Tag: Customer engagement

Dynamics 365 – How to setup Email to Case management with the new ARCUR (Power Automate flow)

Dyn365 Leave a comment

by: Ritchey Hazeu & Robin Schaareman

1. Setup Mailboxes

Since we were going to connect multiple mailboxes to CRM there were several options on how to do that. We chose for the option to make an Exchange Online Rule to send all incoming e-mails to one leading e-mailbox. This mailbox will receive all the e-mails of all the connected (functional) mailboxes and this leading mailbox is connected to Dynamics 365. We choose to go for one leading mailbox because you only need to setup your configurations once, instead of a unique configuration for every mailbox.

1.1 How to set up a mailbox in Dynamics 365

When connecting the mailbox make sure you got Exchange Online admin rights or Office 365 admin rights (or connect with someone who got them instead).

When creating the mailbox make sure you use the below options:

When you’re done creating the mailbox, Save, click on Approve email, after approval click on Test & Enable mailbox. The status should go to Succeeded….

If you’re forwarding a mailbox to the leading mailbox with a lot of historical data you also got the possibility to choose for a particular time to sync. This can be found in the Email Server Profile, advanced tab (sorry for the Dutch language😉):

Don’t forget to create mailboxes for outgoing email traffic. Follow the same steps as above but only select Email router for outgoing email. Users will be able to select this outgoing mailbox (connected to a queue) when creating emails.

2.ARCUR and Routing rules

The new ARCUR is being managed by a Power Automate flow (actually 2 flows) which you can create from the ARCUR data record. Within this Flow you can execute all sorts of conditions to convert the email to a case and if this is not possible place the email in the right queue.

When a case record is created from the ARCUR flow we wanted to let the routing rules decide which queue it should enter. Therefore, we placed the email addresses (To and CC) in the e-mail field on the case so the Routing rule can pick it up and route it accordingly.

One of the most important things we’ve implemented was to extract the CC email from the activity party entity related to the email record, since the out of the box activity party was not working properly in Flow.

It should look similar to the following:

After that you can place the Cc email string variable in the creation of the Case, together with the To field. The routing rule will do it’s work accordingly.

3.Lessons Learned

Since we went live, at first with a pilot of 1 e-mailbox and later on we connected more e-mailboxes, we faced some issues/situations which we need to monitor more closely or improve on next time we connect an e-mailbox.

3.1 Tracked to Dynamics (undeliverable)
We noticed that no new e-mails were coming into Dynamics 365 anymore. We checked several things and saw that our “dummy” e-mailbox was receiving all the e-mails of the connected e-mailboxes but they were not showing up in Dynamics 365 anymore. All e-mails that were in Dynamics 365 had a label “Tracked to Dynamics 365” and all e-mails that were not tracked to Dynamics 365 had a label called “Tracked to Dynamics 365 (Undeliverable)”. After quite some research on several settings we created a ticket at Microsoft because everything was setup correctly and nothing was changed since the error occurred.

After a few calls with the Microsoft team we found out that is was a known issue on their side which had something to do with the ARCUR flow. We did not check the ARCUR flow since we thought that all e-mails should be in Dynamics 365 first for ARCUR to do something with it. Unfortunately we were wrong and ARCUR can influence the behavior of emails being tracked, or not. Simple solution/work-around for now was to disable ARCUR and enable it right away. New e-mails were coming in the system again and all seems fine.

Why this occurred has not been clarified by Microsoft yet since they still work on this issue that will prevent this*. It took some time for us to figure out that turning ARCUR off and on again would do the trick, all the e-mails that were send to the ‘’dummy’’ mailbox were not processed to Dynamics 365. To trigger this again we needed to add a field to the Mailboxes field. The field is called “Process Email Received After”. Once this field was added tot the form we could change the date to the past and it will trigger the process to track e-mails to Dynamics 365 again. 

*we will try to update this blogpost if we have more information about the error in the ARCUR flow.

3.2 Monitoring
Once we had the error that e-mails were not being processed we needed to make sure that the next time this happens we needed to be informed sooner. To be faster we need to create some monitoring that will check on the categories in Outlook, once a Undeliverable category is assigned we need a signal so we can fix it right away.

The other monitoring part is maybe an overkill but it will help to grow trust in the system. Check the number of e-mails being received on the e-mailbox vs the “dummy” e-mailbox vs Dynamics 365. These numbers should add up. Once this is not the case it needs investigation on what happened so you can act accordingly.

3.3 Delay ARCUR
Dependent on how your ARCUR flow is setup you need some delays build in to make sure an E-mail is attached to the correct Queue. In essence our ARCUR is doing the following:

  • Check if the e-mail can be converted to a case, if yes a Case is created
  • If the e-mail can’t be converted to a case the e-mail is attached to a general queue

Unfortunately, this interfered with the queues that were setup. The queues were setup that if an e-mail from Mailbox X was coming into Dynamics 365 it was going to be assigned to the queue of Mailbox X as well. We found out that some of the e-mails were in the queue of Mailbox X and some of the e-mails were in the general queue. This happened because sometimes the ARCUR was faster than the Queue itself and attached the e-mail to the general queue. In other scenario’s the queue was faster which resulted in the e-mail being attached to the queue of Mailbox X and ARCUR generating an error the there was already a queue item of that e-mail. The general queue is for e-mails that could not be attached to their correct e-mailbox queue, for example an e-mail that had the attached e-mailbox in the CC instead of the TO.

To prevent this, we made a wait condition in the ARCUR flow so it could check if the e-mail was already attached to a queue. If this was not the case ARCUR can attach the e-mail in the general queue.

3.4 Duplicate e-mail
We’ve faced a scenario where emails entered CRM accordingly, got converted to a Case, but for a particular mailbox the emails were not routed to the right queue. The Routing rules were setup accordingly but after some investigation we saw a contact person record created with the same email address as the mailbox. For CRM it’s 2 duplicate records, one queue and one contact person record with the same email. For CRM it’s impossible to decide where to route it to. So our advice is, inform users to NOT create contact persons with the same email as their own mailbox.

4.Conclusion

Eventually we managed to successfully setup Case management into Dynamics 365. We encountered numerous hick-ups during the implementation which costs us a lot of time. Hopefully you can use our blogpost in your advantage to save some precious time 😊

5 Ways to Make Digital Transformation with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Actually Work (PART II)

Dyn365 Leave a comment

By Bas Bergstra

In my previous blog about Digital Transformation (‘DT’) with Dynamics 365 initially the concept of DT was briefly explained by stating that it serves strategic objectives of our customers, which can be realized with support of Dynamics 365. Next, I emphasized that DT can be applied in a variety of ways. After this introduction my blog then zoomed into two ways of making DT with Dynamics 365 work. As the title suggests, it is now time to bring in three additional best practices.

The earlier discussed way number 2 for DT with Dynamics 365 regarded the importance having strong awareness of out-of-the-box features. On the other hand, it is crucial to have your semantics in place. Besides the point of that each industry or even organization is likely to have its own jargon; once having deciphered that, you may experience another haze. Often departments, teams or groups people commonly have different interpretations for the same concept. Another challenge is that you may assume familiarity of your counterpart with concepts such as Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and Robotic Process Automation (or ‘RPA’), but these are still not so mainstream as you might assume. Just imagine how long it took before the term ‘Internet’ was starting to resonate with your grandparents. So before introducing more advanced Dynamics 365 functionality such as Customer Insights and Lead Scoring Models, make sure to get your audience acquainted with the underlying concepts.

Finding out the DT maturity level of your customer is an effective route to determine appropriate timing of introducing Dynamics 365 features to them. This fourth way of making DT with Dynamics 365 work also relates back to the second challenge previously mentioned in this blog. The reason is that interpretation and timing often go hand in hand. Consider an example regarding a customer service manager who currently receives a weekly report on customer complaints expecting the same from the new Dynamics 365 solution.  After finding what he perceives as a ‘report’, you realize that his requirement could be met by simply providing access to of view of cases in Dynamics 365 Service. Do this instead of overwhelming him right away with Dynamics AI for Customer Service, thus time the pace of digitally transforming their processes to support customers. Remember, Rome was not built in a day either.

The last success factor for a Dynamics 365 implementation that I would like to share here regards user adoption. DT implies change and the willingness to adopt varies per user. Roughly spoken users can be grouped into three categories, i.e. 10% very open to change (referred to as pro-change opinion leader), 10% resistant to change (alias ‘con-change opinion leader’) and the opinion of the rest (80%) is likely to be affected by the opinion leaders. With tactical involvement of the group who is in favor, you are likely to win the majority also with your demonstration of added value with Dynamics 365. So, make sure to first focus on the pro-change opinion leaders and convert them into ambassadors or advocates inspiring the 80% group.

With these 5 ways you have a head start to leverage Dynamics 365 and transform your customer’s business. Please feel free to share your experiences, so I can start improving and or extend these ways in new posts.

Link to part I of this blog.

5 Ways to Make Digital Transformation with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Actually Work – Part I

Dyn365 Leave a comment

By Bas Bergstra

Experienced with Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementations for some time now? Then you are probably also familiar with the term Digital Transformation. Even more so, chances are that if you have been working with Dynamics 365 for more than a few years, you probably already were helping transform the business of your customer before Digital Transformation became a buzz word.

Still, even though Dynamics 365 each year is well positioned in Gartner its Magic Quadrant for CRM and enjoying a steady growth of its user base, there are still many challenges to overcome when transforming organizations with that platform.

As a Consultant having worked with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (previously known as ‘CRM’) for many years now, I can totally relate to the challenges that we can run into.

Before zooming into the confrontations that might arise during your projects, let us break down the term Digital Transformation (‘DT’). The reason is that DT actually serves a goal, while technology such as Dynamics 365 is merely a mean to achieve the strategic objectives of our customers.

DT as a concept can be widely interpreted. Some organizations consider having a chatbot added to their website as a transformation in the way they provide service to customers, while others apply innovative technology to completely revolutionize business models in industries. Typical examples of disruptors such as Tesla, AirBNB and Uber have by now actually become a bit stale but are useful to illustrate the other side of the spectrum.

When looking at your typical project involving Dynamics 365 let us assume there is some degree of DT that your client is aiming for. Regardless to which extent ambitions are set, expectations regarding the level Dynamics 365 can meet then will be high. Especially when clients have completed a laborious RFI- and RFP process. The first challenge is then to manage their assumptions regarding the platform; this requires broad and detailed knowledge of the (latest) features.

Having completed the appropriate Microsoft certifications will certainly help a lot, even for the more seasoned consultants. This is contrary to a surprisingly common belief that learning theory only serves to successfully complete the exams. The actual benefit of certification is that it will trigger you to familiarize extensively with Out-of-the-Box features. For those of you who are still skeptical, the key is that preparing for an exam pushes you further and thereby encourages true commitment. Obvious reasons are the fact that you will then have a deadline to have completed your studying and the fact that Microsoft Learn is covering topics more extensively and effectively than ever before. In addition, checking YouTube offers tons of material, also listen to the relevant Pod casts to keep up.

With thorough knowledge of the Dynamics 365 features you might expect to be on pretty solid ground, when starting to engage with customers to determine a fit or gap for their requirements. And yes, as a starting point you are correct with that, but there is off course a ‘but’ leading to the second challenge. 

Customers typically do not express requirements for easy mapping to Dynamics 365. More often than not, specifications seem to demand for something different than what you learned when preparing for the Microsoft certifications. A common example is whether to map requirement for prospect management to the Out-of-the-Box entity Lead, Account or even Contact (in a Business-to-Consumer context).

Still, when having successfully completed the Dynamics 365 Sales exam you probably are able to effectively explain each feature and then together decide the adequateness accordingly. The key here is to consider standard functionality before entering the world of reinventing the wheel, by e.g. creating your own custom entity to manage a Prospect. A major drawback is that such entity will not leverage neat features such as seamless conversion of customer touch-points (i.e. activities such as e-mail or a web site visit) into a Lead for follow-up.

This concludes the first two ways to make DT with Dynamics 365 successful. Make sure to check my next blog with the more best-practices. Naturally I also highly value your feedback.

Link to part II of this blog.