Hi Rosemarie.
Are the collaborators users or contacts? I assume they are licensed users, but in my suggestions below, you will see that I say "Users (or Contacts)" depending on your implementation.
You have several options, and I offer them ranked from best to worst (IMHO):
1. Create a custom entity called Collaborators and add a N:1 relation to Cases and another N:1 relation to Users (or Contacts). Make a Quick Create form, make the Case field required, and enable it for Quick Create. Then add a subgrid of the Collaborators to the Case form, and you should get a nice fly-out form to add new collaborators. This will give you the flexibility of having as many collaborators per case as you want without having to use N:N relations.
2. Use the OOTB Connections feature - this will require very little effort to configure and it allows you to have many-to-many between your collaborators and cases. Connections allows you to relate almost any entity to almost any other entity. Users will need to be trained to navigate to the Related tab to see the Active Connections Associated view. While it is possible to add a subgrid to the Case form to show the Connections, the subgrid will not let you add new connections - the user will still need to navigate to the Connections Associated View to do that. For that reason, It is not my preferred option. Also, I have seen Connections get over-used and users will often get confused when trying to include it as part of an advanced find.
3. Create an N:N relation between Case and Users (or Contacts) and add a subgrid to the Case form. If all you want is an infinite list of names added to case, this is relatively quick and easy to configure, but as a solution architect, it is my least-favorite option because it has a myriad of shortcomings that have forced me to write plugins to solve. For example, reporting (such as Power BI) is very hard to do, workflows cannot be triggered and rollups do not work.
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Thanks.
Nelson Johnson, Solution Architect
BroadPoint, Inc., Bethesda MD
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Original Message:
Sent: Oct 06, 2020 12:35 PM
From: Rosemarie Cordell
Subject: Multiple collaborators on a case record
Our cases maintain one owner from initiation to resolution however there are multiple collaborators within the support department that contribute to case resolution. We want to give the case owner an easy way to see who their collaborators are should they have a follow-up question. Is adding custom fields for the additional collaborators the best way to accomplish this? Or is there an OOTB option that I'm overlooking?
We are using D365 CE and are mostly OOTB in the unified interface (using the customer service hub).
Thanks in advance!
#CustomerService
#Admin
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Rosemarie Cordell
Business Analyst
NEWBERG OR
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