Send data to Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a customer relationship management (CRM) software application that is focused on the supporting sales, marketing, and services. It is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family of business applications.

Note

This destination uses the Microsoft Dynamics Web API .

This topic describes the steps that are required to send data to Microsoft Dynamics from Amperity:

  1. Get details

  2. Configure Microsoft Dynamics

  3. Build a query

  4. Add destination

  5. Add data template

Get details

Microsoft Dynamics requires the following configuration details:

Detail one.

The client ID and client secret.

Detail one.

The Azure Active Directory ID.

Detail one.

The login URL for Microsoft Dynamics, similar to “<tenant-name>.crm.dynamics.com”.

Detail one.

Admin credentials for portal.azure.com (if the customer wants Amperity to configure Microsoft Dynamics on their behalf).

Detail one.

An application user that is assigned to a role with an access level that allows that user to modify and update records. (Some use cases require a user to delete records.)

Note

A single tenant account type should be all that is required for Amperity to send data to Microsoft Dynamics.

Detail one.

The expiration date for the client secret: one of “expires in 1 year”, “expires in 2 years”, or “never expires”.

Configure Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics requires an application to be created in Microsoft Azure, and then add an application user to Microsoft Dynamics

Build Azure application

An application for Microsoft Dynamics must be created in Microsoft Azure. This is the location to which query data is sent by Amperity.

To build the Azure application

  1. Go to portal.azure.com, and then log in with Admin credentials.

  2. Open Azure Active Directory, and then click App registrations.

  3. Click New Registration. The Register an application page opens.

  4. Enter a name, such as “Amperity integration with Microsoft Dynamics”, specify the account type (single tenant should be fine), and then click Register. (You should leave the redirect URI setting blank.)

  5. The application page opens. The client ID and Azure Active Directory ID are shown on the page.

    Important

    The Azure Active Directory ID is often referred to as the tenant ID.

  6. On the application page, click Certificates & secrets, and then click New client secret.

  7. Add a description for the secret, specify if the secret “expires in 1 year”, “expires in 2 years”, or “never expires”, and then click Add.

  8. Copy the secret that is generated.

Add application user

An application user with permission to modify and update records is required.

Warning

Only one application user may be created for each Microsoft Dynamics client ID.

To add the application user

  1. Go to the customer’s instance of Microsoft Dynamics, and then log in with Admin credentials. The URL for Microsoft Dynamics is similar to “<tenant-name>.crm.dynamics.com”.

  2. Click Settings, then System, and then Security.

  3. On the Security page, click Users, and then click Application Users.

  4. Click New.

  5. In the New User dialog box enter the user name, the application ID (which is the same as the Microsoft Dynamics client ID), full name, and primary email address.

    Note

    The URI for the application ID and the Azure Active Directory Object ID are both completed automatically.

  6. Assign the user a role. Click Manage Roles, and then select a role with an access level that allows that user to modify and update records. (Some use cases require a user to delete records.)

Build query

You will need to build a query that outputs fields that can be mapped to Microsoft Dynamics.

Add destination

Configure Amperity to send data directly to Microsoft Dynamics.

To add a destination

Step 1.

Open the Destinations tab to configure a destination for Microsoft Dynamics. Click the Add Destination button to open the Destination dialog box.

Name, description, choose plugin.

Enter a name for the destination and provide a description. For example: “Microsoft Dynamics” and “This sends data to Microsoft Dynamics”.

From the Plugin drop-down, start typing “micro” to filter the list, and then select Microsoft Dynamics.

Step 2.

Credentials allow Amperity to connect to Microsoft Dynamics.

The credential type is set automatically. You may use an existing credential or you may add a new one.

Choose an existing credential or add credential.

Select an existing credential from the Credential drop-down.

– or –

Select Create a new credential from the Credential drop-down. This opens the Credential dialog box.

Choose an existing credential or add credential.

Enter the name for the credential, and then add a description.

Microsoft Dynamics has the following settings:

  • Client ID and secret

When finished, click Save.

Step 3.

Each destination has settings that define how Amperity will deliver data to Microsoft Dynamics. These settings are listed under the Settings section of the Destination dialog box.

Settings for Microsoft Dynamics.

The following settings are specific to Microsoft Dynamics:

Setting

Description

Active Directory ID

The Active Directory tenant ID that is associated with your Microsoft Azure subscription.

Dynamics URL

The URL for your instance of Microsoft Dynamics. The URL must be the full URL, including https://. For example:

https://<tenant-name>.crm.dynamics.com
Step 4.

Business users are assigned to the Amp360 User and/or AmpIQ User policies. (Amp360 User allows access to queries and orchestrations and AmpIQ User allows access to segments and campaigns.) A business user cannot select a destination that is not visible to them.

Business users – including users assigned to the DataGrid Operator policy – may have restricted access to PII.

What is restricted access to PII?

Restricted PII access is enabled when the Restrict PII access policy option that prevents users who are assigned to that option from viewing data that is marked as PII anywhere in Amperity and from sending that data to any downstream workflow.

You can make this destination visible to orchestrations and allow users with restricted access to PII to use this destination by enabling one (or both) of the following options:

Allow business users access to this destination.

Note

To allow business users to use this destination with campaigns, you must enable the Available to campaigns option within the data template. This allows users to send campaign results from Amperity to Microsoft Dynamics.

The other two settings may be configured within the data template instead of the destination.

Step 5.

Review all settings, and then click Save.

Save the destination.

Important

You must configure a data template for this destination before you can send data to Microsoft Dynamics.

Add data template

A data template defines how columns in Amperity data structures are sent to downstream workflows. A data template is part of the configuration for sending query and segment results from Amperity to an external location.

To add a data template

Step 1.

From the Destinations tab, open the menu for a destination that is configured for Microsoft Dynamics, and then select Add data template.

This opens the Add Data Template dialog box.

Step 1

Enter the name of the data template and a description. For example: “Microsoft Dynamics” and “Send data to Microsoft Dynamics.”.

Step 2.

Verify business user access to queries and orchestrations and access to segments and campaigns.

A business user may also have restricted access to PII, which prevents them from viewing and sending customer profile data.

Step 2.

If business user access was not configured as part of the destination, you may configure access from the data template.

Step 3.

Verify all configuration settings.

Verify settings for the data template.

Note

When the settings required by Microsoft Dynamics were are not configured as part of the destination, you must configure them as part of the data template before making this destination available to campaigns.

Step 4.

Review all settings, and then click Save.

Save the data template.

Common Data Service Web API

Note

Microsoft Dynamics is a complex system. Even though Amperity has a built-in connector that supports sending data to entities within Microsoft Dynamics, there are more than 400 possible entities to which you can send data, such as sending segments to Dynamics 365 Marketing, with each of these entities having its own schema that requires a unique mapping of data in a data template.

The Common Data Service Web API (version 8.2 and higher or version 9.0) is the API to which Amperity can send data.

  • Microsoft Dynamics is not strict about required fields, in that you may choose to not send fields to Microsoft Dynamics even when they are marked as required.

  • Microsoft Dynamics is strict about extra fields, in that you should not send fields to Microsoft Dynamics that do not already exist in the entity’s schema. Use the include section in the data template mapping to drop fields that should not be sent to Microsoft Dynamics.

Review the entities in the Common Data Service Web API prior to configuring a data template. Some of the entities that are more focused toward marketing and user activity include Contact , List , Campaign , CampaignActivity , CampaignResponse , or CustomerAddress . Any of the entities found in the Web API EntityType Reference may be configured as a destination, depending on your use case.