How to access the sales pipeline, following Dynamics 365 updates

A few months ago, Microsoft announced that some elements in the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement universe would become obsolete. If you are using older versions of the Dynamics 365 application suite (8.0 or earlier), you may encounter some challenges. This is due to the fact that some entities on which a specific business process is configured are modified.

For instance, the following fields have been replaced:

• Sales Pipeline Phase ➤ becomes the Process Step Name field included in the Process Step entity.
• Process ID ➤ becomes the Business Process Entity ID field (BPF)
• Stage ID ➤ becomes the Stage ID field of the business process entity (BPF).
• TraversedPath ➤ becomes the TraversedPath field of the business process entity (BPF)

These changes certainly enhance the user experience of the application. However, visualizing the sales pipeline can now become a problem. This is because the graph, which allows you to see the sales opportunities at a glance using the dashboards, is based on a field that has become obsolete. Result? The Sales Pipeline phase in the opportunity entity is no longer accessible. And this is an issue that some of our clients have encountered. Microsoft confirms that they are working on options to provide the information in a different manner. But what is the best way to get around this obstacle until they find a solution? Here are 5 steps to follow in PowerApps to keep your sales pipeline graph working if you are using a single business process:

1. Create a workflow to fill in the Pipeline Phase field from the Active Phase field of the BPF

Usually, the business process used for an opportunity is Opportunity Sales Process, but this can be applied for a standardized business process as well.

2. Select the process on demand for your workflow

You will also be able to update the information for all open opportunities.

3. Add a step to update the opportunity associated with the business process

4. Update the Pipeline Phase field with the value Active Stage of the business process

5. All you must do is activate the process and run it on active BPF records

Following these 5 steps will allow you to access your sales pipeline and manage your opportunities. Do you want to better understand business processes and their behaviours? Here are some links to Microsoft documentation:  

• Important changes are coming
• How to determine which Business Process Flow (BPF) instance is displayed when a folder is open
• Work with business process flows using the code
• Simultaneous business process flows in Dynamics 365

Curious to know more about best practices on how to maximize your team performance? Are you thinking of a digital transformation? Ask your questions to our experts, who will be able to offer you personalized advice!  To stay on top of the latest news, follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter! This article was made possible using the expertise of our technical analyst Louis-Pierre Gaudreau.