A modern site to browse and discover community tools for the Power Platform and Dynamics 365: XrmToolBox Plugin Catalog.

Continue reading Find the right tool in XrmToolBox at Jukka Niiranen blog.

My dedicated website for all things Microsoft licensing (Power Platform, Dynamics 365, Copilot) has now been launched. Introducing: The Licensing Guide.

Continue reading The spirit of the licensing.guide at Jukka Niiranen blog.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys is one of the most preferred modules offered by Microsoft, which provides a flexible platform that enables organizations to engage their audience across every stage of the customer journey.

It empowers businesses to create personalized, timely, and meaningful interactions based on customer behavior and preferences. As we all know, understanding your customers is not a one-time activity; it is a continuous journey that evolves with every interaction. Targeting the right audience to perform any marketing activity is the key to success.

When running marketing activities in Customer Insights – Journeys, the most important question to answer is:

“Who exactly should receive this message or journey?”

This is where Segments play a key role.

What Are Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys?

Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys allow you to group Contacts or Leads based on a defined set of attributes or behaviors. These segments act as the foundation for targeting audiences in real-time journeys, emails, and other marketing engagements.

Using segments, you can:

• Filter Contacts or Leads using specific conditions
• Target audiences based on demographic or behavioral data
• Ensure messages reach the most relevant audience

Segments help transform generic marketing campaigns into highly targeted and strategic journeys.

Types of Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys

There are two types of segments available in Customer Insights – Journeys:

1. Automatic Refresh (Dynamic Segment)
2. Static Snapshot (Static Segment)

In earlier versions of the Marketing app, users could choose the segment type directly while clicking the New Segment button. In the current Real-time Journeys experience, this behavior has changed.

Now, you must:

1. Create the segment first
2. Define the segment type later from the Settings panel

Where to Find Segments in Customer Insights – Journeys

To access segments:

• Go to Customer Insights – Journeys
• Navigate to Real-time journeys
• Select Audience → Segments

At the segment record level, you will notice a Type field that indicates whether the segment is configured as a Static Snapshot or an Automatic Refresh.

How to Create a Segment in the New Experience

When you click New Segment, you are no longer prompted to choose between Static or Dynamic upfront. Instead, the segment is created first, and its behavior is defined later.

During creation, you have two options:

1. Using Query Assist (Copilot)

Query Assist allows Copilot AI to help generate segment logic.

• Start typing in the Query Assist box
• Select a predefined prompt such as “Contacts who opened an email”
• Click Create

You can either:

• Click Use to apply the suggested query
• Or click Create manually to skip AI assistance

Once selected, Copilot helps build the initial query structure based on the chosen prompt.

During creation, you have two options:

1. Using Query Assist (Copilot)

Query Assist allows Copilot AI to help generate segment logic.

• Start typing in the Query Assist box
• Select a predefined prompt such as “Contacts who opened an email”
• Click Create

You can either:

• Click Use to apply the suggested query
• Or click Create manually to skip AI assistance

Once selected, Copilot helps build the initial query structure based on the chosen prompt.

You can find more details in this doc for understanding the building segment with “Query Assist”.

2. Creating a Segment Manually

If you prefer full control:

• Click Create manually, or
• Leave the Query Assist box empty and click Create

This opens the Segment Builder, where you can define your logic from scratch.

Building Segment Logic Using the Segment Builder

Inside the Segment Builder, you can define segment criteria using:

• Attribute-based conditions (e.g., Industry, Country, Job Title)
• Behavioral conditions (e.g., email opens, form submissions)
• Include or Exclude specific Leads or Contacts

You can explicitly include or exclude records. Even if a record does not meet the defined conditions, it will always be included or excluded if specified manually.

If you include or exclude any lead explicitly, then even if it has not met the pre-defined condition, it will always be filtered and will be included or excluded from the segment member list.

When you open Segment Builder, you can start creating a new group by clicking on the desired options (either Attribute or Behavioral). if required, you can Include or Exclude a particular audience as well.

Refer screenshots below:

Example Use Case: Targeting Manufacturing Leads from India

Let’s consider a practical example.

Use case:
Target Leads from the Manufacturing sector located in India.

Segment conditions:

• Industry equals Manufacturing Services
• Country/Region equals India

You can create an Attribute group and define these conditions accordingly. Once the logic is complete, save the segment.

Before activating it, you can preview the audience size.

Estimating Segment Size Before Activation

Before marking a segment as Ready to use, you can:

• Click Estimate to preview the expected number of segment members
• Review the estimated member count to validate your logic

This helps ensure your targeting criteria are accurate before using the segment in a journey.

The members count can be previewed from here:

Segment Settings: Static Snapshot vs Automatic Refresh

The Settings panel is where the segment type is defined.

By default, all newly created segments are set to Automatic Refresh.

Let us consider one of the Dynamic Segment graphs. As you can see in the graph below, the segment size has been updated (increased) over the duration.

If there is a use case where you want to create the Segment as Static, then explicitly you have to set it as “Static Snapshot” option as shown below:

In “Static Snapshot,” the simple segment size will not be updated dynamically, and it is of one-time use.

Let us consider one of the Static Segment graphs, as you can see in the graph below, the segment size has remained standstill over the duration, as it was a one-time activity.

Key Differences: Static Snapshot vs Automatic Refresh

Feature	Static Snapshot	Automatic Refresh
Membership updates	No	Yes
Audience type	Fixed	Dynamic
Best suited for	One-time campaigns	Ongoing journeys
Data refresh	One-time	Continuous
Real-time targeting	Not supported	Supported

 

FAQs

What Is Automatic Refresh (Dynamic Segment)?

In Automatic Refresh, the segment membership updates dynamically.

This means:

• New Contacts or Leads that meet the criteria are automatically added
• Records that no longer meet the criteria are removed
• The segment size changes continuously over time

Dynamic segments are ideal for:

• Ongoing marketing journeys
• Real-time audience targeting
• Long-running nurture campaigns

You can observe these changes visually through segment growth graphs, where the member count increases or decreases over time.

What Is Static Snapshot (Static Segment)?

In Static Snapshot, the segment captures audience members at a specific point in time.

This means:

• Segment membership does not update after activation
• The audience remains fixed
• It is typically used for one-time activities

Static Snapshot segments are best suited for:

• One-time email campaigns
• Event invitations
• Compliance or audit-based targeting

Segment graphs for Static Snapshot segments show a flat line, indicating no change in membership over time.

When Should You Use Each Segment Type?

• Use Automatic Refresh when your audience changes frequently and journeys run continuously.
• Use Static Snapshot when you need a fixed audience for a specific moment or campaign.

Choosing the right segment type ensures accurate targeting and optimal journey performance.

Conclusion

Segments play a critical role in successfully targeting audiences within Customer Insights – Journeys. Whether you are grouping customers based on demographic attributes or behavioral interactions, segments allow you to make your marketing more strategic and data-driven.

Automatic Refresh segments are ideal for real-time, evolving journeys, while Static Snapshot segments are best suited for one-time or fixed audience scenarios. Understanding the difference between these two options helps you design more effective journeys and deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.

The post Static or Dynamic Segments? A Complete Guide for Customer Insights – Journeys first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

Imagine you run a business that gets dozens or hundreds of order requests via email every day from new clients or repeat customers. Normally, each request follows a long manual sequence – first reading the email, then validating customer details, checking item availability in inventory, preparing a quote, sending it to the customer, waiting for confirmation, and finally creating the sales order.

This step-by-step process is time-consuming, prone to errors, and consumes a significant amount of your team’s time.

That’s where the Sales Order Agent in Dynamics 365 Business Central comes in. This AI-powered helper reads incoming customer emails, extracts order details automatically, checks inventory, drafts quotes or orders and much of it happens without manual data entry.

Use Case – Example Scenario

Imagine you run a small-to-medium distribution business. A customer sends an order request to your shared sales email:

“Please supply 50 units of Product A and 30 units of Product B – delivery within 15 days. PO #12345.”

Here’s how Sales Order Agent handles it:

1. The Sales order agent monitor’s the email and spots new message within shared mailbox.
2. It identifies the sender as one of your registered customers in Business Central.
3. It reads the email, extracts requested items and quantities. If any detail is missing (e.g. delivery address, product variant), the agent can ask follow-up questions via email.
4. It checks inventory for the requested items and verifies availability.
5. The agent drafts a sales quote – with item details, prices, taxes, delivery dates and formats it as a PDF, and prepares it for customer approval.
6. You or a team member reviews the quote in Business Central. If everything looks good, you approve and send it.
7. Once the customer confirms, the agent automatically converts the quote into a sales order and emails confirmation to the customer by completing the process from email request to final order.

Steps to Configure Sales Order Agent

1. Enable Prerequisites in Business Central

Before configuring the Sales Order Agent, ensure that Copilot and Agent capabilities are enabled in Business Central.

“These features are available starting from the 2025 Release Wave 2.”

• Activate Sales Order Agent
  

  Activating the Sales Order Agent allows Copilot to start reading incoming sales emails and assist with quotes and orders.

Key Options:

• Activate Sales Order Agent:

Enables the agent to process incoming sales inquiries.

• Manage User Access:

Define which users can view and interact with the Sales Order Agent.

• Monitor Incoming Information

Choose the mailbox the agent will monitor.

• Microsoft 365 – Sends emails using your organization’s Microsoft 365 mailboxes.
• Current User – Sends emails from the logged-in user’s own Business Central account.
• SMTP – Sends emails through any external SMTP server you configure.

• Default language for responses

Set a default language for all AI-generated responses.

2. Defining Agent Automation and Review Steps

Choose which actions the agent should perform automatically and where human review is required.

• Respond to Inquiries
  

Controls how the agent responds to incoming inquiries, including:

• Sender type (registered or unregistered)
• Item availability checks

• Create Sales Documents
  

Defines whether the agent:

• Automatically creates sales quotes
• Sends quotes for confirmation
• Converts accepted quotes into sales orders
• Requires user review before sending or creating documents

3. Configure the Mailbox

Specify a shared Microsoft 365 mailbox that the agent will monitor for incoming sales inquiries.

4. Activate the Agent

• Once all the configuration is completed, turn on the agent.
• Business Central’s internal email processor will then monitor the mailbox and trigger the agent whenever a new email arrives.

5. Monitor & Review

   Agent Activity
   

• Use the “Copilot pane” or timeline view to see all actions the agent performs:
• Quotes created
• Orders generated
• Emails drafted or sent
• Record updates performed by the agent

You retain full visibility and control over all agent actions.

• When Agent Receive/Reads the Mail:

Note:

Verify that the configured mailbox is a valid Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online) mailbox, is accessible within the same tenant, has Full Access permissions assigned, and is properly connected in Business Central so the Sales Order Agent can read and send emails without access issues.

6. When the Email Is Reviewed
   

• The agent automatically checks whether the sender already exists in the database.

• If the sender is not found, the agent allows the creation of a new contact.

7. After the Reviewing the Incoming Mail

After reviewing the Mail:

• You can provide a custom prompt to guide the agent’s response, or
• Click Continue, allowing the agent to automatically generate the Quote and draft or send the email.

8. Customer Responds with Required Details
   

The customer replies with all necessary information needed to finalize the quote, such as item confirmation, quantities, delivery preferences, or additional requirements.

9. Quote is reviewed by the user.

The Sales Order Agent prepares the quote, which is then reviewed by the salesperson to ensure pricing, availability, and terms are accurate.

Quote Visibility in Dynamics 365 CRM (Sales)

At the same time, the quote is synchronized to Dynamics 365 CRM, ensuring sales teams have real-time visibility without switching systems.

When Dynamics 365 CRM (Sales) is integrated with Business Central, all sales documents created by the Sales Order Agent in Business Central are automatically synchronized and visible in CRM. Learn more about setting this up in Microsoft’s official documentation: Integrating Business Central with Dynamics 365 Sales. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/admin-prepare-dynamics-365-for-sales-for-integration

As soon as the Sales Quote is created in Business Central, it becomes available to CRM users in near real time through standard integration mappings. 

Once this integration is configured, any quote created by the Sales Order Agent in Business Central will be mirrored into CRM, giving sales teams near-real-time visibility without needing to switch applications

10. Quote Send to Customer

After approval, the Sales Order Agent sends the finalized sales quote as a PDF to the customer via email.

After Quote Confirmation
Once the customer approves the quote, the Sales Order Agent automatically converts it into a sales order and sends an order confirmation to the customer, completing the end-to-end sales process.

FAQs

1. What is the Sales Order Agent in Dynamics 365 Business Central?

The Sales Order Agent in Dynamics 365 Business Central is an AI-powered Copilot feature that automatically processes customer order requests received via email. It reads incoming emails, identifies customers, extracts order details, checks inventory availability, creates sales quotes, and converts approved quotes into sales orders with minimal manual intervention.

2. How does the Sales Order Agent create sales orders from emails?

The Sales Order Agent monitors a shared mailbox, analyzes incoming customer emails, extracts product and quantity information, validates customer records, checks inventory, and drafts sales quotes. Once the customer approves the quote, the agent automatically converts it into a confirmed sales order in Business Central.

3. Can Sales Order Agent work with shared mailboxes in Microsoft 365?

Yes, the Sales Order Agent supports shared Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online) mailboxes. The mailbox must be in the same tenant, properly connected to Business Central, and have Full Access permissions assigned for the agent to read and send emails.

4. Does Sales Order Agent require human approval before sending quotes or orders?

Sales Order Agent is configurable. Businesses can choose full automation or require human review before quotes are sent or orders are created. This ensures accuracy while maintaining control over pricing, availability, and customer communication.

5. What happens if the email sender is not an existing customer?

If the Sales Order Agent cannot find the sender in Business Central, it allows the user to create a new contact or customer record. Once created, the agent continues processing the request without interrupting the workflow.

Wrapping Up

Sales Order Agent transforms how businesses handle order processing converting a traditionally manual, time-consuming workflow into a fast, AI-driven automation. By reading customer emails, identifying customers, checking inventory, drafting quotes, and converting orders all with minimal human effort it speeds up the sales cycle, reduces errors and boosts productivity. And yet, it keeps your team in control, with full transparency and oversight.

If your business handles email-based orders regularly especially at scale integrating Sales Order Agent into Dynamics 365 Business Central can deliver significant efficiency gains and help you manage growth smoothly.

The post Automate Order Processing: Connect Dynamics 365 CRM & Business Central with Co-pilot Sales Order Agent first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

2025 was a remarkable year for Maplytics. Across product innovation, AI breakthroughs, and meaningful engagement with the broader CRM community, Maplytics re-emphasized how location analytics and intelligent automation can transform everyday business operations.

As enterprises continue to embrace digital transformation and data-driven decision-making, Maplytics has positioned itself at the forefront of end-to-end geo-mapping and analytical solutions. In this yearly recap, we reflect on the major accomplishments that defined 2025 and look ahead to where 2026 could take us, especially as features like conversational AI become more central to how teams work.

Going Beyond Maps

At the start of the year, Maplytics aimed at delivering deeper functionality and features that help users extract actionable insights from their CRM data with ease. The focus was to make geo-mapping more powerful, workflows more efficient, and analytics more intuitive.

This vision came to life through several major updates and new capabilities throughout 2025, expanding what users could expect from their CRM’s location intelligence. It shifted from interactive, manual mapping to AI-driven intelligence.

You can download a 15-day free trial of Maplytics now and experience the tool in your environment!

Summer 2025 Technical Update

One of the most substantial releases of the year landed in the summer, bringing significant enhancements across the product:

• Azure Maps Integration– By integrating Microsoft’s next-generation map platform, Maplytics improved map rendering, accuracy, and performance within Dynamics 365/PowerApps/ Power Pages/Dataverse. Users benefited from richer visuals, faster response times, and more precise geo-location data. With Bing ready to retire soon, this switch is essential.

• Smarter Territory Management– The territory planning experience saw a major upgrade with new balancing, hierarchy visualization, and draft workflows. Users/ CRM Admins could manage regions more effectively, balance workloads based on key metrics like revenue or account count, and save multiple territory versions for strategic planning.
• Expanded Bulk and Categorization Tools– To support larger datasets and more complex workflows, Maplytics introduced bulk editing and better categorization features. These changes significantly reduced manual work when updating or configuring map attributes across large record sets.
• Live Tracking Enhancements– Support for time zone awareness and improved route waypoints made it easier for global teams to coordinate field tasks with real-time accuracy and geo context.
• Canvas App Integration– Maplytics extended mapping capabilities into Microsoft Power Apps Canvas Apps, enabling custom application builders to embed interactive maps and visualize CRM records in unique, workflow-specific interfaces.
• Plot data from File– With this addition, users can save CRM space as they can plot records directly from an Excel instead of adding the records to the CRM and then visualizing them on the map.

These updates helped teams visualize data in ways that were more contextually rich and more relevant to the decisions they make every day.

Introducing MapCopilot- AI that Talks Maps

Perhaps the most talked-about launch of the year was MapCopilot– a conversational AI assistant built directly into Maplytics. With the rise of AI adoption across enterprise software, MapCopilot brought a new dimension to geo-analytics by letting users interact with their data using natural-language prompts.

Rather than navigating through multiple menus and filters, users could simply type or speak requests such as:

• “Show all leads within 10 miles of my current location.”
• “Optimize routes for plotted sales visits.”
• “Find nearby gas stations.”

These conversational interactions get instantly translated into visual insights on the map, proximity searches, or optimized route plans, creating a more intuitive user experience and lowering the barrier to entry for advanced location intelligence. This innovation empowers even non-technical team members to get fast, accurate spatial insights without a steep learning curve.

MapCopilot also assists users in motion, such as field reps, managers, and service personnel. They can ask questions directly from mobile devices, enabling smarter decisions on the go. The contextual understanding across prompts (viz., requesting a follow-up filter after an initial plot) further enhances its utility.

Analytics that Drive Action

The real value of Maplytics in 2025 was measured in impact as well. Organizations using Maplytics reported:

• Faster territory planning compared to traditional methods
• Increased field productivity due to optimized routing
• More equitable workload distribution across sales and service teams
• Better decision-making with visual insights that link geography and business metrics

By combining CRM data with spatial intelligence and AI assistance, Maplytics helped users focus less on data wrangling and more on driving value with decisions that matter.

Events & Community Engagement

Maplytics also made its presence felt across key industry events in 2025, engaging with customers, partners, and Dynamics 365 professionals around the globe.

• DynamicsMinds 2025

In May 2025, Maplytics took the stage at DynamicsMinds- a leading event for CRM and Power Platform professionals. Attendees were introduced to the latest mapping innovations and real-world use cases, seeing firsthand how location intelligence could enhance business outcomes across industries.

At this event, the Maplytics team showcased map visualizations, territory workflows, and how CRM data could be turned into actionable insights in an interactive setting that encouraged learning and hands-on exploration.

• Community Summit North America 2025

Later in the year, Maplytics featured prominently at the Community Summit North America event, where the spotlight was on AI + Maps featuring MapCopilot. The booth demonstrated live use cases, inviting attendees to experience how natural language queries could literally transform the way they interact with maps and CRM records.

These events highlighted Maplytics’ innovation and reinforced that location intelligence is a strategic asset for modern business.

A Gist of What 2025 Taught Us

From a leadership perspective, 2025 underscored several key insights-

• AI must be functional, not just flashy. Conversational AI features like MapCopilot demonstrated that AI is most valuable when it simplifies real workflows and delivers practical insights rather than just aesthetic enhancements.
• Integration is critical. Deep embedding within Dynamics 365 with Azure Maps meant users could access spatial insights without context switching, making work smoother.
• Community shapes innovation. Feedback from users, partners, and field professionals helped refine features throughout the year, ensuring enhancements met real business needs.

Eyes Ahead In 2026

As we look to 2026, the Maplytics roadmap is focused on expanding AI capabilities even further, evolving MapCopilot to provide deeper predictive insights, and creating more intelligent automation that anticipates user needs.

As organizations continue to rethink how location intelligence fits into everyday decision-making, the focus moving into 2026 remains on making mapping smarter, more intuitive, and easier to act upon. The next phase of innovation is expected to emphasize greater use of AI, improved automation, and experiences that adapt naturally to how teams work.

A Year of Progress and New Beginnings

2025 was a transformative year for Maplytics- blending smart maps, meaningful AI innovation, and strong community engagement. From Azure Maps integration and territory management improvements to the debut of MapCopilot and memorable event appearances, the trajectory was upwards.

But the story doesn’t end here. As we step into 2026, the journey continues with bigger visions, bold innovations, and ever-closer alignment to the needs of organizations that rely on Dynamics 365 for mission-critical decisions.

Here’s to another year of smarter mapping!

What’s More?

Organizations interested in adopting Maplytics, 15-day free trials, or personalized demos are encouraged to contact Maplytics’ sales team at crm@inogic.com

For more information, visit our Website or Microsoft Marketplace. One can hop onto the detailed Blogs, Client Testimonials, Success Stories, Industry Applications, and Video Library for a quick query resolution. Technical docs for the working of Maplytics are also available for reference.

Kindly leave us a review or write about your experience on AppSource or the G2 Website.

The post Maplytics 2025 RoundUp and the Road to 2026 first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

In today’s data-driven enterprises, critical business information often arrives in the form of PDFs—bank statements, invoices, policy documents, reports, and contracts. Although these files contain valuable information, turning them into structured, reusable data or finalized business documents often requires significant manual effort and is highly error-prone.
By leveraging Azure Document Intelligence (for PDF data extraction), Azure Functions (for custom business logic), and Power Automate (for workflow orchestration) together, businesses can create a seamless automation pipeline that interprets PDF content, transforms extracted information through business rules, and produces finalized documents automatically, eliminating repetitive manual work and improving overall efficiency.
In this blog, we will explore how these Azure services work together to automate document creation from business PDFs in a scalable and reliable way.

Use Case: Automatically Converting Bank Statement PDFs into CSV Files

Let’s consider a potential use case.
The finance team receives bank statements as PDF attachments in a shared mailbox on a regular basis. These statements contain transaction details in tabular format, but extracting the data manually into Excel or CSV files is time-consuming and often leads to formatting issues such as broken rows, missing dates, and incorrect debit or credit values.
The goal is to automatically process these emailed PDF bank statements as soon as they arrive, extract the transaction data accurately, and generate a clean, structured CSV file that can be directly used for reconciliation and financial reporting.
By using Power Automate to monitor incoming emails, Azure Document Intelligence to analyze the PDFs, and Azure Functions to apply custom data-cleaning logic, the entire process can be automated, eliminating manual effort and ensuring consistent, reliable output.
Let’s walk through the steps below to achieve this requirement.

Prerequisites:

Before we get started, we need to have the following things ready:
• Azure subscription.
• Access to Power Automate to create email-triggered flows.
• Visual Studio 2022

Step 1:

Navigate to the Azure portal (https://portal.azure.com), search for the Azure Document Intelligence service, and click Create to provision a new resource.

Step 2:

Choose Azure subscription 1 as the subscription, create a new resource group, enter an appropriate name for the Document Intelligence instance, select the desired pricing tier, and click Review + Create to proceed.

Step 3:

After reviewing the configuration, click Create and wait for the deployment to complete. Once the deployment is finished, select Go to resource.

Step 4:

Navigate to the newly created Document Intelligence resource, and make a note of the endpoint and any one of the keys listed at the bottom of the page.

Step 5:

Create a new Azure Function in Visual Studio 2022 using an HTTP trigger with the .NET isolated worker model, and add the following code.

[Function("PdfToCsvExtractor")]
public async Task Run(
[HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "post")] HttpRequest req)
{
_logger.LogInformation("Form Recognizer extraction triggered.");

// Accept either multipart/form-data (file field) OR raw application/pdf bytes.
Stream pdfStream = null;

try
{
// If content-type is multipart/form-data => read form and file
if (req.HasFormContentType)
{
var form = await req.ReadFormAsync();
var file = form.Files?.FirstOrDefault();
if (file == null || file.Length == 0)
return new BadRequestObjectResult("No file was uploaded in the multipart form-data.");

pdfStream = new MemoryStream();
await file.CopyToAsync(pdfStream);
pdfStream.Position = 0;
}
else
{
// Otherwise expect raw PDF bytes with Content-Type: application/pdf
if (!req.Body.CanRead)
return new BadRequestObjectResult("Request body empty.");

pdfStream = new MemoryStream();
await req.Body.CopyToAsync(pdfStream);
pdfStream.Position = 0;
}

string endpoint = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("FORM_RECOGNIZER_ENDPOINT");
string key = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("FORM_RECOGNIZER_KEY");
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(endpoint) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(key))
return new BadRequestObjectResult("Missing Form Recognizer environment variables.");

var credential = new AzureKeyCredential(key);
var client = new DocumentAnalysisClient(new Uri(endpoint), credential);

var operation = await client.AnalyzeDocumentAsync(
WaitUntil.Completed,
"prebuilt-document",
pdfStream
);
var result = operation.Value;
_logger.LogInformation("pdfstream: " + pdfStream);

_logger.LogInformation("Result: "+ result.Tables.ToList());

// returns raw JSON table data
var filteredTables = result.Tables.ToList());
if (filteredTables.Count == 0)
return new BadRequestObjectResult("No transaction table found.");

string csvOutput = BuildCsvFromTables(filteredTables);

var csvBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(csvOutput);

var emailResult = await SendEmailWithCsvAsync(
_logger,
csvBytes,
"ExtractedTable.csv");

return new OkObjectResult(“Table data extracted and exported to csv file”);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
_logger.LogError(ex, ex.Message);
return new StatusCodeResult(500);
}
finally
{
pdfStream?.Dispose();
}
}

//method to create csv file
private string BuildCsvFromTables(IReadOnlyList tables)
{
var csvBuilder = new StringBuilder();
// Write CSV header
csvBuilder.AppendLine("Date,Transaction,Debit,Credit,Balance");
foreach (var table in tables)
{
// Group cells by row index
var rows = table.Cells
.GroupBy(c => c.RowIndex)
.OrderBy(g => g.Key);
foreach (var row in rows)
{
// Skip header row (row index 0)
if (row.Key == 0)
continue;
var rowValues = new string[5];
foreach (var cell in row)
{
if (cell.ColumnIndex < rowValues.Length)
{
// Clean commas and line breaks for CSV safety
rowValues[cell.ColumnIndex] =
cell.Content.Replace(",", " ").Replace("\n", " ").Trim();
}
}
csvBuilder.AppendLine(string.Join(",", rowValues));
}
}
return csvBuilder.ToString();
}

// method to send csv file as an attachment to an email
public async Task SendEmailWithCsvAsync(
ILogger log,
byte[] csvBytes,
string csvFileName)
{
log.LogInformation("Inside AzureSendEmailOnSuccess");

string clientId = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("InogicFunctionApp_client_id");
string clientSecret =Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("InogicFunctionApp_client_secret");
string tenantId = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("Tenant_ID");
string receiverEmail = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ReceiverEmail");
string senderEmail = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SenderEmail");

var missing = new List();

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(clientId)) missing.Add(nameof(clientId));
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(clientSecret)) missing.Add(nameof(clientSecret));
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(tenantId)) missing.Add(nameof(tenantId));
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(receiverEmail)) missing.Add(nameof(receiverEmail));
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(senderEmail)) missing.Add(nameof(senderEmail));

if (missing.Count > 0)
{
return new BadRequestObjectResult(
new { message = "Missing: " + string.Join(", ", missing) }
);
}

var app = ConfidentialClientApplicationBuilder
.Create(clientId)
.WithClientSecret(clientSecret)
.WithAuthority($"https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenantId}")
.Build();

var result = await app.AcquireTokenForClient(
new[] { "https://graph.microsoft.com/.default" })
.ExecuteAsync();

string token = result.AccessToken;

string emailBody =
"Hello,

"
+ "Please find attached the extracted CSV.

"
+ "Regards,
Inogic Developer.";

var attachment = new Dictionary<string, object>
{
{ "@odata.type", "#microsoft.graph.fileAttachment" },
{ "name", csvFileName },
{ "contentType", "text/csv" },
{ "contentBytes", Convert.ToBase64String(csvBytes) }
};

var emailPayload = new Dictionary<string, object>
{
{
"message",
new Dictionary<string, object>
{
{ "subject", "Extracted PDF Table CSV" },
{
"body",
new Dictionary<string, object>
{
{ "contentType", "HTML" },
{ "content", emailBody }
}
},
{
"toRecipients",
new[]
{
new Dictionary<string, object>
{
{
"emailAddress",
new Dictionary<string, object>
{
{ "address", receiverEmail }
}
}
}
}
},
{ "attachments", new[] { attachment } }
}
},
{ "saveToSentItems", "false" }
};

string json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(emailPayload);

using var httpClient = new HttpClient();
httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization =
new System.Net.Http.Headers.AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", token);

var httpContent = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");

var response = await httpClient.PostAsync(
$"https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{senderEmail}/sendMail",
httpContent
);

if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
return new OkObjectResult("CSV Email sent successfully.");

string errorBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
log.LogError($"Graph Error: {response.StatusCode} - {errorBody}");
return new StatusCodeResult(500);
}

Step 6:

Build the Azure Function project in Visual Studio and publish it to the Azure portal.

Step 7:

Open https://make.powerautomate.com and create a new cloud flow using the When a new email arrives in a shared mailbox (V2) trigger. Enter the shared mailbox email address in Original Mailbox Address, and set both Only with Attachments and Include Attachments to Yes.

Step 8:

Add a Condition action to verify that the attachment type is PDF.

Step 9:

If the condition is met, in the Yes branch add the Get Attachment (V2) action. Configure Message Id using the value from the trigger and Attachment Id using the value from the current loop item and the email address of the shared mailbox.

Step 10:

Add a Compose action to convert the attachment content bytes to Base64 using the following expression:
base64(outputs(‘Get_Attachment_(V2)’)?[‘body/contentBytes’])

Step 11:

Add another Compose action to convert the Base64 output from the previous step into a string using:
base64ToString(outputs(‘Compose’))

Step 12:

Add an HTTP (Premium) action, set the method to POST, provide the URL of the published Azure Function, and configure the request body as shown below:

{
"$content-type": "application/pdf",
"$content": "@{outputs('Compose_2')}"
}

To test the setup, send an email to the shared mailbox with the sample PDF attached.
Note: For demonstration purposes, a simplified one-page bank statement PDF is used. Real-world bank statements may contain multi-page tables, wrapped rows, and inconsistent layouts, which are handled through additional parsing logic.

Input PDF file:

Output CSV file:

Conclusion:

This blog demonstrated how an email-driven automation pipeline can simplify the processing of business PDFs by converting them into structured, usable data.
By combining Power Automate for orchestration, Azure Functions for custom processing, and Azure Document Intelligence for AI-based document analysis, organizations can build scalable, reliable, and low-maintenance document automation solutions that eliminate manual effort and reduce errors.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What is Azure Document Intelligence used for?
Azure Document Intelligence is used to extract structured data from unstructured documents such as PDFs, images, invoices, receipts, contracts, and bank statements using AI models.

2. How does Azure Document Intelligence extract data from PDF files?
It analyzes PDF content using prebuilt or custom AI models to identify text, tables, key-value pairs, and document structure, and returns the extracted data in a structured JSON format.

3. Can Power Automate process PDF attachments automatically?
Yes. Power Automate can automatically detect incoming PDF attachments from email, SharePoint, or OneDrive and trigger workflows to process them using Azure services.

4. How do Azure Functions integrate with Power Automate?
Power Automate can call Azure Functions via HTTP actions, allowing custom business logic, data transformation, and validation to run as part of an automated workflow.

5. Is Azure Document Intelligence suitable for bank statements and invoices?
Yes. Azure Document Intelligence can accurately extract tables, transaction data, and key fields from bank statements, invoices, and other financial documents.

The post Automating Business PDFs Using Azure Document Intelligence and Power Automate first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

In the Dynamics 365 and Power Apps ecosystem, we have several options for building applications, each one is for a specific type of requirement. Model-driven Apps works well when we need a structured UI with standard components, while we use Canvas Apps to create custom, mobile-friendly interfaces with a low-code approach. Recently, Microsoft introduced another application type called Code Apps, which offers a completely different way to build applications using pro code approach.

With the introduction of  Power Apps Code Apps, things have changed. Code Apps let us build standalone single page applications using modern web frameworks. These are independent applications that cannot be integrated with Canvas Apps or Model-driven Apps.

The best part is that we get direct access to more than 1,500 standard and premium connectors through the Power Apps SDK. We do not have to write any authentication code, no OAuth flows, no custom APIs, no middleware. We just have to connect and use.

In this article, we’ll walk you through creating a Code App from scratch. We’ll build Personal Dashboard, a simple application that pulls assigned cases and leads from Dataverse and shows current logged in user details using the Office 365 Users and Dataverse connectors.

What Makes Code Apps Different?

We can build a UI of our own choice and connect to a wide range of data sources using more than 1,500 standard and premium connectors provided by the Power Platform. All connections are secure because the Power Apps SDK handles authentication, and each connector enforces user-level permissions. This means the app can only access data that the signed-in user is allowed to see, so there’s no need to write custom authentication code.

Code Apps provide a balanced approach with several key advantages:

• A standalone application that runs directly within Power Platform
• Full development with modern web frameworks such as React, Vue, or Angular, with support for  your preferred libraries
• Direct access to connectors through the Power Apps SDK without custom authentication code
• Streamlined deployment through a single command to your environment

The connector integration is particularly valuable. Whether the need is to query Dataverse, access current user profile details, or use other services, the connector can be called directly. There’s no need to configure service principals, manage app registrations, or implement token management. The integration works seamlessly within the platform.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, we have to make sure the following prerequisites are in place:

• Power Apps Premium license with Code Apps enabled environment
• Visual Studio Code installed
• Node.js LTS version
• Power Platform Tools for VS Code extension

Step 1: Setting Up the Code App

Let’s create the app. Open VS Code, launch a PowerShell terminal, and run the following command:

npm create vite@latest PersonalDashboard — –template react-ts

For this application, we are using React as the framework and TypeScript as the variant. After that, navigate to the project folder and install the dependencies:

npm install

Install the node type definitions:

npm i –save-dev @types/node

After executing these commands, the project structure will appear as shown in the image below.

According to the official Microsoft documentation, the Power Apps SDK currently requires the port to be 3000 in the default configuration. To configure this, open vite.config.ts and replace the content with the following code:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'

import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react'

import * as path from 'path'

 

// https://vite.dev/config/

export default defineConfig({

base: "./",

server: {

host: "::",

port: 3000,

},

plugins: [react()],

resolve: {

alias: {

"@": path.resolve(__dirname, "./src"),

},

},

});

Note for Mac users: It may be necessary to modify the package.json scripts section.

Change from:

"scripts":  {

"dev": "start vite && start pac code run",

"build": "tsc -b && vite build",

"lint": "eslint .",

"preview": "vite preview"

}

to this

"scripts": {
"dev": "vite && pac code run",
"build": "tsc -b && vite build",
"lint": "eslint .",
"preview": "vite preview"
}

Save the file and run the Code App locally by executing:

npm run dev

Browse to http://localhost:3000. If the application loads successfully, press Ctrl+C to stop the server.

Step 2: Initialize the Code App

First authenticate to Power Platform:

pac auth create

After that, sign in with the credentials and select the environment:

pac env select -env <environment-url>

Initialize the Code App:

pac code init –displayName “Personal Dashboard”

This will create a power.config.json file in the project as shown in the image below.

Now install the Power Apps SDK. This package provides APIs that allow the application to interact directly with Power Platform services and includes built-in logic to manage connections automatically as they are added or removed.

npm install –save-dev “@microsoft/power-apps

Update package.json to run both Vite and the Power Apps SDK server:

"scripts": {
"dev": "start pac code run && vite",
"build": "tsc -b && vite build",
"lint": "eslint .",
"preview": "vite preview"
}

Step 3: Configure Power Provider

 

Create PowerProvider.tsx under src and add the Power SDK context provider code given below.

 

import { initialize } from "@microsoft/power-apps/app";

import { useEffect, type ReactNode } from "react";

interface PowerProviderProps {

children: ReactNode;

}

export default function PowerProvider({ children }: PowerProviderProps) {

useEffect(() => {

const initApp = async () => {

try {

await initialize();

console.log('Power Platform SDK initialized successfully');

} catch (error) {

console.error('Failed to initialize Power Platform SDK:', error);

}

};

initApp();

}, []);

return <>{children}</>;

}

Update the main.tsx and add this line in the imports section:

import PowerProvider from './PowerProvider.tsx'

and change this code snippet

<StrictMode>
<App />
</StrictMode>,

to this

<StrictMode>

<PowerProvider>

<App />

</PowerProvider>

</StrictMode>,

Run the app by executing :

npm run dev

Open the URL provided by the Power SDK Server in the same browser profile as that of power platform tenant.

Step 4: Adding Dataverse Connector

Now comes the part where we will add the data source to our application. In this step, we’ll use the Dataverse connector to fetch assigned cases and leads for the logged-in user.

For that First, we need to create a connection:

1. Go to Power Apps and open Connections.

2. Click New Connection and select Dataverse.

Follow the instruction properly to create the connection, as shown in the

Once the connection is ready, we have to open the terminal. For Dataverse, we have to add the tables required for the application. For this example, we’ll add the Leads and Incident (Cases) tables using the following commands:

pac code add-data-source -a dataverse -t lead

pac code add-data-source -a dataverse -t incident

After running these commands, we can see that some files and folders are added to the project. Inside the generated folder, there are services and models folders. These contain the files for Leads, Incidents, and other tables, which can be used in the code. For example:

import { AccountsService } from './generated/services/AccountsService';

Import type { Accounts } from './generated/models/AccountsModel';

CRUD operations can be performed on Dataverse using the app. Before accessing any data, we have to initialize the Power Apps SDK to avoid errors. An async function or state check can ensure the SDK is ready before making API calls. For example:

useEffect(() => {

// Define a function of asynchronous type to properly initialize the Power Apps SDK to avoid any error during runtime

 

const init = async () => {

try {

await initialize(); // Wait for SDK initialization

setIsInitialized(true); // Mark the app as ready for data operations

} catch (err) {

setError('Failed to initialize Power Apps SDK'); // Handle initialization errors

setLoading(false); // Stop any loading indicators

}

};

 

init(); // Call the initialization function when the component mounts

}, []);

 

useEffect(() => {

If (!isInitialized) return;

 

// Place your data reading logic here

}, []);

 

Step 5: Adding Office 365 Users Connector

Similar to Dataverse, we need to create a connection for Office 365 Users by following the same steps. Once the connection is ready, we need to add it to the application. First, list all available connections to get the connection ID using command:

pac connection list

It will list all the connections available in the selected environment. We need to Copy the connection ID for Office 365 Users from the list, then add it to the project using:

pac code add-data-source -a “shared_office365users” -c “<connection-id>”

After running this command, the Office 365 Users connector will be available to use in the application, allowing access to user profiles, and other Office 365 user data.

Step 6: Building the UI

There are two ways to build a good UI. The first is the traditional coding approach where we write the complete code manually. The second is by using GitHub Copilot integrated in VS Code with the help of prompts.

Using GitHub Copilot:

We can generate the UI by writing a detailed prompt in GitHub Copilot. Here’s an example prompt:

Create a Personal Dashboard UI component in React with TypeScript that displays:

1. A header section showing the current logged-in user’s profile information (name, email, job title, and profile photo) fetched from Office 365 Users connector
2. Two main sections side by side:

– Left section: Display a list of assigned Cases (Incidents) from Dataverse

* Show case title, case number, priority, status, and created date

* Use card layout for each case

* Add loading state and error handling

– Right section: Display a list of assigned Leads from Dataverse

* Show lead name, company, topic, status, and created date

* Use card layout for each lead

* Add loading state and error handling

3. Use modern, clean UI design with:

– Responsive layout (works on desktop and mobile)

– Tailwind CSS for styling

– Professional color scheme (blues and grays)

– Proper spacing and typography

– Loading spinners while data is fetching

– Error messages if data fails to load

After providing this prompt to GitHub Copilot, it will generate the complete component code. We can then review the generated code, make any necessary adjustments, and integrate it into our application.

Step 7: Deploy Your Code App

Once the code is complete and the app is running locally, the next step is to deploy the application. For Code Apps, deployment is straightforward. First, build the application by running:

npm run build

After a successful build, execute the following command to push the application to Power Apps:

pac code push

This command will deploy the application to Power Apps. To verify the deployment, go to the Power Apps portal and open the Apps section. The newly deployed Code App will be visible in the list as shown in the image below.

To run the app, click the play button. On the first launch, the application will prompt for permission to access the connected data sources. After allowing the permissions, the application will use those connection references for all subsequent operations.

 

Conclusion

With Power Apps Code Apps, we can now build standalone applications. The real advantage here is the direct access to over 1,500 connectors through the Power Apps SDK. We can connect to Dataverse, Office 365 Users, and other services without writing any authentication code. The Power Apps SDK handles all the security, and each connector respects user level permissions automatically.

We also get complete freedom to design our own UI using any libraries we prefer. The deployment process is simple. Just run the build command and push it to Power Platform with a single command.

In this article, we built a Personal Dashboard that pulls data from Dataverse and Office 365 Users. The same approach works for any application that needs to connect with Power Platform services. The setup is straightforward, and once the project is initialized, adding new data sources is just a matter of running a few commands.

Code Apps provide a practical way to build custom applications within the Power Platform ecosystem while maintaining secure connections and proper access control.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are Power Apps Code Apps?

Power Apps Code Apps are a new application type in Microsoft Power Platform that allow developers to build standalone single-page applications using modern web frameworks such as React, Angular, or Vue. They provide direct access to Power Platform connectors through the Power Apps SDK without requiring custom authentication code.

How are Code Apps different from Canvas Apps and Model-Driven Apps?

Unlike Canvas Apps and Model-Driven Apps, Code Apps:

• Are fully standalone applications
• Use a pro-code development approach
• Allow complete control over UI and application architecture
• Cannot be embedded into Canvas or Model-Driven Apps
• Use modern frontend frameworks instead of low-code designers

Do Power Apps Code Apps require authentication setup?

No. Authentication is handled automatically by the Power Apps SDK. Developers do not need to implement OAuth flows, manage tokens, or configure app registrations. All connectors enforce user-level permissions by default.

Can Power Apps Code Apps connect to Dataverse?

Yes. Power Apps Code Apps can connect directly to Dataverse using the Dataverse connector. Developers can perform CRUD operations on Dataverse tables, such as Leads and Incidents once the SDK is initialized.

How do Code Apps access Office 365 user information?

Code Apps use the Office 365 Users connector to retrieve profile details such as name, email, job title, and profile photo. The connector respects the signed-in user’s permissions automatically.

The post Building Standalone Apps with Power Apps Code Apps: Using Dataverse and Office 365 Users Connectors (Part 1) first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

Organizations generate thousands of documents across SharePoint, including contracts, invoices, proposals, technical specifications, HR files, SOPs, and more.

But finding the right document at the right moment is where the real challenge lies.

AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, when combined with modern semantic search and Azure AI Search, are reshaping how business users discover, understand, and use document-based knowledge—reducing search time from minutes to seconds.

Today’s blog explores the top Copilot features that enhance SharePoint document search and turn Microsoft 365 into a powerful, conversational knowledge hub.

Why Traditional SharePoint Search Falls Short

Keyword search was never designed for today’s volume of data. Users face issues like:

• Difficulty locating the right version of a document
• Missing results due to mismatched keywords
• Time spent browsing long PDFs, contracts, and presentations
• Inability to perform cross-document summaries
• Limited contextual understanding

This is exactly where AI-powered SharePoint search changes everything.

How Copilot Enhances SharePoint Document Search

Copilot enables semantic, conversational, and intent-aware search across your SharePoint content.

Instead of typing keywords, users can simply ask:

“Give me a short summary of all Q4 invoices stored in SharePoint.”
“Show me the risks mentioned in the contract signed with Contoso.”
“Provide the billing details for invoice INV-01002-Q3L3L2.”

And Copilot generates a clear, consolidated answer with citations within seconds.

AI Semantic Search + Azure AI Search: The New Search Backbone

Behind the scenes, Copilot leverages:

• Azure AI Search
• Semantic Indexing for SharePoint
• Intent understanding
• Natural language query processing
• Large-scale cross-document retrieval

The result? Copilot doesn’t just find documents; it understands their meaning.

Copilot in Microsoft Teams: Search Information Without Leaving the Call

During a live Teams call, users can ask:

“Summarize the latest billing document for Project Neid.”
“Pull the contract details approved last week.”

Copilot instantly retrieves the relevant SharePoint content, even if it lives in a different site, library, or folder.

This is especially impactful for:

• Sales calls
• Project discussions
• Customer escalations
• Leadership reviews

Copilot in SharePoint: Ask Questions, Get Answers

Inside SharePoint, Copilot acts as a knowledge assistant.

You can ask:

“Provide insights from all technical design specs related to the Q3 rollout.”

And Copilot responds with synthesized insights instead of links to browse manually.

Copilot for Outlook & Dynamics 365: Enterprise Search Everywhere

The power of SharePoint search doesn’t stay in SharePoint.

Copilot brings AI search to:

• Outlook → Draft emails based on SharePoint documents
• Dynamics 365 CRM → Pull summaries when interacting with customers
• Power Apps → Enable document intelligence in custom apps

This ensures knowledge is available wherever users work.

Conversational & Context-Aware SharePoint Search

With context retention, users can ask follow-up questions:

“For invoice INV-01002-Q3L3L2, what is the total billed amount?”
“Now show me the breakdown of line items.”

Copilot understands the topic you’re referring to and maintains continuity—just like a human assistant.

Cross-Document Understanding & Smart Citations

Copilot scans multiple SharePoint files at once and produces:

• Summaries
• Insights
• Bulleted explanations
• Comparisons
• Consolidated reports

Every answer includes citations to the exact SharePoint files used—ensuring transparency and auditability.

Example:

“Provide a short summary of all invoices.”

Copilot reviews every invoice document and returns a single, clean summary with links.

Secure Search with SharePoint Permissions

Copilot respects SharePoint’s native permission model.
Users only see results they have access to.

Example:

• John has access → Copilot retrieves invoice INV-01002-Q3L3L2
• Jonas doesn’t have access → Copilot shows nothing

This ensures compliance, security, and privacy without any manual configuration.

Tabular AI Responses for Faster Decision-Making

Copilot can convert extracted information into instant tables:

• Invoice lists
• Contract comparison columns
• Risk matrices
• Billing breakdowns
• Metadata summaries

This helps teams analyze data quickly without manually formatting spreadsheets.

Multi-Language Search for Global Teams

Copilot supports multilingual semantic search, ideal for organizations across:

• India
• Australia
• Europe
• Middle East
• North America
• Any

Users can query and receive answers in their native languages, boosting collaboration and accessibility.

AI-Powered Email Drafting Based on SharePoint Content

A standout capability:

Copilot can generate professional email drafts using insights from the documents you reference.

Example:

“Draft an email to the finance team summarizing invoice INV-01002-Q3L3L2.”

Copilot instantly produces a polished draft you can send from Outlook.

Why Combine Copilot + Azure AI Search + SharePoint + Teams/Outlook/Dynamics 365?

Because together, they deliver:

• Faster decision-making
• Reduced manual search effort
• Instant knowledge extraction
• Secure, permission-trimmed results
• Modern AI-driven enterprise search experience
• Cross-document intelligence

This combination transforms SharePoint from a storage system into a smart corporate brain.

Conclusion

Copilot is redefining SharePoint search by layering semantic intelligence, natural language understanding, and AI summarization across Microsoft 365.
From Teams calls to SharePoint libraries and Outlook emails, AI-powered search is becoming the default way organizations find information.

The future of SharePoint is conversational, semantic, real-time, and AI-driven.

Ready to Enhance Your SharePoint Search with AI?

If you want to implement AI-driven semantic search, Copilot-driven document insights, and enterprise-grade, permission-aware knowledge discovery, request a personalized walkthrough.

For more details, visit the Inogic Website or Microsoft Marketplace.

Reach us at crm@inogic.com to get a demo of Copilot-powered SharePoint document search (AI-based).

 

The post The Ultimate Guide to AI Semantic Search in SharePoint with Microsoft Copilot first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

If you’ve ever tried building apps with Microsoft Power Apps, you know the process: creating tables, designing screens, adding controls, connecting data, and writing formulas. While the traditional app-building process is effective, it can also be time-consuming and complex.

But now, imagine this:

You simply describe the app you need, and within minutes, Power Apps Vibe takes over:

• A complete data model is generated.
• UI screens are automatically designed.
• Built-in logic is incorporated.
• A functional prototype is ready to go.

All this, without having to drag a single control or write a line of code.

Welcome to Power Apps Vibe—a revolutionary AI-powered app development platform. Unlike traditional app design methods, Power Apps Vibe makes building apps simpler, faster, and more intuitive than ever before.

Instead of spending hours designing screens and wiring logic, Vibe transforms app development into a simple, conversational experience. You describe what you need, and it creates the foundation for your app—data model, UI, navigation, and logic—automatically.

In this blog, I’ll break down what Vibe is, why Microsoft created it, and how you can start building full-stack apps with nothing more than a sentence.

What is Power Apps Vibe?

Power Apps Vibe is Microsoft’s AI-driven app-building experience, designed to simplify app development. Available now in preview, this feature combines the best aspects of low-code and AI-powered development into a single, seamless interface.

Unlike traditional app-building tools such as Canvas or Model-Driven apps, Vibe functions like a creative partner, helping you bring your app ideas to life faster. Here’s how it works:

• You describe your app’s requirements in simple language.
• Power Apps Vibe automatically creates:
  • The data model behind your app.
  • The UI screens you need.
  • Navigation and action flows.
  • The core logic for functionality.

You still have full control to modify or refine any aspect of the app. Think of Power Apps Vibe as a combination of Power Apps, an AI architect, a UI designer, and a developer, all within a single interface.

Think of it as Power Apps + a smart architect + a designer + a developer, all rolled into one interface.

Why Did Microsoft Introduce Power Apps Vibe?

The goal behind Power Apps Vibe is simple: to make app development faster, smarter, and more accessible for everyone, from business users to developers.

Organizations often face challenges such as:

• Long development cycles
• Lack of skilled developers
• Difficulty translating business ideas into working apps
• Fragmented requirements
• Slow prototype development

Power Apps Vibe addresses these issues by enabling anyone, whether a business user, analyst, or developer, to rapidly create a solid app foundation. With Vibe, you can skip the time-consuming setup and dive straight into customizing the app for your specific needs.

We can maintain full control for customization, but the time-consuming initial setup is handled for us.

Where Do You Access Power Apps Vibe?

Currently, Power Apps Vibe is available in preview and is not yet part of the standard Power Apps studio. To get started, head over to the preview portal: Power Apps Vibe Preview

Simply sign in with your Microsoft account, and you’ll be greeted with a clean, intuitive workspace. A large prompt box will be ready for your ideas, making it easy to get started.

To use it, Navigate to:

https://vibe.preview.powerapps.com

Sign in with your Microsoft account, and you’ll enter a clean, streamlined workspace featuring a large prompt area—ready for your ideas.

How to Build an App Using Vibe?

Step-by-Step Guide to Building an App with Power Apps Vibe

Here’s what surprises most people:

Using Power Apps Vibe feels less like coding and more like having a conversation with a colleague. You describe what you need, and Vibe does the heavy lifting. Here’s how the process works:

Let’s walk through the complete process step by step.

Step 1: Describe the App You Want

In the prompt box, simply describe your app in plain language. You don’t need to worry about technical jargon or formatting. For example:

“I want to build a Time Entry Admin app. Admins should be able to update the Base Pay Code, view a list of time entries, and edit the Base Pay Code only on this screen.”

No need for complex formatting or technical jargon.
Just describe your app idea as if you were explaining it to a teammate – simple, clear, and conversational.

Step 2: Vibe Generates Your App Plan

Once you submit your prompt, Vibe analyses your requirements and generates a detailed plan. This blueprint typically includes:

• The tables it will create
• The fields within those tables
• The screens your app will have
• Actions and commands for functionality
• Navigation flow between screens

Test Prompt:

“Create an app for managing Time Entries. The main screen should list all time entries. When I click a row, take me to a detail screen. Admins should be able to update the Base Pay Code on this screen. Non-admin users should not be able to edit this field.”

It’s essentially the blueprint of your app. If something doesn’t look right, you don’t need to start over – just refine your prompt. For example:

• Add an audit field
• Change the name of this table
• Make Base Pay Code read-only for non-admins

Vibe instantly updates the plan based on your instructions, making the process feel conversational and effortless.

Step 3: Create the App

Once your plan looks good, simply click Create App.

Vibe now builds:

• The user interface (UI)
• Interactive forms
• The underlying data model
• Core logic for functionality

This process yields a functional web application that is available for immediate preview.

Vibe handles all the heavy lifting so you can focus on refining ideas instead of wrestling with syntax.

Step 4: Refine the App Through Natural Language

This is where Vibe feels different from anything we’ve seen before.

You can simply chat with it:

• “Make the Base Pay Code field bigger.”
• “Add a dashboard screen with totals.”
• “Add a search bar at the top.”
• “Show only records assigned to the logged-in user.”

And Vibe will update the app instantly.

It’s the first time Power Apps feels like a conversation instead of a tool.

Step 5: Save Your App

When you save the app for the first time, Power Apps stores:

• the app
• the plan
• the screens
• and the data model

All inside a single solution.

It becomes part of your Power Apps environment, just like any other app.

Step 6: Connect to Real Data (Optional)

When you first build the app, it uses “draft data” –  temporary tables that exist only for prototyping.

Once your app is ready for real use:

1. Go to Data
2. Connect to Dataverse, SQL, SharePoint, or any supported source
3. Map the fields
4. Publish the app again

This step turns your prototype into a production-ready application.

Step 7: Publish and Share

Once everything looks right, click Publish.

Your app becomes live, and you can share it with your team exactly like any other Power App.

Where Power Apps Vibe Really Shines

After playing with it, I realized Vibe is perfect for:

• Rapid prototyping
• Converting ideas into real apps within minutes
• Building admin tools
• Internal dashboards
• Small line-of-business apps
• Automating manual processes
• Mockups for client demos
• Reducing the back-and-forth between business teams and developers

It reduces friction. It reduces waiting. It reduces technical complexity.

You still get full control — formulas, data, actions, security, connectors — everything you normally have in Power Apps remains available.

But the start is dramatically faster.

Limitations to Keep in Mind for Power Apps Vibe

Since Vibe is still a preview feature, a few things have limitations:

• You cannot edit Vibe apps in the classic Canvas app studio.
• If you export/import the solution, it may break the link with the AI “plan.”
• It currently supports creating only one app per plan.
• Existing Dataverse tables aren’t automatically suggested during generation.
• Some refinements still need to be done manually.

But even with these limitations, Vibe is powerful enough to start real-world projects and prototypes.

Final Thoughts

Power Apps Vibe is one of the biggest updates to the Power Platform in years.
It brings a fresh, modern, conversational style of development that feels more natural and less stressful.

Instead of spending hours designing screens and wiring logic, you can now focus on:

• Refining ideas,
• Improving workflows,
• And delivering value faster.

If you haven’t tried it yet, open the preview today and type the first idea that comes to mind.
You’ll be surprised how quickly it becomes a working app.

Frequently Asked Questions: Power Apps Vibe

1. What is Power Apps Vibe and how is it different from traditional Power Apps development?

Power Apps Vibe is an AI-powered app-building tool that allows you to create full-stack apps simply by describing your requirements in natural language. Unlike traditional Power Apps, which involve manually designing screens and writing formulas, Vibe automatically generates the data model, UI, navigation, and logic. It simplifies app development by transforming it into a conversational, automated process.

2. Can I use Power Apps Vibe without any coding knowledge?

Yes, Power Apps Vibe is designed for users with little or no coding experience. It allows you to create apps by simply describing what you want in plain language. The AI handles the complex aspects of app development, such as data modeling, UI design, and logic, so you can focus on refining your ideas rather than writing code.

3. Is Power Apps Vibe available for all users or only those in certain regions?

Currently, Power Apps Vibe is in preview and can be accessed by users who sign in through the dedicated portal at https://vibe.preview.powerapps.com. While the feature is available globally, its availability might vary based on regional preview settings and Microsoft’s rollout timeline. Keep an eye on updates for broader access.

4. What are some limitations of Power Apps Vibe?

While Power Apps Vibe is a powerful tool, it does have some limitations:

• You cannot edit Vibe-generated apps in the classic Canvas App Studio.
• The feature currently supports only one app per plan.
• Existing Dataverse tables aren’t automatically suggested during the app creation process.
• Some refinements still require manual adjustments after the initial app is generated.

5. How can I connect my Power Apps Vibe app to real data?

Once your prototype is ready, you can connect your Power Apps Vibe app to real data by navigating to the Data section within Power Apps and linking it to supported data sources such as Dataverse, SQL, or SharePoint. After mapping the fields, you can publish the app again to make it production-ready.

The post Build AI-Powered Apps in Minutes with Power Apps Vibe: A Complete Guide (Preview) first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.

 

In many businesses, important updates in Dynamics 365 CRM go unnoticed. One delayed update can cost a deal, damage customer trust, or slow down decision-making. Sales teams miss important lead updates, service teams fail to act on escalations, and marketing teams lose track of campaign responses.

Common Challenges Teams Face with Alerts in CRM

• No real-time alerts inside CRM → missed updates
• Too many emails → ignored or overlooked
• No way to alert users based on record changes
• No support for rich-text messages or multilingual teams
• Managers do not get notified when targets, deadlines, or SLAs are at risk

This is exactly why automated alerting is no longer optional; it’s essential.

The Solution: Alerts4Dynamics – The Complete Alert Engine for Dynamics 365 CRM

Dynamics 365 CRM doesn’t offer robust in-app alerts by default.

Alerts4Dynamics fills this gap perfectly by supporting pop-ups, form notifications, email alerts, rich text notifications, multilingual content, user preferences, and much more.

Before we dive into the configuration tutorial, let’s explore the key features with practical examples.

Type of Alerts in CRM (With Real Business Examples)

1️. Pop-Up Alerts

Instant notifications that appear in the alerts panel (Bell icon).

Example:

A new lead is created from the website, and the assigned sales rep receives a pop-up alert instantly.

2️. Form Notifications – Dialog

A pop-up box opens automatically when the user enters a record form.

Example:

When entering an Account record with unpaid invoices, users see a dialog warning:

“This customer has 3 overdue invoices. Please review before proceeding.”

Helps service agents make informed decisions instantly.

3️. Form Notifications – Bar

A banner-style alert displayed at the top of record forms.

Example:

A quote nearing expiry shows a yellow bar:

“Quote expires in 3 days. Please follow up with the customer.”

Reduces lost revenue from expired quotes.

4️. Email Notifications

Send alerts directly to internal users or external contacts.

Example:

When an invoice is marked as “Paid,” an email goes to all contacts related to that Account, notifying them about payment confirmation.

Speeds up customer communication without manual emails.

5️. Event-Based Alerts

Trigger alerts when a record is created, updated, or changes status.

Example:

When a case is escalated:

• The assigned agent gets a pop-up
• The supervisor gets an email
• The account manager gets a dialog alert

Ensures immediate action across all departments.

6️. Rule-Based Alerts

Trigger alerts using system views or FetchXML conditions.

Example:

Send alerts for:

• Opportunities over $50,000
• Invoices with amount ≥ $1000
• Accounts without recent interactions

Perfect for automated monitoring of high-impact data.

7️. Record-Based Alerts

Alerts created for individual records.

Example:

A specific quote is expiring in 48 hours → alert only on that record.

Great for one-time reminders.

CRM

8️. Multilingual Alerts

Display alerts in user’s preferred CRM language.

Example:

English user sees:
“Invoice is overdue.”

French user sees:
“Facture en retard.”

Ideal for global companies.

9️. Rich Text Alerts (Images, Links, Colors, Formatting)

Create visually engaging messages.

Example:

A marketing alert with:

• Bold text
• Hyperlink to campaign page
• Embedded image

Boosts clarity and engagement.

10. User Preferences

Let users choose how they want alerts delivered:

• Pop-up
• Email
• Both
• Or none

Example:

Sales reps prefer email, service agents prefer pop-ups → Alerts4Dynamics adapts accordingly.

Prevents alert fatigue.

11. Alert Audience Filtering

Show alerts only to selected users, teams, or roles.

Example:

A finance alert is visible only to the finance team, not sales.

Enhances data confidentiality.

12. Post Notifications (Tag Users Like Social Media)

Tag users in Timeline → they receive notifications automatically.

Example:

Support agent tags a sales rep:
“@Bob, please contact this customer regarding renewal.”

13. Email Digest Workflow (Daily/Weekly/Monthly)

Send a summary of unread or active alerts.

Example:

Managers receive a daily digest of:

• Pending approvals
• Escalated cases
• Missed follow-ups

Replaces manual reporting.

1️4. Search Notifications

Quickly find alerts using keywords.

Example:

Sales manager searches “Invoice” to view all invoice-related notifications.

Saves time for high-volume CRM users.

Video Tutorial:

6 Real-Time Alerts Every Sales Team Must Set Up in Dynamics 365 CRM

Step-by-Step Guide: Create an Alert Notification in Dynamics 365 CRM

Step 1 – Open Alerts4Dynamics

Advanced Settings → Alerts4Dynamics → Alerts → New

Step 2 – Choose Alert Type

Record-Based, Rule-Based, or Event-Based

Step 3 – Add Message Text or Rich Text

Add colors, images, links, or formatted text.

Step 4 – Select Delivery Mode

Pop-up, form bar, form dialog, email, or user preference.

Step 5 – Assign Alert Levels

Information, Warning, Critical

Step 6 – Choose Audience

User, team, BU, related records, or entire org.

Step 7 – Activate

Alert becomes live instantly.

Practical Use Cases Across Departments

Sales Use Cases

• New lead alerts
• Opportunity stage change alerts
• Quote expiry warnings
• High-value deal alerts
• Renewal reminders

Service Use Cases

• Case creation alerts
• SLA breach warnings
• Escalation notifications
• Customer dissatisfaction alerts

Marketing Use Cases

• Event registration alerts
• Form submission notifications
• Campaign milestone reminders

Challenges Solved by Alerts4Dynamics

Challenge	Impact	Solution
Missed data updates	Slow response	Real-time pop-ups + dialogs
Too many emails	Alerts ignored	User preference control
No workflow visibility	Delayed action	Event-based triggers
No multilingual support	Miscommunication	Multi-language alerts
Poor engagement	Alerts overlooked	Rich-text notifications

FAQs

1. What are CRM alert notifications?

CRM alert notifications are automated messages that inform users about important updates such as new leads, escalations, deadlines, or record changes. While most CRMs offer basic notifications, tools like Alerts4Dynamics provide advanced real-time pop-ups, form alerts, email alerts, and rich-text messages that ensure nothing gets missed.

2. Why do businesses need alerts in a CRM system?

Alerts help teams respond quickly, reduce missed follow-ups, and stay updated without manually checking every record. A solution like Alerts4Dynamics adds smart, automated alerting to Dynamics 365 CRM, helping sales, service, and marketing teams act instantly.

3. What types of alerts can a CRM send?

CRMs typically support email alerts, reminders, and workflow-based notifications. With Alerts4Dynamics, users can go beyond the basics and send real-time pop-ups, form dialogs, form banners, multilingual alerts, rich-text notifications, audience-filtered alerts, and event-based triggers.

4. How do CRM alerts work?

Alerts trigger based on actions like new record creation, updates, or approaching deadlines. In Dynamics 365 CRM, Alerts4Dynamics makes this easier by allowing no-code configuration of event-based and rule-based alerts that fire instantly when something important happens.

5. Can CRM alerts be customized?

Yes. CRMs allow some customization, but Alerts4Dynamics offers deeper flexibility, colored messages, bold text, images, links, icons, and structured formatting. You can also choose levels like Information, Warning, or Critical.

6. Can I choose who receives CRM alerts?

Absolutely. With Alerts4Dynamics, you can target users, teams, roles, business units, or even related record owners. This ensures alerts reach only the right audience while keeping sensitive information restricted.

7. How do CRM alerts help sales teams?

Sales reps get immediate notifications about new leads, stage changes, high-value deals, and expiring quotes. Alerts4Dynamics helps increase conversions by ensuring reps never miss a follow-up or time-sensitive opportunity.

8. Can CRM alerts help reduce email overload?

Yes. In-app pop-ups in Alerts4Dynamics reduce email dependency. Users can choose how they want to receive alerts: pop-up only, email only, both, or none, helping prevent alert fatigue.

9. Does CRM alerts support multiple languages?

Some CRMs offer partial translation support. Alerts4Dynamics goes further by auto-displaying alerts in the user’s preferred CRM language, making it ideal for global teams.

Final Thoughts: Make Dynamics 365 CRM Smarter with Alerts4Dynamics

Alert automation transforms how your teams communicate.
With Alerts4Dynamics, you empower your organization to:

• React faster
• Communicate smarter
• Boost productivity
• Improve customer experience
• Reduce missed follow-ups
• Deliver timely updates across roles

This is the missing alert infrastructure that Dynamics 365 CRM always needed.

Try Alerts4Dynamics with a 15-day free trial from our website or Microsoft AppSource alert notifications.

Need a live demo? Contact us at crm@inogic.com.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Alerts & Notifications in Dynamics 365 CRM first appeared on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Tips and Tricks.