The idea of sending an email to a team in Dynamics 365 is routinely rejected based on the functionality limitation: Dynamics 365 does not allow us to send emails to a team. However, as with almost everything in Dynamics, there is always at least one workaround. Typically, the suggestions we hear are to do things like sending via a queue, installing third-party solutions, plugins, etc. In today’s blogpost, we will explore two different approaches to accomplishing the task of sending an email to a team. 

Approach 1: 

In this first scenario, we are going to achieve this by creating a Flow in Power Automate. We will use FetchXML to fetch the members of the team and use it in the Flow. This is referenced in a Microsoft article, but the procedure is not included. Hence, we gave it a try and found a process that works perfectly for us.  Below are the steps: 

1. We need to get the FetchXML to retrieve the Team members. This can be achieved using XRMToolbox or Advanced Find.  

For reference, here is the XML that you could just edit with the respective Team GUID.  

<fetch mapping="logical" output-format="xml-platform" version="1.0" distinct="true" > 
  <entity name="systemuser" > 
    <attribute name="fullname" /> 
    <attribute name="systemuserid" /> 
    <attribute name="internalemailaddress" /> 
    <order descending="false" attribute="fullname" /> 
    <link-entity name="teammembership" visible="false" to="systemuserid" from="systemuserid" intersect="true" > 
      <link-entity name="team" to="teamid" from="teamid" alias="ac" > 
        <filter type="and" > 
          <condition value="582FAA0C-F0A5-EA11-A812-000D3A0A7526" attribute="teamid" operator="eq" /> 
        </filter> 
      </link-entity> 
    </link-entity> 
  </entity> 
</fetch> 

2. Now we create the Flow. Start by creating a Solution in Power Automate.  

• Click on Solutions > New Solution. Fill out the required fields. In the Solution, click New > Flow. 
  
• Search for Common Data Service (Current Environment). Under Triggers, select When a record is created, updated or deleted, as shown:

• Now select the Trigger condition in the entity name on which the flow needs to be triggered > Scope of the flow. 

• Click on New Step and select Common Data Service (Current Environment) > List Records 
  
• In the entity name, select Users (team members are users in CRM). Enter the FetchXML created in Step 1 in the FetchXML query field. 

• Click on New Step and search for the Apply to Each options under Actions. In the field Select an output from previous steps, choose the Dynamic Content value. 
  
• Click on Add an Action and look for Send an Email (V2). For the To field value, select the dynamic content value Primary Email. Save the Flow. 

Notes: 

• If we hover over the value, it shows the results of the FetchXML entered in one of the previous steps.  
  
• If we add/remove Team Members from a Team, we need not worry about making any changes, as it would be automatically pulled via the FetchXML. 

Results: Based on the triggered condition mentioned in the Flow, whenever the action is triggered, the Flow would run and an email would be sent out to the Team Members.  

Approach 2: 

In this scenario, we will try to accomplish the same thing using the out-of-the-box functionality. For this, the only requirement is we must have an Exchange license, as we are going to create a Distribution List in Exchange with the team members and use the same in Dynamics 365 to send out emails. 

Please refer to the below steps to successfully send out emails to all the Team Members.  

1. Let’s start by creating an Exchange Distribution List (DL). 

• Login to your Exchange (via O365 portal) and click on Recipients > Groups.   
• Click on the dropdown button of the + New Office 365 group and click on Distribution list. 
  • Provide a Display name and Alias. Add the members of the Team here. 

Note: We would need to manually add/remove the team members whenever they are added/removed from the team in Dynamics 365. 

2. We now must create a Queue in Dynamics 365.  

• Go to Settings > Service Management > Queues and click on +NEW > Provide it a name > Save > A mailbox would be created with the same name that of the queue.  
• Open the mailbox. The Email address field will be blank, so add the DL email address created in step 1.  
• Now a Global Admin needs to Approve Email and Test and Enable mailbox. 

Note: The status of the Mailbox would remain on Not Run. 

3. Create a New Team or select an Existing Team. In the Default Queue lookup, select the Queue created in Step 2.  

4. We now must create a workflow to automate the “send email” action based on our criteria for when it needs to be triggered. 

5. So, to create a workflow that sends an email to the Team members whenever a new account is created, go to Send Email > Properties, and add the Queue created in Step 2 to the To field.  

Results: Whenever the trigger condition is met in the workflow, an automated email is sent to all the Team members of the Team mentioned in the To field. 

And there you have it! Two workarounds for the functionality limitation around sending emails to a team.

Happy Dynamics 365’ing!

 
References: 

Approach 1 reference is derived from the below article:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Send-Email-to-Dynamics-365-Team-Members/m-p/464699#M55904