Understanding the Microsoft Common Data Service

The Microsoft Common Data Service gives you the ability to quickly add data storage and modeling capabilities. This is very useful when you are building your Microsoft PowerApps  and Flow applications, and need a location to securely store your data. Developers traditionally start with a SQL database for this data storage, but the Microsoft Common Data Service offers so much more. Here’s my top three reasons why I’ll use the Common Data Service for my next project.

Easy to provision

It’s very easy to provision the Microsoft Common Data Service. Simply log into the PowerApps  site and click on the Common Data Service link. Answer a few questions, and your service is up and running in minutes. The common data model is implemented, which creates 65 standard entities. These entities are used across 5 different functional groups like Foundation, People, Purchasing, Sales and Case Management. You even have the option of creating custom entities. A security model is also implemented, which allows you to control user access based on your Active Directory authentication.

Data Import and Export

Bulk loading data into the Microsoft Common Data Service is very easy, because you have the ability to import and export data from .csv and excel files.  Microsoft also provides API access so your power users can move data between the Common Data Service, Flow and PowerApps.

Microsoft Office Integration

Microsoft has developed the Entity Data Explorer feature in Excel, which makes browsing your data even easier. For your users that love Excel, they can use this tool to interact and edit their data. You can also use data exported to Excel to build pivot tables and charts. You can always refresh the Excel data anytime, and your charts and formulas derived from the exported data are refreshed.

We love to implement and customize Microsoft Dynamics solutions here @Beringer. We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes. If you are looking for a CRM solution partner to help you with your projects, make sure you pick the one that practices all of the Microsoft methodologies and best practices.

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