Its here - Office 365 Groups in CRM Online

Office 365 Groups are a shared workspace for email, conversations, files, and events where group members can collectively get stuff done.

Below you see an Office 365 Group created and opened in Outlook

Fig. 1: Office 365 Group

You can use Office 365 Groups to collaborate with people across your company – even if they don't have access to Dynamics CRM Online. You can create a group for your sales team and invite other Office 365 users to join the group, and then share documents, conversations, meeting notes, and OneNote information related to specific accounts or opportunities

"Office 365 Groups" is a CRM solution you provision from your Office 365 admin portal

In this example I'll deploy Office Groups in my CRM Online tenant, and create an Office Group for an opportunity

In the Office 365 admin center, choose CRM (1)

Fig. 2: Office 365 Admin Portal

In the CRM Online Administration Center, choose your organization and then choose Solutions (1)

Fig. 3: Solutions

Select "Office 365 Groups" (1) and then click Install (2)

Fig. 4: Install

Review the terms of service and then click Install (1)

Fig. 5: Accept ToS

The solution is being installed

Fig. 6: Installing

When installed you can navigate to Settings > Solutions to verify its there

Fig. 7: Solution installed

If insterested you can take a look at the installed entities

Fig. 8: Note the new entities

Configure Office 365 Groups

Once you provision Office 365 Groups, you can enable them for any entity. Security group membership is associated with the entity. You configure Office 365 Groups in CRM Online.

In CRM Online, choose Settings (1) > Office 365 Groups.(2)

Fig. 9: Open Office Groups Settings

On the "Office 365 Groups Integration Settings" page, click Add Entity (1)

Fig. 10: "Office 365 Groups Integration Settings" page

Choose an entity from the drop-down list (eg. Opportunity). Repeat this step for each entity you want to enable.

You can optionally choose Auto-create for an entity to have a new group automatically created when a new record for that entity is created. However, we recommend you choose this option only for entities that typically require large groups to collaborate.
When you have added all the entities you want to enable for Office 365 Groups, choose Publish All. (2)

Fig. 11: Add Opportunity and Publish All

All of your pending system customizations will be published, including those you may have saved but not published in another area.

Create an Office 365 Group for an Opportunity

Navigate to Sales > Opportunities (1)

Fig. 12: Navigate to Opportunities

Open an opportunity

Fig. 13: Opportunity record opened

Click the opportunity name (1) and then "Office 365 Groups" (2) to open the "Welcome to Office 365 Groups" page

Fig. 14: Navigate to Office 365 Groups page for the Opportunity Record

A default name for the group is being fetched based on the record name (1)

Fig. 15: Office Groups Welcome dialog - fetching default name

Fig. 16: Default Group Name generated

Change the name if you prefer so (1) and then click Create Office 365 Group (2)

Fig. 17: Custom Group Name and Create

The Group is being set up

Fig. 18: Office 365 Group for opportunity being created

The Group is ready, but empty. You can now begin to invite members to the group (even externals), create meetings in the group calendar, start a group conversation, share documents and more.

Fig. 19: Office Group created

Navigate to the Office 365 Group calender (click Open Calendar) and create an appointment

Fig. 20: First appointment in Group Calendar

Back in the opportunity record note that the Group section reflects the newly created appointment

Fig. 21: Group reflects changes

As said you can invite members (also users without a CRM license) to the group making it really easy to collaborate on the opportunity with relevant parties.

Below I've added Henrik Krogh to the group. Henrik Krogh has an E3 license but no CRM license

When Henrik Krogh (1) access his Office 365 mailbox he'll see a mail (2) from the group admin as well as a new link to the group in the navigation pane (3)

Perhaps Henrik want to see the calendar for the group so he clicks the group link, and then the More menu (1)

In the More menu he can click Calendar (1)...

... to see that the group has scheduled a meeting.

I hope you will enjoy this addition to the best CRM Online service in the world.

Note

  • The security privilege, ISV Extensions, is required to use Office 365 Groups. You can add or remove this privilege from custom or default security roles to meet your business needs. If a user does not have this privilege, they will not be able to see the Office 365 Groups item in a record’s navigation menu

See also

  • Collaborate with your colleagues using Office 365 Groups - link
  • Deploy Office 365 Groups - link