What’s Possible with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Portals?
2017 CRM Conference
Shawn GensSenior Solution Architect & Managing Consultant
Chris HarpSenior Solution Architect
The Problem
• You’ve supercharged your Sales Pipeline with CRM
• You are rocking your Service Center
• Everyone is loving Dynamics 365
• Except… what about the users you can’t give access?
The Solution
Portals
What is a Portal?
Definition• A portal is a website that is connected to Dynamics 365 that allows non-CRM
users to view and maintain CRM data.
Dynamics 365 for Portals• Contain a collection of solutions that allow for the deployment of a website
on top of Dynamics 365
• Have out-of-the-box support for multiple feature-rich portal types to fulfill a variety of customer website needs
• All content and configuration data is stored in Dynamics CRM with no custom development required
Why would I want to do that?
From here: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msuspartner/2017/02/03/dynamics-365-portals-overview/
32%
50%
of consumers keep in touch with a brand
of end users use multiple channels to make their voice heard
Why would I want to do that?
From here: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msuspartner/2017/02/03/dynamics-365-portals-overview/
81%% increase in customer use of online forums and communities for self-help last year
90%of global consumers now expect a brand or organization to offer a self-service portal
Why would I want to do that?
General Use Cases
• Grant access to a forum for users to submit ideas for product updates
• Give access knowledge base access to customers and distributors to resolve frequently asked questions
Why would I want to do that?
Sales Use Cases
•Provide access to leads for distributors
• Enable distributors to maintain their sales pipeline
Why would I want to do that?
Service Use Cases• Allow customers to submit
and monitor support requests
• Provide a contact us page for general questions
• Describe new product updates to customer with a blog post
Before you Begin
Stuff to know• Portals are hosted in Azure• Online only
• Both CRM and Portal• Unless you can convince Microsoft to give you an
ADXStudio license• Tied to a single instance of CRM
• Can change later, but has to be in the same Tenant
Before you Begin - Licensing
One comes with certain license types• Office 365 Plan 1 License
• Need to purchase additional licenses if you want another portal
Page view levels• Default 1 million monthly page views
• Buy additional in 500,000 increments
Step 1 – Initial Setup
Decide on your audience
• This controls the type of Portal that will be created• Not an easy change after the fact
• Its possible to change later, but you configured stuff• Types of Audiences
• Customer• Partner• Employee
Audience - Customer
Who is this audience?• Direct users of your product(s) or services
Portal Types Available• Community
• Self-Service
• Custom
Audience - Partner
Who is this audience?• Outside vendors, distributors, dealers, etc.
Portal Types Available• Customer Self-Service
• Community
• Partner
• Custom
Audience - Employee
Who is this audience?• Staff without CRM access that need limited CRM access
Portal Type• Self-Service
Community Portal
• For gathering feedback from and providing information to the audience
• Standard features include:• Forums
• Surveys
• Blogs
• Ideas
• Other types of pages can be added/customized
Partner Portal
• Standard Features include:• Contact Us
• Customer management• Create and update customer accounts and
contacts
• Customer Service• Cases
• Forums
• Knowledge Base
• Opportunities
>> Used to allow partners to manage their sales pipeline and submit cases
Self Service Portal
• Allows an audience to perform common tasks
• Used by all three types of audience
• Features include• Blogs• Contact Us• Customer Service
• Cases
• Feedback• Forums• Knowledge Base
Self-Service Portal Demo
Let’s Demo!•Knowledge Base•Contact Us•Login•Forums•Cases
Custom Portal
• Use if you need a specialized portal
• More work to set up• Template is very basic with almost no standard features
Step 2 – Customizing a Portal
• Content Management System (CMS)• Stored in CRM
• Admin can edit directly in the portal
• Demo• Editing Text
• Edit Navigation
Step 2 – Customizing a Portal
Controls• Entity Lists – Edit / View a list of records
• Based off of CRM Views
• Demo – Product Registrations
• Entity Forms – Edit / View a single record• Based off of CRM Form
• Demo – Warranty Card
• Other Controls• Bing Maps Control
• Calendar Control
• Ad Control
Step 2 - Customizing a Portal
Authentication • Are there areas on your portal you don’t
want everyone to see?
• Can restrict access to pages
• Based on Login
• Web Roles
• Similar to Security Role in CRM
• Entity Permissions
• Record access
• Controls what you can do to a record
Login Types• Local account
(CRM Contacts)• Facebook• Google• Windows Live ID• WS-Federation• Yahoo!
Step 3 – Advanced Customizations
• WebForms
• Theming• Use Bootstrap
• Liquid Markup Language
• Javascript• CafeX Demo
• Link to Custom web apps
Example Portals
• Here are some example portals:
https://successcentre.microsoftcrmportals.com/https://innovationhub.defence.gov.au/https://earlylearning.microsoftcrmportals.comhttps://portal.fahrzeugklinik.dehttps://portal.partner.iij.jp/https://formulario.argentina.gob.arhttps://alumni.kpmg.com.auhttps://my.virginatlantic.com/euclaim/https://spaww.microsoftcrmportals.comhttps://wwlpbdcrm.microsoftcrmportals.comhttp://signetgroup.nethttps://www.telosalliance.com/http://www.tronox.com
>> These are from Microsoft and are not customer references
What to do next?
Resources• Research
• Administrator's Guide to portal capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Install Dynamics 365 portals
• Demo Guides
• Request a Trial Key
• Call a Partner (Like Ledgeview Partners!)
Questions