Are you looking for an easy way for your users to create support tickets with the IT staff? Is your IT staff using Azure DevOps, but it’s too confusing to get your end-users into? Do you not have ticketing software, but you have many remote users who need to raise help desk tickets? This approach might help.
Overall flow in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
The general workflow starts when a Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations user has an issue. Inside Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, users can create a ticket, attach screenshots, add details, and submit it to the help desk.
Once the ticket is created, an issue is created in Azure DevOps in the AxAndLcsGeneratedIssues area. This ticket can be assigned to any of the helpdesk personnel for triaging and troubleshooting. All functionality included in Azure DevOps is available.
If the complexity is such that a support ticket needs to be opened with Microsoft, a user authorized on the support contract can go to the “Support” page in Lifecycle Services and submit the ticket to Microsoft. Status updates and correspondence to and from Microsoft will be added to LCS and Azure DevOps ticket.
Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations
A few points about the steps required in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations:
- The user needs to have a user account with at least the System user security role assigned.
- The first time a user clicks the “Support” button, a dialog will display asking the user to authorize their use of Lifecycle Services. The user should accept the terms of service to proceed.
- The user DOES NOT need to be a user in Lifecycle Services for this approach to work.
- The user must make sure to click the checkbox at the bottom of the issue creation form to allow Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations to share the email address with Lifecycle Services. If the user does not check that box, the “Submit” button will be greyed out.
Lifecycle Services
A few points about the process in Lifecycle services:
- As mentioned above, the user submitting the ticket does not need to be a project user in Lifecycle services, but if they are not, they will not be able to see the ticket once it is submitted
- To submit the ticket to Microsoft, the user will need to be added to the support contract. Make sure this happens before you start filling out the support request to Microsoft because if there’s no support plan available, you’ll have to recreate the ticket once the user is added.
- To find if you’re on an active support plan, from the LCS “Support” page, click the “Submit to Microsoft” tab and then click the “Manage support plans” button. This will display a form showing all your active support plans.
Azure DevOps
A few points about Azure DevOps:
- There is some setup required. Please see the “Support experience” page in Docs – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/dev-itpro/lifecycle-services/support-experience
- Some of your pre-existing queries and dashboard might be filtered on a particular area or task type. Be aware that all the issues from Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations users come in the same way, and they may be excluded from those views.
- If you want users to have full ownership over the management of tasks, they will need to have at least an Azure DevOps basic license. Each Azure DevOps tenant comes with 5 free Basic licenses.
To wrap up
This workflow is a pretty easy way to start a user-led helpdesk journey. You should be able to get out of managing support tickets or open issues in Microsoft Excel or SharePoint by using the standard functionality inside Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.
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