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Three Features Prospective Dynamics 365 Customers Should Know
I have worked with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce for many years, and if you find yourself contemplating between the two CRM platforms, there are some features offered solely in Dynamics 365 that may sway your decision. These unique Dynamics 365 features will enhance your user experience and promote flexibility without the need for custom configuration.
Deactivation
Deactivation is a native feature that users often overlook, and it can play a huge part in reporting, auditing, and data quality. It is one of my favorite features that gives users the ability to easily control the state of a record without any data loss. I always recommend disabling “delete” permissions for users in order to protect company data and the deactivation feature acts as a valuable alternative. Fortunately, deactivation is available on both standard and custom entities.
When you deactivate a record, using the out-of-the-box “Deactivate” button, the record’s status automatically updates to “inactive” and users are no longer permitted to edit the record. However, users can still view the record, filter the record in reports, and continue to relate it to other records across the CRM. Conversely, you can re-activate the record at any time using the “Activate” button. The deactivate feature is also available on public views in Dynamics 365, as long as the public view is not designated as the “default view” on an entity.
Administration Mode
Administration mode is a neat feature that allows System Administrators to protect their company data and customizations during maintenance windows or major updates. When administration mode is enabled, only users with the System Administrator or System Customizer security roles can login to the environment. Administration mode is automatically turned on when sandboxes are created, copied, reset, or restored, or it can be manually enabled or disabled within the Power Platform Admin Center. With administration mode, you can additionally control whether background operations run, such as workflows and email synchronization. You can also compose a custom message that will display to users who try to access the environment while administration mode is turned on. Composing a custom message is optional and will only display for users who do not have the System Administrator or System Customizer security roles. Administration mode is available in both sandbox and production environments in Dynamics 365.
Publish Customizations
The “publish” feature is arguably one of the most powerful features Dynamics 365 has to offer. When administrators configure solution or entity customizations, such as changes to schema metadata or updates to fields, forms, or views, they need to publish those changes for end-users to see them in the user interface. This means, administrators can save configurations that are in progress, and in some cases preview those changes, before pushing them live. Administrators can either “publish” changes for a single entity at a time or “publish all customizations”, which publishes all customizations across the CRM irrespective of a solution or entity.
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