Have you validated your integrations since the regional Discovery Service Deprecation?

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If you connect your Dynamics 365 environment to third party tools or console apps, here’s a friendly reminder to validate those connections. The deprecation of regional Discovery Service could cause integration errors that you’ll want to address sooner than later.

What Is Regional Discovery Service?

Regional Discovery Service was a Microsoft authentication method that enabled applications to discover which environments a user should have access to. It has now been shut down in favor of the new global Discovery Service.

Deprecation Background

Traditionally, third party tools and integrations have been able connect to Dynamics using just a username and password. However, on March 2, 2020, regional Discovery Service received deprecated status, and on April 21, 2021, it was officially retired and shut down in favor of the new global Discovery Service. This deprecation required a change to the method in which outside tools integrate with Dynamics with stricter authentication options such as Azure Active Directory, or Single Sign-On.

Why Addressing the Regional Discovery Service Deprecation Matters

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Like all Microsoft Power Platform applications, Power Virtual Agents (or PVA for short) is made with ease of use in mind. The no-code interface makes it possible for non-developer team members to design chatbots to meet their department’s needs.

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Use analytics to monitor the effectiveness of your chatbots and make improvements. Understand where users are disengaging and which chatbots are most successful at resolving tickets.

 

Chatbot Topic Suggestions

Power Virtual Agents can use AI to extract content directly from a webpage (e.g., FAQs), making it quick and easy to create a PVA chatbot from existing content and documentation. If you don’t update your authentication method, your system may encounter errors connecting to third party applications. Save yourself time, stress, and data loss down the line by making sure you’ve implemented any necessary updates.

How to Handle the Deprecation

If you’re using a tool that integrates data with Dynamics such as a non-Microsoft integration tool, marketing tool, or console app, you will want to validate how it is connecting to Dynamics. For third party tools you will need to update your authentication method to utilize Azure Active Directory or Single Sign-On. If your connection to Dynamics uses an API, you’ll need to upgrade to the latest software development kit (SDK).

Have questions or need additional assistance validating your connections? Reach out to your Altriva Solutions account manager or read the Microsoft documentation.

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