Expert Q&A: Business Applications | ISV Technical Q&A | COM43
Okay. And, without any further ado, I do let's. Continue I've, got on, the line with me today Aditya, Varma Kelsi Bloomquist and James Bamford our experts. From a team and I'll ask people. To start off by introducing themselves, James. Can you go first. Yeah. Sure hi everyone my name is James Bamford, I'm a solution. Architect on, the, ISV. Success, team been, with Microsoft for. Almost. Five years. Been. In and out of the. Dynamic. Space helping, out customers. And, partners and. Helping. People learn, more about dynamics. Of the power platform. All. Right I'm, gonna ask Kelsey, can you give us a little, bit about yourself next sure. Hello, everybody, Kelsey. Bloomquist here I am, also, on the ISV success, team a solution architect helping. Partners build a tower business application, platform I've, been at Microsoft and, in the, business applications. For nine years I spent about eight of those as a developer, on Dynamics, CRM and, power-ups, and now I'm on the ISP success team helping partners and really happy to be here take. It away addy. Yeah. Hi. There my, name is Aditya Varma I'm the, solution, architect, lead for the ISP engagement, team here I've. Been in Microsoft, for 15 years throughout, the career here, in the. Dynamics, 365. CRM. As. Well as the power platform, team as well background. Being upon. The engineering. And developer side to, start with and then for, the last 10 years on, the solution architecture, architecture. Space. And. Let's. Talk a little bit about what it is that you can ask about in this session the things that we could cover yes. So quickly. Just, to give you guys a quick overview. Of what we will be covering, anything. In. The technical arena as it you, know assigns, to yourself in terms of an ISV, the. Development, patterns the architecture, the. First party applications. We can cover all of that. Questions. That you might have on the certification side, will cover as well. You'll, take action, items so with, respect to a licensing, we're, not the experts we are the technical experts to go, to market as well as the cosell benefits, if, you do have feel free to put them in so that we can take action items to provide you that you.
Know We, will not be covering the, in-depth on the azure pieces, but we, can cover as your components, which might be related to the dynamics, you. Know architecture, and design elements, we will cover those but not, you. Know the answer elements which are not related to the dynamics. Awesome. With, that we. Can go through the questions okay, so, so Ali just to kick us off. Why. Don't you give us a bit of actually, I think. That. Kelsey. You're gonna do this give. Us a little bit of a high-level look, at what the architecture, of Dynamics, 365, and the power platform, looks like so people can understand where it is that we're coming from and the kinds of things that we look. At. Sure. It sounds great um Kelsey. Here so when, we're talking about the, Microsoft, business application, ecosystem, we, sort of have multiple layers that you can see and. Really on the the, base core ground of it you see a lot of Azure components, which, allow you to use you, know bigger data and scale out whatever. You're using within. Your other business applications, and. What you see on top of that is really the power platform, you, know we have multiple. Applications. You can use whether or not you want to create an app if you want to do workflows, if you want to get analytics, from that if you want to create a virtual bot we give you these citizen, developer. Applications. In order to have sort of a low code no code use, to, create what you need and if you if you need to extend that and do bigger pro-development you, can use the azure components, that, come along with those and then we on, top of that, you. Know the way that we can use our data and we can gather intelligence from that Microsoft, supplies, first-party. Applications. In multiple. Industries, so, if you use Microsoft, CRM you know that includes things like sales marketing, service. The ones that you see in the top of the inner circle if you use. Different things like within finance and operations you have commerce. Supply. Chain management HR and. Even within, those you, can gather insights, on top of this data so then we have, different first party applications, including sales, insights, customer, insights service insights and these will allow you to, further, use. The Microsoft for first party apps in order to get insights, on the data that you have and, so, all of this ecosystem, we really have four, big pillars we want to make sure that it's modern for, today's world that it's unified, so your, data can be used amongst, the entire. String. Of applications, that are you, know that exist and then your applications, that you build on top of those they have to be intelligent, so that you can build your insights and analytics on, top of it and they have to be able to adapt easily, because the world is ever-changing. So. This sort of you, know gives a really good display, of, what. Exists, in the Microsoft business apps from our first party apps to the power platform, you can build on top of to agile which has a lot of the underlying. Products. That, you can use and extend on top of that now. If you go to the next slide as well there is a core component here, which is known as the common data service, so. We call its EDS and this, is under the covers you know a lot of people may think it's just data storage but that's not true at all there's so much more that exists within c.d.s, and you get this out of the box if you if you use dynamics, if you use the power platform, if, you're using any of these you have access, to CD f's which allows you you.
Know All of these different areas you can either make it secure, with your authentication, and authorization you, can add logic you. Can do different things with your data I would clues modeling and make sure that it's stored safely and then you can integrate to a lot of different pieces within, the business app platform, so, just as a high-level architecture to, get you guys understanding, what's all included with the biz apps ecosystem. Cool. Thanks, Kelsey I, don't, know what people are seeing this but. There's a few. Questions that are popping up in the chat please. As I said use that an upvote button. Very. Quickly. Before. We dive in any further I've, got a question. Here. Adi and and. Crew there's. A power, bi questions, is power query available, for integration in your app and the second one is he. Says I can see that I can add custom connectors, or visualizations, but I can I add code functionality, other than by providing Dax source, essentially. Have some thoughts about products. But he's not really quite sure how to monetize, them and how, to use power bi. Yeah. Definitely. The. Power, bi competence, especially. Can. Also be integrated through the power platform, itself so. If they have you, know power query connectivity. That can effectively. Be launched, with power bi that. Can effectively, be then used to embed within the power, applications. As well as the power automate. Mechanisms. To you know pull the data, effectively. Can, be and. Easily done so. What. Was the second part of the question there Alec. Sure. The, second part that question. Was he says I can see that I can add custom, connectors. Or visualizations. This, is David II by the way if you're listening David but, can I add code functionality. Other than providing Dax source. It. Should be possible. Without. Going into the further details of exactly what, they're doing it's going to be hard to answer but it should, be possible for them to embed that as well. Okay. Thank. You okay. Let's, move along here I've got another one. Which. Says this, is one is from Chris he says is there an API to enable actual. Generation of power platform solutions and apps as opposed to a GUI driven creation, system. So, he can hear to be dead, is. There an API to, enable actual. Generation, of power platform, solutions and apps as opposed. To, the. The. Citizen, developer interface that we use. Yeah. Definitely, I think. You. If you can pull up one. Of the slides we are actually going to talk about that as well. So. Every single layer of the application, is extensible, that. Could also include the API later so the. CTS itself, is fully api enabled, directly. Through mobility is, or. You. Can also have abscess, for soap endpoints, if you so choose, so. In fact early you can consume, that and this, like kinda gives you a good overview of, that where. You can either extend it all. The way from the, application. Layer or you can extend it from the business layer but. If you so choose you can also consume, the API is directly, and we, have a fully. Supported, mechanism, of, web api as we call it for. You to consume those api's, into. Your application, suite itself now. If. I were to you. Know give you a quick overview if, you, kind. Of go a one slide above. Alec. Into, slide number, 17. There is actually a good. Overview. Slide. There that actually very much ok, this. One is the one you're looking for so, yeah. So, effectively, you. Know there are three patterns that we look for as an ISP that you, can use number one is what we call as. You. Know build, which. Means you can custom, build your applications, directly, on the power platform, you. Can consume the power Pai power Automator power apps ecosystem. To.
Build Your application, or you can extend the first party applications, as an MX 365, applications, can, be used to extend directly. Both. These effectively. Can build upon, the. Power constructs. Or you, can connect using the custom connector I think. You you guys are fully aware many, of you who have been developing. On. Of our platform, would have seen this but, one of the key things is the CD s itself is fully, api enabled, which, means if, you are building. You. Know custom, applications, per se you. Can consume, those directly, from CEDs. Using. The API layer in, order to custom build your application, so, certainly, possible. And. If, you were to go to the next slide, Alec, that, also provides the full extensibility. Details. That. You had shown earlier so. Effectively. If I were to touch upon this the. Web API layer, is. Provided. To the platform, by. CD s for all consumption, you. Can also do UI level. Mechanisms. Of extensibility. You, can do business logic level, extensibility, you can do data model level, of extensibility or you can build custom connector is directly, to. Your data sources. Okay I. Haven't. That's. Related. To that. Which. Is, this. Is an anonymous question he says as a vendor who sells a product or the majority of customers host our product and data on premise are, there any areas of power platform, that we can leverage the surface our data to the citizen developers that don't require a premium, see that's a licensing, question isn't it. So. Let's talk about it without the licensing, piece first right like if, we were to you know, bifurcate. That conversation, away from the licensing, the. Connectors. Itself, you can build custom, connectors, too and you can use the gateways, of the custom connectors, to. Be able to connect, to. The, end, customers. On-premises. Data so, through, gateways, directly, to their on-premises data you should be able to connect once. You are able to expose those connectors, through. Those gateways you, are able to now access, the data so. That you can then light it up into. Your power app ecosystem, be. It our apps or a power automated, so. With that functionality. You should be able to provide. A mechanism for you. To be able to extend. You. Know that the. The. Application speed, to their data source. Alright. Ok. Let's. Have a look at another one here. We've. Got, one. Question here which is actually about developer, programs from Chris he says am I as an ISV are. There developer, programs, and resources that assist is fees who might want to target the power platform, as a delivery platform, for is be developed, solutions. Yeah. Definitely, as part of the ISDN connect program, we.
Do Have. You. Know a suite of you know technical. Functionality. If you may or within. The program, let's. Call it the technical benefits, that. You know you can leverage so, as part of that. Obviously. As. A developer, you you, will be able to get a certain. Number of what. We call as internal user rights for developers, that. Can be provided. To you as an ISV, in, order for you to develop your applications, on. Top of be 365, Dynamics, 365. Or on. Top of the power platform, itself. Apart. From that there are other elements, obviously. From, a Azure, DevOps perspective, we, do have full functionality for, you to be. Able to develop used using, the agile devops mechanisms. On. Top of the power platform that's just the technical side of things but. To. Answer your question yeah, there is a lot of technical benefits as part of the is we connect program that are, available to you when. You when. You become part of the connect. Great. Great. I, have. Another power, platform question. Here, this. Is from one, he. Asks, I understand. That if I build a model, driven app I can't include include, power automate, flows in that has, that changed or will it change soon. Yeah, definitely they should be able to integrate power, automate, flows within. The, model driven applications, as well, so. Effectively. We. Already have several mechanisms within, model driven applications today, like, business. Process flows, such. As you, know the direct workflows as well you. Can also now you, know effectively, incorporate. Mechanisms. Using, power automate, into the into. The overall suite so that now you can build, should. I say business. Automation. Flows all up within, the model driven application. Speed. Okay. I hope that answers the question. Here's. A question from. John. Oh are, there any plans to provide is fees with tools to protect and, license, their power platform, solutions when deployed, in customer, tenants. Yeah. That's a great question so. The. Way that we. Look at it is the. Mechanism to protect your IP right, so this is a question, of IP protection, so let's break it up first, as. Long, as you are able to provide, your, IP. Through. Solutioning, constructs, into app stores there. Are mechanisms in place for. You to protect your IP for certain elements so. Now let's get into the question of what is IP right, if. You are. Usually. The, way we define is we, don't want to consider like entity. Structure. Entity. Schema, as an IP because that is easily, copyable. By anybody so now that becomes a question of should. I say a parenting, as opposed, to IP protection, so from. The construct, of IP protection. Anything. That you want to protect can be effectively. Be put into. Compute. Elements, such as if. You may. You. Know plugins, and other. Elements which are coded, then. You can release those elements into app source using.
The, Managed constructs, of solutioning. Which will then prevent, a. Particular, customers. Too, to be able to copy that, IP out of those, solutions so. Long. Story short answer, would be definitely, look at the App Store's as the mechanism, to publish your IP, that. Way it is stored, as managed solutions, which will then protect, your IP. Altogether there. Was another part, of that question, about, the. Application, suite itself so as. Long as you are able to you, know construct, the entire package, into an application suite, then, now, you have a proper boundary around. Those elements. Okay. I just. Wonder and, Adi. Kelsey, it, seems that we're gonna different. Questions about a sort of technical, benefits as well to the ISP connect program maybe we can just spend. A few minutes on that. In. General and cover off some of those questions so so Kelsey if you don't mind I know I know there's a slide in here that talks. To that can you speak up about that one, sure. Yeah um so. If you join the ISP connect program there are quite. A few technical. Benefits. That come along with it here we've listed out a few, of them, I know Adi also mentioned, you know about having the resources and those environments access. To use them as test environments, so that's something that's not listed here but I think the biggest one is just you get that technical consultative. Support so you, get your own PTA, which is a partner Technical Architect, that works with you you know one on one on. Your, application, so whether you want some. Sort of like full-day workshop if you want to do build with sessions, to, you, know build your application, or your workflow or whatever whichever, application you're using they. Can work with you on that if you have technical questions you know they will be. There as someone. For you to reach out to and if they don't know the answer they can also reach out to us so, we're. Kind of their backstop, so, we'll, work to also help and, so you'll have kind of that closer. Communication. With, engineering, and the product team as well. But. If you if you know it's on this slide here you know we talked about the PTA there's also developer, licenses, so you do get see. Licenses. And access to F&O as part of being, in the program instead. Of having to pay to get you know those licenses, you can do that for your testing. We. Give. You a technical, support call to we're due to app source to answer all of your questions, and make sure that you, understand, app source how to get your stuff certified, and we'll walk you through that as. Well and then we, do have something called ISV studio which, allows ISPs, to see analytics, on their, applications. You. Know how. Many times they've been downloaded, if they're having issues when they're trying to be installed and, right now it's it's kind of basic but we've, been putting a lot of resources into this in order to fill, that out because we know it's really important for ISPs to get the analytics, of their applications. So, that's just listing. You know those kind of top benefits, there's. A lot of sort. Of little things that come along with it too. It just, and us. Being here as well trying. To help you through your process, so Adi, I don't know if you had anything else to add, or James on. Other technical, benefits. But. Does that answer the question for people are there specific, questions you have about the technical benefits. Yeah. The only thing I would like to add to, that is, we. Are definitely, investing. Heavily. On, the. ISV persona. Per se so as part of that as. Kathy mentioned the, ISP Studio mechanism, is. Your. First step into, clearly. Getting a visibility, of how your app is. Doing. Globally. This, is to. Start with in terms of the APS's. Should. I say install, base but, we are expanding, on that particular, element as well there. Are other things that are already coming as part of the ISP studio, itself. Which is to give you mechanisms. As developers. To be able to check your application. For. Should. I say quality in terms of, is it I'm. In the balance of full support ability inside the platform so. We have fully. Incorporated, the power abstraction as part of the is which you as well. Recently. So, we. Are putting indefinitely. More enhancements, into, the studio which now becomes your singular.
Administrative. Pain for, your application, globally, that, can be used to. Give you, visibility, of how your application is, doing on top of the platform so that's number one and, definitely. There are more elements. Such. As that that we are actually putting in the platform itself or from. An ISP perspective. Okay. Cool. We've got just a few minutes left here there's. One question which I've. Seen a good-sized vote upon here this, is from Yuri, he says there's an ISV we, did not only have office. 365 customers. Our 360 backrest window does all the customers that use other products, we'd, like to move away from a user name/password table. To off and use Active Directory customers. Who have over 365, can use their own orgs ad but we need a fallback scenario, for customers who do not have ATP, or IDP, there's, no support and as you're offering to do this scenario or at least we can't discover this is there a scenario that Microsoft, would support here. So. Yeah that's a good question I think from. The mechanism. Of dynamics, in specifically. As well as the power platform, we. Rely on agile, ready as our identity. Provider and, then, through. That effectively. The mechanisms. Of extensibility, of azure ad who, is the identity provider, with. Other third party suite. Of applications that, they rely on, through. Claims based if you may or through OAuth if. You may so we. We kind of rely on that so this question seems to be a little more detailed. On the Azure. Mechanisms. Of identity, provision. We. Do provide, a mechanism for. Applications. For within, I should, I say business application, suite so. If you are writing an application that. Is integrating. With the dynamic, suite of applications or, power platform. We. Do provide a mechanism for, you to integrate with, that sweet as. A, application. Identity, as opposed to a user based. Identity. So, that mechanism. Is available for you to interact with, effectively. What we call the, common data service, but. Of course there are elements, that we. Will need to take a follow-up action on with regards, to the. Underlying, question. That you had asked for of the, azure ad extensibility. For. Support but, today we support claims. Based authentication, we, do support OAuth based authentication as, well as obviously. They use an identity authentication. Thanks. Ali. I've, got one more here and then we should finish up. This. Is from David II he, says I was wondering if you could, incorporate. Power, query into my app then. For example do specialized operations, and then write them to c.d.s so can you use power query as part of his app.
You. Yeah. So we do offer a, power. Bi apps. Available. Upon. App source so, you, can incorporate power, bi, power. Query into. Your app before. You publish it up to app source so, short. Answer to a good, question cool. Before. I finish up any final thoughts from you. Kelsey James or Adi. Not. For me. Yeah. Maybe. We can just talk about real. Quick before we conclude. I. Do. Want to talk about the is the ecosystem momentum. Sure. Definitely. A very high momentum. That. We are seeing so this is the right opportunity. We, have over, the last one year through the ISP connect program not. To you know I, know this is a technical session but I do wanna, alright. Little that but, we have seen in over a thousand, ISPs. Effectively. You. Know launch. With us we have seen over a thousand, certified applications, over the last one year and, we are seeing a great momentum and a, lot of this momentum, we are seeing also. Is, with a lot of as your, ISPs. Who are now looking at, business. End cases, that they can integrate with dynamics. As well as power platform, so, great momentum there, just. A few examples of, the ISPs, are. Also highlighted so great opportunity it's, going to be a great. Year, ahead as well so highly encourage everybody especially. From the as your ecosystem, as. An, isp to, start thinking about business and cases, that can be lighted up by integrating. With Dynamics I do. Want to highlight another, quick. Slide, as well and as. A resource, we. Do have the. Is V connect. Link. For, you guys, any. Questions, that you might have, please. Go, out to that webpage and then you can get more details on the connect program as well as any technical questions, that you might have as an, ISP you can reach out to us via there. Wonderful. Thanks. Audie and. For. Everybody who joined in thank you very much for coming, I know, we had only a short amount of time and I hope this has been useful you've. Got some great, links. To follow up with here as well if you want to speak with Adi or Kelsey or James online. And of course as Adi. Just pointed out there is the, ISP, connect program as. Well and. With that thank, you very much, and. I appreciate you tuning in.
2020-05-30 03:36
