Customer Engagement & Dynamics CRM Forum

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Best practices is to have a  service account as the owner of the workflows.   Some people use the "Administrator" account but I think having a service account works best.

------------------------------
Beth Burrell , MCP - MCSE - MCT
Director, Dynamics Business Operations
Andosi
Wesley Chapel FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Best practices is to have a  service account as the owner of the workflows.   Some people use the "Administrator" account but I think having a service account works best.

------------------------------
Beth Burrell , MCP - MCSE - MCT
Director, Dynamics Business Operations
Andosi
Wesley Chapel FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Agree with Beth above.

In general, we don't allow regular AD accounts to carry out any system-related modifications (or even to have write access) within CRM.
Instead, we all have admin accounts (suitably named), which are then used appropriately.

------------------------------
EY Kalman
Global CRM Manager
Simon-Kucher & Partners
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Agree with everyone here, we have a service owner account that we use to own processes and used to send email notifications. If you have a normal user as the owner of workflows, if they ever leave and their license is removed, all of the workflows they own stop functioning. It's quite the pain. We have a different account to own Power BI connections and will soon have another to own Flow connections for enterprise level functions.

------------------------------
David Craig
Senior Dynamics 365 Application Specialist
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City
Kansas City MO
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Are the service accounts administered differently than a user account would be? Do the service account still get assigned a Dynamics license? Or are they licensed in a different manner?  Thanks.

------------------------------
Mary Cunningham
Director - Service Technology
Comfort Systems USA
Jupiter FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-29-2018 09:44 AM
From: David Craig
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

Agree with everyone here, we have a service owner account that we use to own processes and used to send email notifications. If you have a normal user as the owner of workflows, if they ever leave and their license is removed, all of the workflows they own stop functioning. It's quite the pain. We have a different account to own Power BI connections and will soon have another to own Flow connections for enterprise level functions.

------------------------------
David Craig
Senior Dynamics 365 Application Specialist
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City
Kansas City MO

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

On all projects I assign a service account as the owner of the workflows AND I make sure to discuss or evaluate who the workflow is "running under" so that the workflow also honors the appropriate security.

Service accounts can sometimes be hard to get so that sometimes becomes a variable.


------------------------------
Anne Stanton
Architect
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Hi @Melita Bouchet,
Another thread has been running in tandem about the same question, would be worth reading just in case there is anything in addition to what people have posted on your thread.​

------------------------------
Mark Aston
Data Analyst
Ordnance Survey
Southampton, UK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Do you have a Service account you can use? If not, can you get one? :)

------------------------------
Heidi Neuhauser
Beringer Associates, Inc.
Green Lane PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

What makes the service account different from a user account? Is it administered differently? Does it use a different Dynamics license type?

------------------------------
Mary Cunningham
Director - Service Technology
Comfort Systems USA
Jupiter FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-30-2018 04:57 PM
From: Heidi Neuhauser
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

Do you have a Service account you can use? If not, can you get one? :)

------------------------------
Heidi Neuhauser
Beringer Associates, Inc.
Green Lane PA

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Hi @Mary Cunningham,
Our Service Account is assigned a Professional licence and given the System Administrator security role in Dynamics.  See below of how it differs from my user profile in the o365 admin centre.

For some of our processes the Service Account does own records temporarily when they are created before another processes re-assigns them.  Our Service Account as "Read-Write" access because of this.  This post from 2016 talks about non-interactive Service Accounts which may be of interest.

Hope this helps.

------------------------------
Mark Aston
Data Analyst
Ordnance Survey
Southampton, UK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-31-2018 11:29 AM
From: Mary Cunningham
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

What makes the service account different from a user account? Is it administered differently? Does it use a different Dynamics license type?

------------------------------
Mary Cunningham
Director - Service Technology
Comfort Systems USA
Jupiter FL

Original Message:
Sent: 10-30-2018 04:57 PM
From: Heidi Neuhauser
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

Do you have a Service account you can use? If not, can you get one? :)

------------------------------
Heidi Neuhauser
Beringer Associates, Inc.
Green Lane PA

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------

Thanks @Mark Aston.   I was hoping that perhaps Microsoft had offered a way to setup a service account without having to use one of the professional licenses.     We have an account setup the same way, so but wanted to make sure I didn't miss something with that setup.

Mary​

------------------------------
Mary Cunningham
Director - Service Technology
Comfort Systems USA
Jupiter FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-01-2018 08:26 AM
From: Mark Aston
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

Hi @Mary Cunningham,
Our Service Account is assigned a Professional licence and given the System Administrator security role in Dynamics.  See below of how it differs from my user profile in the o365 admin centre.

For some of our processes the Service Account does own records temporarily when they are created before another processes re-assigns them.  Our Service Account as "Read-Write" access because of this.  This post from 2016 talks about non-interactive Service Accounts which may be of interest.

Hope this helps.

------------------------------
Mark Aston
Data Analyst
Ordnance Survey
Southampton, UK

Original Message:
Sent: 10-31-2018 11:29 AM
From: Mary Cunningham
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

What makes the service account different from a user account? Is it administered differently? Does it use a different Dynamics license type?

------------------------------
Mary Cunningham
Director - Service Technology
Comfort Systems USA
Jupiter FL

Original Message:
Sent: 10-30-2018 04:57 PM
From: Heidi Neuhauser
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

Do you have a Service account you can use? If not, can you get one? :)

------------------------------
Heidi Neuhauser
Beringer Associates, Inc.
Green Lane PA

Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 08:24 AM
From: Melita Bouchet
Subject: Best Practices - Admin - Owner

As an admin we have several workflows that list me as the owner; so I get a lot of emails asking me about "something I did" to their records. Of course I didn't do it so I had no knowledge of the change so I am wondering --Is the best practice to create a "system admin" or "generic" owner for these workflows?

Do you as the admin or system administrator use yourself as the owner or something different? What is your best practice?

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

------------------------------
Melita Bouchet
Marketing Manager & CRM Technologist
MGroup
LaGrange GA
------------------------------