Blog Posts on Dynamics 365 v SharePoint

Updated 9/7/2021

For years, there has been a lively debate in the Microsoft developer community about which scenarios call for SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Power Apps and custom development. Microsoft has added features in each version which create more overlap, and bloggers have approached the topic from different perspectives.

In addition to my blog posts here and the InfoStrat white paper. I would like to highlight some of the posts from others in the community.

Robert R. Freeman, in his blog post CRM and xRM vs SharePoint: Business Solution Architecture, offers characterizations of both Dynamics CRM and SharePoint, and leans toward SharePoint for general purpose office solutions but CRM when CRM-specific functionality such as email outreach or contact management are required.

The SharePoint Blog post Compare Microsoft CRM vs Microsoft SharePoint written by Scott Mangelson similarly calls out SharePoint for portals and unstructured data and CRM for front office business processes based on structured data. This post is repeated nearly verbatim on the CRM Software Blog as Microsoft CRM vs. SharePoint: Why One Over the Other?.

Another post on the CRM Software Blog Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint focuses on the benefits of integrating SharePoint with Dynamics CRM. An older post on integrating SharePoint and Dynamics CRM appeared on CRM Solution Comparison with the title Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs SharePoint. It includes this video which speaks to choosing between SharePoint and Dynamics CRM.

To read more, see the InfoStrat white paper.

Key Concepts for Microsoft Dynamics 365: Tenant, Instance, App and Solution

Updated 8/15/2022 To understand Microsoft Dynamics 365 (formerly Dynamics CRM) and Power Apps, you need to learn some new terms and concepts that may be a bit different from what you know from databases and solutions that are hosted on premises. These concepts also apply to Power Apps. The main difference is that with Power Apps you are not starting with a Microsoft app but more of a blank canvas for your custom apps. This post introduces some key terms and how these concepts are important for planning your implementation. While Dynamics 365 is still available on premises, it is most commonly deployed on the Microsoft cloud. This blog post discusses only cloud implementations. Microsoft has multiple clouds such as commercial and government community clouds in several countries. We start with a Microsoft tenant . A tenant is the account you create in the Microsoft Online Services environment (such as Office 365) when you sign up for a subscription. A tenant contains uni

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Solutions for Education

Student Portal by James Townsend For over three years, Microsoft has released solution accelerators based on Dynamics 365 for industries including healthcare, automotive, manufacturing, finance, nonprofits and education. Each year we are seeing new solutions and updates to solutions based on Dynamics 365, Power Apps and the Common Data Model. In August 2021 Microsoft released the Higher Education component in the latest version of the Dynamics 365 Education Accelerator v3.2.3.10 . Here are some highlights from the Higher Ed solution A student portal An advisor dashboard A business partner dashboard for events, hackathons, internships, scholarships, and grants. The Accomplishment extension tracking student work outside courses. The Grants phone app that allows research faculty to keep track of applications and approvals. Rich reporting on students applying for internships, grants, and scholarships. System views for tables including students, faculty, extracurricular activities, pr

Understanding Dynamics 365 and Office 365 Admin Roles

Managing Dynamics 365 instances If you run Microsoft Dynamics 365 (formerly Dynamics CRM) in the Microsoft cloud, you need to understand how your Dynamics instances relate to Office 365 and choose which of your administrators receives which roles and permissions to manage Dynamics 365. In on premises deployments, your network administrator would create and delete user accounts. The Dynamics 365 admin would then assign permissions to users in Dynamics 365. This post explains three administrator roles: Office 365 Global Administrator Dynamics 365 System Administrator Dynamics 365 Service Administrator You may think that the Dynamics 365 system administrator would have power to do all the actions needed to manage Dynamics 365, but this is not the case. What's different in Microsoft cloud deployments is that licenses and user accounts are managed in Office 365 by an Office 365 Global Administrator. This role is analogous to a network administrator for an on premises

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