- [Instructor] Entitlements in Dynamics 365
Customer Services track customer support agreements.
Entitlements define the level
and type of support the customer receives
under the agreement.
The amount of support a customer is entitled to
might cover a specific time range,
duration or it might be a defined number of cases.
For example, an entitlement might be valid for a year
during which year the customer will be able
to log a certain number of cases
or under different entitlements,
they might receive 200 hours of support.
Entitlements are used to enforce
and managed these types of scenarios.
Once an entitlement has been created,
it will move through different stages
during its lifecycle.
An entitlement starts in a draft stage
where users can edit the record
and when an entitlement has been activated
but the current data doesn't fall
within the supported dates specified in the agreement,
it'll be in a waiting stage.
An entitlement will be considered active
when it's activated
and the start date has been achieved.
When an entitlement is active,
the details are locked for editing.
The entitlement will expire
when the end date has been reached
but it can also be canceled at any time
while it's active.
Once an entitlement has been canceled or expired,
it can be renewed, which puts it back
in the draft stage.
Entitlements that are active or in waiting stages
can't be renewed.
Now that you understand the concept of entitlements,
let's take a look at how we can work
with these records in Dynamics 365.
In order to access entitlements
in Dynamics 365 Customer Service,
we'll have to go to the Service Management area
and if you scroll down a little bit,
you're going to see service terms here
on the left-hand side
and here you will see entitlements.
I already set up a couple of entitlements,
so we can kind of take a look at them
and see how they work.
So if we're looking at this particular entitlement,
you can see that it's tied to a customer,
which is Adventure Works,
and I have a start date and an end date
for this entitlement.
We also see that we have the option
to restrict based on entitlement terms.
That means that, for example,
if we only allow this customer
to create 10 cases,
if they try to create case number 11,
are we going to restrict them from doing that?
So by setting this to yes,
we are actually restricting the customer service rep
once those terms are met to create additional cases.
Now, we also have an allocation type
and in this particular entitlement,
you can see that it is a set number of cases.
And we have the ability to decrease that number
either on case creation or on case resolution.
Then we also have the total terms,
so that's actually the total number of cases
that these guys get under this entitlement.
And then you can also see the remaining terms.
So there's already been some cases
that have been created under this term.
We also have something
that's called entitlement channels,
and those are optional.
If you want to restrict your customers
to create cases under different channels,
this is where you can set this up.
So for this example,
we can see that they can actually create 10 cases
that's coming in through the phone channel
and zero cases that come in through the email channel.
We can also select certain products
where these customers can create cases for.
You can see I don't have any setup right now
so that means that we're not restricted by any products.
And then lastly, we also see that we have contacts here.
What this means is that only those folks are able
to create cases for this particular customer
under this entitlement.
Now let's take a look
to see how this actually works with cases.
So I'm going to create another case for this customer.
Adventure Works.
Just going to say issue.
This is a problem.
And we got to make sure
that this is Nancy who is submitting this case.
Now, you can see here
that the email, like I said,
we cannot use the email as that channel,
how that case is being created.
But you'll see that if I don't enter the entitlement,
I can go ahead and I can create that case.
So if wanted to restrict this type of behavior,
we can set this entitlement
to be the default entitlement.
That means that any time a case is being created
for this particular customer,
this entitlement will be linked to that case automatically.
So let's try that out.
Again, create a case.
Adventure Works.
And you can see that I'm still not populating
that entitlement but now when I try to save my case,
it's actually telling me
that we cannot create a case for this
because there are no available terms.
Remember, we are able to create zero cases by email.
Now, if I change this to phone
and when I click save and close,
you will see that I was actually able
to create that case record.
Now when I refresh,
you'll see that my remaining terms are now at seven.
At any point in time,
you can take a look at the related cases
and see the cases that are tied
to this particular entitlement.
Entitlements are a great tool
to track customer service agreements
and the level of support your customers are entitled too.