CRM, the Dataverse, and Power (Apps, Platform, Automate – you pick)

This is my first time writing a blog post, ever.

I have noticed some confusion by customers and coworkers about Dataverse, Power Platform, Power Apps, and Dynamics CRM (D365 CE, Sales, etc.) and hope I can help clear up any confusion and help people to better understand.

What falls under Power Platform is usually considered: Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, and Power Virtual Agents. Once you get past that top level name (Dataverse, CDS, or Power Platform – virtually all the same/similar things) Power Apps is what I notice is the most ‘unclear’ to people, yet the most commonly used.

Power Apps consist of three different applications: Model Driven Apps, Portals, and Canvas Apps. To me, Dynamics CRM and Power Apps should be considered in the same product line. In my opinion, CRM is a prebuilt, modelized, fully customizable model driven Power App – modules including Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, and more. Here is my thinking on this:

1. Model Driven Apps – if you have any CRM module you will notice that you have to click into an application, such as: Sales Hub or Field Service. These are model driven apps, applications that can segment your business to what that user needs. To go a step further, Model Driven apps are built using the same great CRM customization tools that have been around for a few years including workflows, business rules, JavaScript, and Plugins. There is a newer UI to build in, but it serves the same functionality.
2. Portals – are from CRM, via ADX studios. I have always found myself developing portals in the same areas, despite the rebrand to ‘Power Apps’ – inside of a CRM. Yes, there is a newer interface to build inside, but it is still the same basic product. Some of the best Power App Portal developers I know consider themselves CRM developers.
3. Canvas Apps – these are the outlier of the three. Since Canvas apps can be built with many different data sources, I consider them different, but they do still have a tie in to CRM since you can use the CDS as your data source.

Hopefully, this information can be helpful to someone, maybe you realize you dont need a CRM module and can change over to ‘model driven apps’ or you have a better idea of what your resources are capable of, or something else. I am happy to answer any questions or feel free to tell me I’m wrong (and hopefully why) because I want to keep learning.

Mike Hastings – mh758306@ohio.edu