Hi Guys,

This is going to be a series of blogs about unified service desk where I will be taking you through all the configuration regarding USD. But first lets understand what is USD and why it is becoming an important add-on for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Unified Service Desk, which is built using the User Interface Integration (UII) framework, is designed as a series of adapters and modules that facilitate management of Dynamics 365 UI elements (such as pages and dialogs), automatic loading of related records, agent scripting, a configurable toolbar, and so on.

                                                            [Picture source : Microsoft Technet]

How to get started?

1. Create your trial of dynamics crm account or its okay if you have your dev environment. https://trials.dynamics.com/
2. Download USD package deployer & Unfiied service desk application from here :
   https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56555&6B49FDFB-8E5B-4B07-BC31-15695C5A2143=1
   
3. first one is your package deployer that will help you to install the base solutions in your dynamics crm to get started with USD and second & third options is your actual unified service desk applications depending on your system processor type.
4. Run the package deployer setup and connect to your dynamic crm and select first solution click next and let it install the solution to your dynamics crm, same way run the second the installation. you can go through details of these solution and what they contain in technet/msdn or the package deployer itself:
   
5. once you have installed these – you will them in your dynamics crm ( navigate to Settings>solution :
   
6. Now you are all set to login to your dynamics CRM application using USD, run the main setup and install it. Connect to your dynamics crm and this is what you see initially :
   

To understand the panel types available in USD , please go through : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-in/library/dn865006.aspx

So, now that we are ready with our CRM and USD, we can jump into configuration of this instance. In my next blog-2 . I will show how to create a simple navigation button (toolbar) in USD.

I hope this helps!