Blog

My blog posts (2015–now)

Architecture notes on Dynamics 365 Commerce, D365 ERP, Power Platform, D365/Azure integrations and AI.

Category
Audience
Year
Release Analysis & Technical Resources
2 Apr 2026

D365 Commerce CSU V47/9.57 Unofficial Release Notes

Unofficial release notes for D365 Commerce CSU V47/9.57, read assembly by assembly — what changed in the code, the APIs and the flight keys.

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Architecture & Transformation
26 Mar 2026

The middle layer is 50% of your transformation

What a detour into food certification taught me about ERP, monoliths and agentic AI — and why the middle layer carries half the transformation.

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Data & AI Readiness
4 Feb 2026

Designing Headless Commerce Starts with Data — Not Apps

Headless apps hold no data and no local logic. The hard part is not the journey — it is getting the right data, at the right quality, from the backend.

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ERP, Commerce & Customer
23 Jan 2026

A language trick for headless commerce

An undocumented Accept-Language header changes what Commerce CSU returns — translated product names, delivery options and search results in headless.

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Release Analysis & Technical Resources
16 Jan 2026

Commerce CSU V9.56/10.0.46 - January 2026

Unofficial release notes for Commerce CSU V9.56/10.0.46, January 2026 — asynchronous payments, external gift cards and connector extensibility.

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Integration & APIs
8 Jan 2026

How can we optimize performance of D365 APIs for use in headless environments?

D365 F&O and Dataverse APIs are often too slow or too unpredictable for real-time headless use. Where the time goes, and what to do about it.

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Integration & APIs
8 Jan 2026

Is there an API-first alternative for Dual Write?

Does quote-to-order really need Dual Write, or can an API-first pattern answer the same question without synchronising data between D365 apps?

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Release Analysis & Technical Resources
17 Sept 2025

Commerce CSU V9.55/10.0.45 - September 2025

Unofficial release notes for Commerce CSU V9.55/10.0.45, September 2025 — refund permissions, payment notifications and Azure Maps at channel level.

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ERP, Commerce & Customer
27 Jun 2025

🧩 Unlocking True Headless B2B Commerce with D365 — Without Customizing the Core

The D365 Commerce data model is rooted in individual customer accounts. How to support multi-organisation B2B journeys without customising the core.

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Release Analysis & Technical Resources
26 Jun 2025

Commerce CSU V9.54/10.0.44 - June 2025

Unofficial release notes for Commerce CSU V9.54/10.0.44, June 2025 — API and schema changes, plus the flight keys steering CSU behaviour.

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Release Analysis & Technical Resources
20 Mar 2025

Commerce CSU V9.53/10.0.43 - March 2025

Unofficial release notes for Commerce CSU V9.53/10.0.43, March 2025 — the API and schema changes that matter for e-commerce integration.

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ERP, Commerce & Customer
14 Mar 2025

Case #3: Why using Commerce CSU for Headless Commerce beats custom-built Solutions

Why Commerce CSU beats a custom build for exposing D365 ERP data to headless e-commerce, compared against the more traditional approaches.

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Integration & APIs
22 Nov 2024

Case #2: Can customer account login on your non-Microsoft e-commerce website grant you access to D365 ERP data?

Can an existing e-commerce account login authenticate B2B users straight into D365 ERP data? Case #2 on integrating non-Microsoft e-commerce.

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ERP, Commerce & Customer
15 Nov 2024

Case #1: D365 ERP cannot be the backend for your headless e-commerce solution.. Right?

Can a headless frontend connect directly to D365 ERP without synchronising data? Case #1 in a series on integrating non-Microsoft e-commerce.

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Release Analysis & Technical Resources
13 Nov 2024

Commerce CSU V9.51/10.0.41 - November 2024

Unofficial release notes for Commerce CSU V9.51/10.0.41, November 2024 — the API and schema changes that matter for e-commerce integration.

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Release Analysis & Technical Resources
22 Jul 2024

What is new: D365 Commerce CSU

An unofficial what's-new for the D365 Commerce Cloud Scale Unit APIs, written because no official Microsoft release notes exist for them.

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Integration & APIs
12 Oct 2023

Reconciling Adyen vs D365 Payment Transactions

Adyen and D365 each record evidence of the same payment. How to reconcile the two sides, and what to do when they disagree.

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ERP, Commerce & Customer
29 Sept 2023

D365 Commerce + IOM = SUPERPOWER!

A recorded demonstration of D365 Commerce and Intelligent Order Management working together across one integrated order scenario.

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Architecture & Transformation
29 Sept 2023

Why I am a fan of a Single Company setup for Retailers in D365 F&O

Why a single-company setup in D365 F&O suits retailers: brand experience should not be interrupted by legal entity boundaries.

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Integration & APIs
28 Feb 2022

D365 F&O/Commerce interfacing via Azure API Management: My Best Practices

Best practices for putting Azure API Management in front of D365 F&O OData and Commerce Scale Unit interfacing — and when it earns its place.

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Architecture & Transformation
23 Feb 2022

How to save your D365 F&O customer some money

How D365 F&O cloud-hosted Build and DEV environments are deployed through LCS, and where the Azure subscription setup can reduce the bill.

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ERP, Commerce & Customer
11 May 2020

How to Unlock Many Hidden D365 Retail Features!

One Version in theory is not One Version in practice. Licence keys, parameters, SysFlighting and Feature Management, and what each unlocks.

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Integration & APIs
2 Jan 2020

D365 Retail APIs Part III: How to use the Retail APIs from Power Automate (Flow) and Logic App

How to construct a request to the D365 Retail APIs, and call them step by step from Power Automate and Logic Apps.

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Integration & APIs
13 Dec 2019

D365 Retail APIs Part II: How to know exactly what happens inside D365 Retail

How to see exactly what happens inside D365 Retail, using prototyping and the Retail APIs to understand the product before designing against it.

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Integration & APIs
6 Dec 2019

The Power of the D365 Retail APIs/CRT – Part I: The Basics

An overview of the D365 Retail API and CRT architecture, with an example showing what these out-of-box interfaces make possible.

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Delivery & Programme Recovery
26 Sept 2019

Advanced RSAT I: How to run D365 RSAT from MS FLOW

Advanced RSAT, part I: a recorded walkthrough of triggering D365 RSAT test automation from Microsoft Flow.

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Delivery & Programme Recovery
25 Sept 2019

Advanced RSAT II: How to run D365 RSAT directly from Azure DevOps

Advanced RSAT, part II: a recorded walkthrough of running D365 RSAT test automation directly from Azure DevOps.

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Delivery & Programme Recovery
11 Jun 2019

Identify Configuration differences across D365 F&O environments

How to find configuration drift between D365 F&O environments before cutover turns undocumented UAT changes into production issues.

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Architecture & Transformation
28 Dec 2017

Dynamics 365 CRM and ERP interaction

Where the Dynamics 365 CRM and ERP integration still needs design work, and how to make the two products behave as one.

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Legacy AX Archive
11 Oct 2016

1yr with AX7 Data Management – My top 12 learnings

Twelve learnings from a year of working with AX7 Data Management on live projects — data entities, entity stores and what the documentation leaves out.

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Legacy AX Archive
27 Feb 2016

AX7 – My top 12 highlights

Twelve highlights from the AX7 technical conference, and why the release turned out to be far more than a new UI over AX2012 code.

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Legacy AX Archive
23 Dec 2015

Dynamics AX Retail: how to automate processes and interfaces in a combined way

How to combine standard Dynamics AX components so that business processes and the interfaces around them run automatically as one flow.

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Legacy AX Archive
27 Oct 2015

Financial dimensions on web orders vs non-Retail orders

Why financial dimension values differ between B2C web orders and non-Retail B2B orders in the same company, and what that breaks at invoicing.

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Legacy AX Archive
18 Oct 2015

Dynamics AX Retail third-party POS and e-commerce integration – Control dashboard

A control dashboard for Dynamics AX Retail third-party integration, built on the standard download and upload session forms.

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Legacy AX Archive
18 Oct 2015

Dynamics AX Retail third-party POS and e-commerce integration – Solution Design

How to hook middleware into Dynamics AX Retail for third-party POS and e-commerce, without compromising the integrity of Retail CDX.

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Legacy AX Archive
18 Oct 2015

Dynamics AX Retail third-party POS and e-commerce integration – Trigger mechanism

The trigger mechanism behind Dynamics AX Retail third-party integration — how change tracking on the AX HQ side signals middleware to act.

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Legacy AX Archive
18 Oct 2015

Dynamics AX Retail third-party POS and e-commerce integration – Introduction

An introduction to integrating Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Retail with third-party POS and e-commerce platforms — and why so little had been written about it.

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Legacy AX Archive
18 Oct 2015

Dynamics AX methodology: complex integration designs – How to keep overview

A way to document integration designs that span several systems, so the solution stays comprehensible as the project grows around it.

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