It’s hard to believe that the calendar has already flipped to 2019. In many ways, 2018 flew by at PowerObjects: new clients, new employees, new global offices, a new (to us) building in Minneapolis… good changes were all around us all the time. But there are a few things at PowerObjects that simply don’t change: our four pillars, our five Guiding Principles, our laser-focus on Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Business Applications, and certainly our commitment to publishing the number #1 Dynamics 365 Blog in the world.

For the 11^th year in a row, we blogged information, guidance, training, and helpful hints – all freely accessible and relevant to the entire Dynamics 365 user group community. Since the inception of our blog in late 2007, we’ve penned nearly 1,800 blogs, 227 of which were posted in 2018 alone! And as has been our tradition in recent years, we like to reshare the top ten most popular blogs from the previous year. So, without further ado, we present the ten most-read 2018 PowerObjects blogposts:

10. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Configuration Migration Tool
Here, readers learned about an often-overlooked option for migrating configuration data between environments. Indeed, the Dynamics 365 CRM Configuration Migration Tool assists in moving entity configuration data without the use of custom code. It’s a great no-cost, no-code tool!

9. Using Virtual Entities with Dynamics 365
Virtual entities allow Microsoft Dynamics 365 users to utilize record information from external data sources and view the information in fields, search results, and even Fetch XML-based reports within Dynamic 365. You can read all about it in this blogpost.

8. How to Find the Object Type Code for Any Entity
Each entity in your system has an Object Type code. For simplicity’s sake, think of it as a numbering system for all entities, including both out-of-the-box and custom. As a CRM expert, you could easily encounter a situation in which you need to identify the Object Type code for a given entity. We show you how!

7. Authentication to Dynamics 365 using Azure Apps
Need to make a connection to Microsoft Dynamics 365 from an outside source like a single-page application, a mobile application, or other service? Typically, authenticating to Dynamics 365 can be pretty darn challenging – but not if you read this blogpost.

6. How to Integrate Power BI with Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations
Power BI is a suite of business analytics tools that allows users to analyze data and share insights. This robust tool provides extensive modeling capabilities, real-time analytics, and the option for custom development. Here you can read about how Power BI provides a great platform to create your own reports or simply tweak existing ones.

5. Electronic Reporting in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations
In this Top-5 post, you’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about Electronic Reporting (ER) – a tool for configuring incoming/outgoing electronic documents in accordance with legal requirements of your specific country or region. ER lets you manage these configurations throughout each document’s lifecycle.

4. How to Install and View Organization Insights for Dynamics 365
If you’ve ever longed for a simple and intuitive tool for tracking your organization’s metrics, the fourth-most-popular blogpost of 2018 is for you! Organization Insights for Dynamics 365 (online) is a free yet powerful tool that provides your system administrator with access to all the key metrics.

3. How to Bulk Update CRM Records Using the Bulk Workflow Execution Tool
Cracking the Top 3 is this popular post that shows you how to avoid the 250-record limit when doing mass updates. Indeed, Bulk Workflow Execution is a great tool that allows users to run – in bulk! – an On-Demand Workflow against a set of records pulled from a System or Personal View.

2. Using the Ribbon Workbench in CRM 2016
In the #2 spot is a post that describes a helpful and fun-to-use tool for customizing buttons and actions in your CRM: the Ribbon Workbench. There are many scenarios in which this tool may come in handy – for example, let’s say you wanted to be able to resolve a case with a single click… this would be the tool for you!

1. How to Configure a Point of Sale in D365 for Retail in a Day
Our most-read post of 2018 is a richly-detailed, articulately-described, and loaded-with-screenshots beauty describing the Point of Sale (POS) system available in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Retail. Setting up a new POS system in a retail environment can be done quickly, but the steps carefully outlined in this post must be followed closely. If you’re in retail, this is a must-read.

Well, dear reader, that’s it for our countdown. We hope you enjoyed our stroll down 2018’s Memory Lane. Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to receive the latest posts in your inbox!

Here’s to another 225+ blogposts in 2019… oh, and happy D365’ing!

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