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Overview: Email Integration
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One of the main reasons people use Common Data Service for Apps is to store all customer communications in one place, so anyone with the appropriate permissions can see all relevant customer records, for example, view all the emails associated with a particular contact, account, opportunity, or case.
To store emails and other messaging records in Common Data Service apps, you need to synchronise your email system with CDS apps. You can do this with server-side synchronisation. Server-side synchronisation keeps emails and other relevant records in sync between the email server and CDS for Apps. Server-side synchronisation has the following benefits– automatic synchronisation. When you synchronise records with the server-side synchronisation, the synchronisation happens automatically at the server level. With Dynamics 365 App for Outlook, customer engagement apps information appears next to a user’s Outlook email messages or appointments. With folder tracking, users can simply drag email to an exchange folder to track it automatically in CDS apps. You can use server-side synchronisation to connect to Exchange online and on premises.
In addition to email, you can synchronise Outlook appointments, contacts, and tasks. You can even use server-side synchronisation to synchronise CDS for Apps with Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo, and other POP3/SMTP email servers. You can use the server-side synchronisation performance dashboard to quickly monitor mailbox performance across the organisation. You can also troubleshoot errors through error logging and reporting. To manually track relevant emails or to look up information in CDS for Apps while navigating emails, users have a choice of Dynamics 365 App for Outlook or classic Dynamics 365 for Outlook add-in. Dynamics 365 App for Outlook has zero footprint and is deployed centrally by system administrator and can be used by the users in Outlook on the desktop, web, or phone.
It features modern interface and includes rich customization features for system customizers and administrators. Classic Dynamics 365 for Outlook add-in can still be used for the feature-rich email process and then flexible access to CDS for Apps information, including offline processing. CDS records can be treated just like any other Outlook items that can be displayed as a list, filtered, sorted, searched and categorised. For users working in the CDS apps, administrators can deploy email in Unified Interface app. It features rich designer, HTML editor, media and attachment support, and full preview for various devices such as desktop, tablets, and mobiles. Let’s take a look at email in Unified Interface app.
Before we use the application, we need to instal it in our target environment. So we navigate to Dynamics 365 Administration Centre, find the application, and click Instal. After the application is installed, we need to assign roles to the users. So we open our environment and select Settings for the environment, go to Users, select the users we would like to give access to this app, and assign “Email app access role.” That would give these users access to the email app. Once access is granted, we can now start using the app. After we open the app, we can start creating new email. We can enter recipient, select from the existing contacts, enter the subject line, and then use the editor.
And we have a choice of HTML editor if you fancy entering HTML code, or we can switch to Visual Designer. In Visual Designer, we’re going to simply enter the text, format it as required, highlight, change the fonts, insert images, and do all the usual formatting we’re familiar with in Outlook apps.
We can highlight the text, and most importantly, we can now preview how your email would look like on the target computers, whether it’s tablet, phone, phone in landscape mode. And now all we have to do is click Send, and email is on its way.
Server-side synchronisation continuously monitors configured mailboxes and tracks emails using a set of rules set by the system administrators. Emails can be tracked automatically using the information contained in the email such as subject, sender, and recipient. For guarantee the accuracy, tracing token can be used when system will automatically assign a unique token to every relevant email within a single conversation. Folder-level tracking gives users flexibility to configure a set of folders and track emails by moving them into the folders either manually on any device and client or automatically by using Exchange Server rules. For Outlook users, additional tracking is available by simply assigning a pre-configured category to an email. It’s great for the organisations already using categories in their email processing.
And of course, manual tracking is available for the users of the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook. Simply select an email and press Track. Email integration provides system administrators with various tools to monitor and troubleshoot email synchronisation. Common Data Service for Apps analytics include mailbox usage dashboard that include a number of charts and statistics such as mailbox details by geographical region, mailbox by server type, configuration errors, mailbox usage, and many, many more. Update frequency depends on statistics and varies from 5 to 30 minutes. CDS for Apps generate alerts if error occur while email is being processed.
And error be classified based on the nature of the error and on whether the error is for an email, a mailbox, or an email server profile. The alerts are shown on the Alerts wall or the Alerts section in email server profile or the mailbox records.
In the previous activity, we were given a brief introduction to some of the integrations available for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform with the Microsoft product family.
In this step, we will be given an overview of the benefits provided when integrating Dynamics 365 with our various email platforms.
We will also be shown how to enable & configure the Email in Unified Interface app, allowing users to create and send emails from directly within the Dynamics 365 unified interface.
Dynamics 365’s email integration enables anyone with appropriate permissions to see all relevant customer records.
To take advantage of the email integration and other messaging functions, organisations must use server-side synchronisation in order to store the conversations on the Common Data Service (CDS). This makes sure that the records are in sync between the email server and the Common Data Service, and is also a requirement for the following features or scenarios:
- Enabling the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook
- Enabling folder-level tracking of emails
- Hybrid scenarios, where organisations use on-premise Exchange servers
- Synchronisation of Appointments, Contacts, and Tasks
- Integration of third-party email services that use POP3/SMTP, such as GMail.com, Yahoo.com, and Zoho.com
These scenarios will all be expanded on in upcoming steps.
This article is from the online course:
Dynamics 365: Implementing Power Platform Integrations
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Dynamics 365: Implementing Power Platform Integrations
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