Supported Dynamics 365 Products
Which Dynamics 365 products work with Plauti for Dynamics 365?
Plauti for Microsoft Dynamics 365 runs on Microsoft Dataverse. Whether Plauti works with your Dynamics 365 setup depends on whether your data lives in Dataverse, is bridged into it, or lives somewhere else entirely.
Microsoft's Dynamics 365 naming can be confusing, partly because of years of rebrands, and partly because "Dynamics 365" today actually covers three separate product families that don't all work the same way under the hood. This article explains those families and what to expect from Plauti for Dynamics 365 in each case.
Quick overview
| Dynamics 365 family | Examples | Works with Plauti for Dynamics 365? |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Engagement (CE) | Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Customer Insights | Yes, out of the box |
| Finance & Operations (F&O) | Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce, Human Resources | Only if your data is bridged into Dataverse using dual-write |
| Business Central | Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV/Navision) | Only if your data is bridged into Dataverse using data synchronization |
A custom-built Power App can also work, depending on how it's built. See 'Custom Power Apps' below.
Dataverse is a cloud-only service, so on-premises deployments of Dynamics 365 (including legacy on-premises CRM installations) are not supported, regardless of which product family you're using.
Customer Engagement (CE)
If you are using Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, or Customer Insights/Marketing (also collectively called "Dynamics CRM" or "first-party apps"), you're on Customer Engagement. These apps store their data directly in Dataverse, so Plauti works with them out of the box. No extra setup is needed for compatibility.
Finance & Operations (F&O)
Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce, and Human Resources (also collectively called "F&O" or "FO," and formerly known as Dynamics AX or Axapta) make up the Finance & Operations family.
F&O runs on its own platform, separate from Dataverse. Plauti for Dynamics 365 can work with F&O data once it has been copied into Dataverse using dual-write. Dual-write keeps F&O and Dataverse in sync in near real time, and it works in both directions, so changes made through a Plauti app (such as a merge) can flow back into F&O.
Microsoft's setup documentation for dual-write:
Bridging via virtual tables is not supported. Some organizations connect F&O to Dataverse using virtual tables instead of dual-write. Virtual tables display F&O data in Dataverse on demand, via a live proxy. Plauti for Dynamics 365 cannot be used in this case, not even if the connector is set to read/write.
Business Central
Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV, originally Navision) is Microsoft's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for small and mid-sized businesses.
Like F&O, Business Central runs on its own platform, separate from Dataverse. Plauti for Dynamics 365 can only work with Business Central data once it has been copied into Dataverse using data synchronization. This is Business Central's equivalent of dual-write, though it runs on a schedule rather than in near real time, and it only covers the tables you've set up to be synced.
Bridging via virtual tables is not supported. Some organizations connect Business Central to Dataverse using virtual tables instead of data synchronization. Virtual tables display Business Central data in Dataverse on demand, via a live proxy. Plauti for Dynamics 365 cannot be used in this case, not even if the connector is set to read/write.
Custom Power Apps
If your organization built its own app in Power Apps rather than using an off-the-shelf Dynamics 365 product, support depends on how that app was built:
- Model-driven apps are always built directly on Dataverse, so they work with Plauti by definition.
- Canvas apps can connect to many different data sources, including Dataverse, SharePoint, SQL, and others. Whether Plauti works depends on which data source the canvas app actually uses. If your canvas app stores its data in Dataverse, it will work. If it stores data elsewhere, it will not.
If you're not sure which type of app you're using, or which data source it connects to, check with whoever built the app, or contact your Microsoft admin.
On-premises Dynamics 365
Plauti for Dynamics 365 was built for cloud Dynamics 365 only. Dataverse is a cloud-only service, so on-premises deployments of Dynamics 365 (including legacy on-premises CRM installations) are not supported, regardless of which product family you're using.
Naming reference
Microsoft has renamed several of these products over the years. If you're not sure what your organization's system is currently called, use this list as a reference:
| You might know it as | Current name |
|---|---|
| Common Data Service (CDS) | Dataverse |
| Dynamics CRM | Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (Sales, Customer Service, etc.) |
| Dynamics 365 Marketing | Customer Insights – Journeys |
| Dynamics 365 Customer Insights | Customer Insights – Data |
| Axapta / Dynamics AX | Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management |
| Navision / Dynamics NAV | Dynamics 365 Business Central |
Not sure which setup you have?
If you're unsure whether your Dynamics 365 environment is bridged into Dataverse, or which method it uses, check with your Microsoft admin or IT team, or reach out to Plauti Support and we can help you confirm.