and his discovery of the special fields to use when uplifting data into a system. If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on… Continue Reading...
Workflows & Managed Solutions
This is about some interesting behaviour around workflows & managed solutions, which I’ve recently discovered. Let me give a bit of background first. Currently I’m working on several COVID-19 apps for local authorities, to be able to help them assist people in need. As part of this, each local authority has a portal within the solution. The portal itself is a Power App Portal, and I haven’t… Continue...
Omnichannel Supervisor Tools
While I’ve covered a lot of different pieces of functionality from both the end customer & agent experience, I haven’t really touched on the Supervisor experience to date. With the release of a nice little piece of functionality for it around Sentiment Analysis, I’ve therefore decided that it would be a good time to take a look at it. Now obviously supervisors exist, in the sense that any… Continue Reading...
Ramon Tebar on The Oops Factor
Finding out what Ramon misses about Spain, and the wonders that he’s discovered in London. If you’re ever in the mood for a stroll along South Bank, drop him a line!Going into details around his background as a pure .Net developer, and what happened on a project for a contact that didn’t go through proper requirement gathering. Quite an interesting story. If you’d like to come appear… Continue Reading...
Updating User Settings with Power Automate
Here’s a scenario that could be all too familiar to us. We’re on-boarding users (to either Dynamics 365 or a Power Platform app), & they’re new to the environment that it’s deployed to. So they’re set up, and all ready to go. Suddenly they start asking why records created (or modified) by colleagues show up as having the wrong time on them. Does this sound familiar? I’m sure it does to…...
Ben Vollmer on The Oops Factor
Talking through Ben’s love of cars & sound systems (he has friends who have been on Pimp My Ride), how he actually really respond to long emails (and the outcomes from that), and what he really thinks of Outlook-reminder style app. Also touching on the important of empathy in the workplace, and getting better from mistakes. If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at
Introductory Training for Dynamics 365/Power Platform
This post really goes back to basics, but it’s one of basic fundamentals for any successful project. In order to lay a proper foundation base, and to ensure success for a project, users need to actually know how to use the system! When going into greenfield (new) implementations, or expanding brownfield (existing) implementations, users need to know how the system works. For new… Continue Reading eykalman’s Article...
My past year, & Alison Mulligan
This post is going to be somewhat different & out of the norm for the usual sort of topics that I talk about. It’s also going to be somewhat personal, and mention a special person who’s been an absolute rock for me. So, where to start? Well, there’s been a lot that’s happened in my life over the last year or so. I touched on things briefly in my post at the end of last year. Several deaths… Continue...