Many shades of Dynamics 365 Alert Notifications

Long time ago (read web 1.0 era) there was a time when systems alerts meant sending emails to users. That led to ’email deluge’ with Dynamics 365 (err.. CRM in those times) sending emails to users on every new lead, case or order getting created in the system. Thankfully that time has gone and now we have actually so many smart ways to send alerts that it is sometimes hard to keep tabs with. This post is my attempt to compile all these options in one place. Please feel free to remind me via comments below if I missed any option here.

1. Emails

The oldie-goldie option still survives in this day but is perhaps used less frequently. With the use of Power Automate, sending emails has actually became easier and more seamless (works outside the Dynamics 365 without eating up its resources). In my experience in the implementations of Dynamics 365 in recent years, emails are still used to send formal notifications (sometimes due to legal/compliance reasons) to external entities like partners, customers.

Tutorial to see how it works.

2. SMS

Thanks to Power Automate, once elusive or technically challenging feature, is now very easy to implement. Sending SMS text notifications on new record’s creation, pending approval or notifying about high priority item is becoming more common. There are lots of third-party provides which can be easily called through Power Automate – with arguably Twilio as a clear winner in the market.

I found this tutorial helpful to make it work in my project.

3. Teams Notification

Microsoft Teams is not just a new kid in a block, it is also very popular aka it is now widely used in many organisations. It is a no surprise then, that many business users like Dynamics 365 to send a notification to a particular Microsoft Teams channel or user. Luckily sending Teams notification is a no brainer, thanks to Power Automate.

Here is my article on how to send teams notification (shameless plug).

4. Teams Approvals

One of the recent announcements in the Power Apps space is the introduction of ‘Approvals’ in Microsoft Teams. This allows users to see an approval request within Teams and make approve/reject choices. Note: this feature is GA now.

Have a look at following tutorial to see how it works.

5. Push Notification

If your users are using Dynamics 365 or Power Apps app on mobile, a recent introduction is the ability to send push notifications on mobile. This is certainly very helpful as users can click on the notification, which will take directly to the screen in Dynamics 365 where certain action can be met or data can be viewed. I am particularly very excited about this option and looking forward to using it more frequently in future projects.

This is an excellent tutorial on Power Apps blog to see how it works.

6. Stream Dashboard

Another way to manage notifications is to not send any alerts and instead show them in a dashboard view to users. The introduction of Stream Dashboard in recent years in Dynamics 365 makes this experience slick and easy to use. For example, Tier 1 Dashboard can be configured for this purpose:

7. Booking Alert (only Dynamics 365 Field Service)

This is a bit specialised option and is only relevant for Dynamics 365 Field Service. For planners and schedulers, Booking Alerts can be configure to notify about any important information that relates to scheduling and work management. The good part about this feature is that it works with Schedule Board, therefore not requiring user to lose focus by going to any other screen.

This Microsoft Docs article is a must-read for this feature: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/booking-alert

Thanks for reading!

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