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Dynamics 365 Community / Blogs / Dynamics 365 FastTrack Blog / What is it and when to inst...

What is it and when to install the dual-write party model and global address book app ? (Part 1)

Corina Balan Profile Picture Corina Balan

Table of Contents

What is the dual-write party model and global address book app ?

Dual-write party model and global address book is an app that allows users of Dataverse to create and manage parties, customers, postal and electronic addresses similarly as they would in finance and operations apps (F&O). The app enhances Dataverse (DV) with new tables, relationships, customizations and table maps. It relies on the dual-write platform for bi-directional data flow between the 2 apps.
For context, dual-write is an out of the box tightly coupled integration mechanism for Dataverse  and Finance and Operations apps. There are 2 dual-write synchronization modes:
  • Live sync happens when a table map is running. This is synchronous today, and the operation is commited only if successful in both apps e.g. if we create a party in DV and while being synced to F&O there is a failure stemming from F&O, an appropiate message is displayed to the user in DV, and the transaction is rolled back i.e. the party is not created in neither of the 2 apps.
  • Initial sync can be used to migrate reference and master data in an async manner from one app to the other when a table map is started. You can skip the initial synchronization if you don't have to sync data between the two environment. There are constraints and limitations you should be well aware of before using initial sync as a method for data migration. It is a common practice to use initial sync for reference data migration with low volumes such as customer groups, payment methods, payment terms, etc.
There is a platform component to dual-write that enables the integration, and an application component through which dedicated packages or apps are provided that enable integrations flows such as Supply Chain Management, Notes integrations, or Prospect to Cash.
These apps deliver logic, metadata and table mappings for syncing data between Dataverse and F&O. e.g. OOB table mappings for syncing customers, quotes, orders, contacts, parties, addresses, and you can even create your own custom table mappings (also known as maps) or customize the OOB ones.​ The table mappings are solution aware so you can implement a healthy application lifecycle management (ALM) in Dataverse.

Dual-write party model and global address book is an optional app that can be installed in Dataverse that introduces the party and global address book concepts from F&O.


Global Address Book in finance and operations apps
 
Please note that only the next party roles are currently supported in Dataverse: vendor, customer, and contact. Learn more Party and global address book limitations.

When should you install the dual-write party model and global address book app ?

With dual-write party model and global address book app, we are bringing in Dataverse the ability to capture how a person or an organization can play more than one role in a business and switch role based on the context. Each person or organization will be related to a party record which can be released in a company with roles such as customer or vendor.
You will be able to store globally and manage properties of a party, such as the name, language, contacts, and addresses. Then, when a property value is changed in one place, the change is reflected in all places where the party is involved.
You should consider implementing dual-write party model and global address book when integrating Dataverse and finance and operations apps and needing to deliver on the next requirements:
  • Need to represent a person as a contact person, a customer, a vendor or both customer and vendor.
  • Need to represent an organization as a customer or a vendor or both.
  • Need to capture multiple postal and electronic addresses in Dataverse.
  • Need for a person or an organization to transact in more than one market (company) and track the transactions against each market end to end.

Setup and data migration

Follow the setup steps described in the public docs and consider that these next apps must be installed as prerequisites: Dual-write Application Core, Dual-write Finance and Dual-write Supply Chain.
We will discuss considerations and approaches for the next scenarios: 
  • New Dataverse environment  
  • Existing Dataverse environment with dual-write  

Existing Dataverse with dual-write

When upgrading existing dual-write implementations to the party and global address book model, don’t underestimate the data migration/bootstrapping efforts. In Dataverse, rows for the new tables: party, contact for party, postal and electronic address will need to be generated and existing accounts and contacts will need to be updated/bootstrapped with this data.
For a smooth upgrade it is recommended to leverage the Azure Data Factory templates provided by Microsoft, which will help reconcile the data from both finance and operations apps and customer engagement apps. Learn more How to upgrade to party and global address book model.

New Dataverse environment 

For new implementations of dual-write in general and irrespective of the apps installed (Dual-write Party model and global address book, Dual-write Finance, Dual-write Supply Chain etc.) if you need to migrate master or transactional data, you should define a data migration strategy. You can learn more on how to plan the data migration strategy from this Fast Track technical talk how to define your data migration strategy for dual-write implementation.

One of the tools available for moving data when a dual-write table map is started is initial sync. For example, you could leverage initial sync for migrating asynchronously the parties, customers, addresses and contacts from F&O to Dataverse. However, this is an option only if you are within the documented constraints and limitations of initial sync. 
When the data migration volumes are above the initial sync limitations or if initial sync migration times do not fit within your defined cutover window, you need to leverage the classic tools and methods for directly migrating data separately into F&O and Dataverse (dual-write party model and global address book schema.)

When data needs to be migrated to both F&O and Dataverse from legacy systems, one approach that has worked well for some customers has been to first migrate into F&O, then export the data and migrate that into Dataverse using tools such as Azure Data Factory or SSIS.

Please stay tuned for the next blog post of the series where we will explore the changes on Dataverse schema after installing the dual-write party model and global address book app.

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