Earlier this week you may have heard about some recent enhancements in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops architecture to enable a more cohesive integration of Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps with Power Platform. Here are some of these changes and how they will impact any users of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops as well as Power Platform users.
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations and Power Platform Long term roadmap
Before we talk about any of the recently done enhancements, let us first understand the overall roadmap Microsoft is following when it comes to Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops and Power Platform. Over time, Microsoft clarified that they have a clear roadmap for combining Microsoft Power Platform as well as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops environments. If you have followed these recent updates, Microsoft in Wave 2 of 2020 released features around Dual write connection which essentially allows for near-real-time data interaction between Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops app and Microsoft Dataverse environment. It truly is so empowering (as per the principles of Digital transformation shared by Microsoft) in any organization when data about people, products, operations, and customers goes beyond the boundaries of the individual line of business apps.
What has changed recently & what is coming?
The following list identifies some aspects which have changed already due to recent enhancements of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops architecture.
Visibility of environments
As mentioned above until Microsoft completes the work to merge both Dynamics F&O and Power platform environments, each environment will be visible in both Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS) as well as the Microsoft Power Platform Admin center. Microsoft has also notified that starting February 22nd, 2021, new Finance and Operations environments created by customers will have a presence in both Lifecycle services (LCS) and Power Platform Admin center (PPAC), automatically. In addition, Microsoft will be retroactively creating an environment in the Power Platform Admin center (PPAC) for each Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops environment that already exists in Lifecycle Services (LCS) today.
What environment “types” are supported?
It is important to note that this change will impact Sandbox Acceptance Test (Tier2-5) and Production type Finance and Operations environments. Microsoft has clarified that support for Cloud-hosted environment will follow in the future. It is also important to note that each Sandbox or Production environment will receive an entry in the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) and cannot be deleted independently from one another.
How will this benefit me?!
You may be wondering as a Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops customer how this change can possibly benefit you? Well, there are few points here.
Simple adaptation of Dual-write
If you are a client who was looking at how you can benefit from the Dual Write release done last year, this change is going to make that adaptation of Dual Write simpler by a “unified” view of environments. You will now be able to better manage any new apps utilizing Dual write features within F&O and/or Power Platform.
Data storage
In addition, Other Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations add-ins will begin to store their data into the linked “Dataverse database” which will allow more critical information available for consumption by Power platform apps such as Power Apps and Power Automate.
Are there any additional costs for me due to this change?
There are no additional direct costs as Microsoft will automatically create these additional environments in the Power Platform Admin center (PPAC). However, now that each Dynamics 365 Finance & Ops environment requires an environment in the Power Platform Admin center (PPAC), this will need more capacity from the client’s tenant allotment. To facilitate this, all Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations customers are granted 10GB of Power Platform capacity, and as per Microsoft’s estimates clients will be below 50% of their available power platform storage capacity after this action. If you have any questions or concerns about this recent enhancement for Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O and Power platform integration, kindly reach out to us.
