Fundamentals of CRM with Dynamics 365 and Power Platform: Enhance your customer relationship management by extending Dynamics 365 using a no-code approach

I want to give my review without being forced. In this case you have put constraints to review before proceeding which i don’t like

This is a solid book that covers the breadth of the Dynamics365 “CRM” platform as offered by Microsoft. It serves the basic needs of someone who is both trying to understand the many elements of the platform and get started implementing on a firm footing lowering the risk of a runaway “customization” project both budgetary and timeline.While well-written and seemingly “accurate” its challenge is somewhat the same as Microsoft’s in that they struggle to leverage off a convoluted definition of what the definition of “CRM” is. What Microsoft has is actually an application development platform that has been tailored for a diverse set of pre-written business application supporting Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Field Service and Project Services that all hang off of a core “Common Data Model”. You can implement any one or more of these pre-written solutions and have them all speak (relatively) cleanly to one another.The challenge is that is is complicated and difficult to process. This first part of this book goes a long way to a better understanding of the products and how they fit together. Essential for understand the sales mumbo-jumbo that comes either from Microsoft and/or its implementation partners because rarely, if ever, can you do an implementation of this product without heavy customization and tailoring that makes it anything but an “out of the box” experience. This first part is valuable for business decision makers and IT Management.From there the book takes on a decidedly technical direction covering topics like the “details” of customization and configuration, integration and application management. While it isn’t detailed enough to actually train you on how to really do anything or give you any hint about the fact that as a cloud-based platform Microsoft is changing the details quarterly (or even more often) which requires one to be immersed in the “community” of support to keep up or heavily reliant on your chosen integrator it will help you better understand the challenges that await you.This section is valuable for IT Management in that it’s breadth does give you a framework to keep control of your integrator or internal team by helping you draft contracts that can keep your integrator or internal development and operations team honest.One thing that I wished that it had was more “user” perspective. The challenge implementing projects that drive the users to upgrade and “digitize” tradition business process as the D365 platform facilitates is that ultimately the success of the project is driven by the level of enthusiasm and adoption exhibited by the users. It touches briefly at the end on Microsoft’s fast-emerging Power Platform built around the D365 core but vastly extending the ability to deliver high quality mobile and highly tailored applications that have the potential to make users very happy and willing to adopt and make the project successful. This is a missed opportunity but one that could be addressed in a subsequent volume.

If I had to suggest this book to someone, it would undoubtedly be any functional specialist who wants to step in the Dynamics world or wants to update. I do consider that it is a book that touches on all the details of Dynamics 365 and all its modules, however it does not go into the detail that a truly technical specialist consultant would need.What I LIKE:The author strategically introduce to us all the elements of the platform while describing the modules that Dynamics 365 is made of. The author offers us several tips and exposes many details of the use of the functionalities. In addition, I must emphasize how he gets the reader familiar with everything behind the "curtain". I must admit that my favorite section as a technical profile is chapter 12, where it is indicated "how to open the platform".What I DON'T LIKE:After reading the book I have a strange feeling of not understanding what the original purpose of it was. It seems to me that it delves too little to be a technical manual, the last section is superfluous if it wanted to be an introductory and functional manual and sometimes I think that it delves into few things (Like the Customer Service chapter, where I miss more detail).Like many books in the Power Platform world, there are certain functionalities /names that are already deprecated and it is a pity, because these don't benefit the book.Finally, although the book has seemed very complete, I have honestly not seen a high added value over other existing documentation.

I am an MCT and a trainer for Power Platform. In my courses I often notice that my participants are very interested in the topic, but often came across it by chance, for example because they want to automate processes with SharePoint lists. The possibilities of Dataverse are new to many, and this is because the relationship between Power Platform and Dynamics is not known. This book closes the gap. It introduces the basic modules of Dynamics, gives a good overview, and then moves on to Customization and Power Apps. In the meantime, I recommend this book in Power Platform trainings when participants have no Dynamics experience.have. As a basic book, I can recommend it absolutely. By the way, whether you are "forced" to rate it or not, neither the book nor the author can be held responsible for that. It is a pity when such ratings lower the average of a recommendable book. A pity and unnecessary.