The Dynamics CRM 2015 spring update brings many great new features to the platform. This blog will discuss the exciting new features for business process flows that will enhance productivity and ease of use in Dynamics CRM. We will specifically look at the new "Set Active" function as part of the enhanced business process flow, and how to easily move to a previous project stage.

In previous versions of Dynamics CRM, it was not possible to move to a previous stage of a business process flow on a different entity. No direct traversing through the UI was possible. Now with the "Set Active" function you can make active any stage in any previous entity of the process. Let's take a look at an example.

Here, we have set up a simple business process flow using the account, order, and activity entities. The stage gates are "Review Store", "Suggest Order", "Plan Visit", "Store Visit", and "Confirm Order". "Review Store" is currently set as the active stage gate in this example.

But let's say we're visiting with our customer and over the course of the meeting we discover that the client has new needs, and the suggested order now needs to be adjusted. No problem! We can select the "Suggest Order" stage gate and click on "Set Active" to re-activate the stage gate on the order entity.

Figure 1: "Suggested Order" is selected.

Now the active stage has been reinstated to "Suggested Order," and the client's new goals can be easily adjusted.

Figure 2: "Suggested Order" is the active stage gate on the order entity

The "Set Active" function is a great new addition to Dynamics CRM 2015. It makes reporting more reliable and makes it easier to manage stage gate processes. Please check back with the PowerObjects blog often for more details and demonstrations on Dynamics CRM.

Happy CRM'ing!