Data. You've got a LOT of it. You use it every day for reporting and analysis to determine effective campaign management to your clients and prospects. But with 600 Tweets, 20,000 Bing searches, and 700 Facebook posts per second, marketers are no longer in control of their brands, thanks to the real-time web. But that doesn't mean you have to accept defeat and succumb to these new challenges. By bringing your data together across channels, it's possible (even easy!) to successfully embrace real-time marketing and evolve campaign management to conversation management - turning previous challenges into ROI opportunities. The key simply lies in establishing data as the new marketing creative.

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

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You have created a solution using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Solutions framework and you want people to download it and try it. But without some sample data it may be difficult for people to understand how it is supposed to work.

This blog describes a way to create a script to install sample data for any Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011solution.

In order to create the sample data application you need to:

• Create the sample data in the CRM System and export it using existing Data Export functionality.
• Import it back in a new CRM System and create the Data Mappings
• Export the Data Mappings
• Use the Exported Data XML files plus the Data Mappings XML to create a C# application that can import the sample data in any Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2001 system that has our solution deployed.

Note: These steps require that you have some .NET programming experience.

How to create and export CRM Data

Let’s say you have a solution that has 2 entities: a household and a client.

For this example we will create 2 household instances and 2 client instances that we will export using Import/Export Functionality. To access the Export functionality, click Advanced Find and select, in our case, the Clients. Build the query to select the data that we want to export and launch the query as shown in the following screenshot.

Now we are ready the export the results using the Export Clients button from the Ribbon as shown in the following screenshot.

Save the export as an *.xls (Excel) file and repeat the operation for all the entities that you want to create sample data with. For this sample you would repeat it for households.

To be able to import the data using the SDK APIs, we need to transform all the xls files into xml. To do that, open each xls file in Excel, and choose save as XML Spreadsheet 2003 as shown in the following screenshot.

Now, you can compress the 2 xml files into a zip file as shown in the following screenshot.

Then you can import the zip back using the CRM Import feature with the purpose of creating the data map.

How to Create a DataMap and Save it

The next step is to create the DataMap.xml. Data maps show how to map your XML record data to Microsoft CRM entities and attributes.

To create the SampleDataMap, we will import the xml zip file data into CRM, and during that process, capture and save the DataMap created automatically by CRM. The following steps describe how:

1. Navigate to Settings/Data Management/ Imports

2. Click Import Data from the ribbon as shown in the following screenshot.

• In the Import Data Wizard dialog box, browse to the zip file you created earlier.

4. Navigate the screens and by clicking next and fix all the mapping warnings :

5. On the Review Settings and Import Data screen give a name for the Data Map Name. For this exercise we will name it “SampleDataMap”.

6. Click Submit and now you are ready to export the data map xml.

7. Navigate to Settings/Data Management/ Data Maps and click Export to export the xml data map as shown in the following screenshot.

Now with all these xml files (entities XML + data map XML), we are ready to us the SDK to import the data in any system that has our solution deployed.

How to Import Sample Data using SDK APIs

With your Client.xml, Household.xml and SampleDataMap.xml you can write a console application to import the sample data in any organization that has your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 solution.

Using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 SDK samples as source templates for the initial connection with CRM we can add additional code to import the sample data.

First we create the import request. Note that this creation doesn’t trigger the actual import. The import will be triggered at the end by calling “ImportRecordsImportRequest” SDK message. What ...

Every time a user creates a post or a comment, a record is created. Every time an auto post is generated, another record is created. With this in mind, prior to releasing this feature we made sure that you have an easy way to manage the data generated by Activity Feeds.

We enable the Activity Feeds entity, Posts, for Bulk Delete jobs. You can create your own bulk delete jobs from the user interface or from the SDK to clean up the Activity Feeds data based on your criteria.

Here is a quick snapshot on creating bulk delete job from the UI to clean up Posts entities.

1.       Under Settings -> Data Management -> Bulk Record Deletion, create a new bulk delete job.

2.       The bulk delete wizards will lead you to the look up dialog, where you should select the Posts entity type.

3.       You can define your search criteria by Source, ModifiedOn, CreatedBy, CreatedOn. For example, to delete AutoPost that has not been commented for X months, you can specify Source = AutoPost and Modified On Older Than X

4.       Just like any bulk delete job, you can specify the frequency of the run. Continue to the wizard and Submit.

5.       All running and completed bulk delete jobs are displayed in these Bulk Record Deletion grid, but the master (recurrence) record itself is displayed under System -> System Jobs under the Recurring System Jobs View.

Another way is to create bulk delete job from SDK. Here is a code snippet on triggering one bulk delete request from SDK to clean up Post entities.

QueryExpression query = new QueryExpression(Post.EntityLogicalName);

// create your filter criteria…

BulkDeleteRequest request = new BulkDeleteRequest();

request.QuerySet = new QueryExpression[] { query };

request.JobName = "Activity Feeds Data Management";

request.SendEmailNotification = false;

request.ToRecipients = new Guid[0];

request.CCRecipients = new Guid[0];

request.RecurrencePattern = string.Empty;

request.StartDateTime = DateTime.Now;

BulkDeleteResponse response = (BulkDeleteResponse)_serviceProxy.Execute(request);

So there you go, 2 ways to manage your Activity Feeds data. I hope you find this helpful.  

Maya Widyasari

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Tester

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

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5. CRM Online Activity Feeds - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog The latest R7 release for CRM  2011 was deployed on Oct. 25th, 2011.  One of the features available from this release is Activity Feeds.   The new feature will allow you to start building your internal...
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The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering (SE) team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 20 on Thursday, November 10, 2011.

The links below will take you to the necessary information about Update Rollup 19.

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28011

• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2550098

General details about Update Rollup 20

• Update Rollup 20 is cumulative.  However, the Update Rollup 20 CRM Client and Data Migration Client packages require Update Rollup 7 to be installed.  For all other CRM components, you do not need

  to install any previous Update Rollups prior to Update Rollup 20.

• The Update Rollup 20 download contains updates for the 40 supported Language Packs. Prior to installing the Update Rollup 20 Language Pack, you must install the original Language Pack.

  • If you have Language Packs installed, you should

1. Download the Update Rollup 20 Language Pack

2. Install the Update Rollup 20 Language Pack

3. De-provision the Language Pack

4. Re-provision the Language Pack

• Information about how to avoid reboots when installing the CRM Outlook Client can be found in the Update Rollup 4 blog posting.

• The Update Rollup 20 Client can be deployed before the server is upgraded to Update Rollup 20.

• Steps to make the Update Rollup 20 Client available via AutoUpdate can be found in the Update Rollup 4 blog posting.  The Link and Patch IDs can be found in KB article 2550098.

• Each update rollup could have fixes that require manual configuration.  Please see the “Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually” section in KB article 2550098.

How to get support for Update Rollup 20

For support, please contact Microsoft Product Support.  For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[LN];CNTACTMS.

Note: In special cases, charges ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem.  The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

Cheers, 

Matt Brown

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

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Configuring “Dynamics CRM” for your organization:

You can find “Dynamics CRM” app on your windows phone (7.5 Mango or higher) by searching in the Marketplace. It is a free app from Microsoft Corporation.

Once you install and launch the app, it will take you through the first run experience. You need to specify user name and password which you normally use to connect to your CRM Online instance from web client or outlook client. 

I have provided the below screenshots to guide you with the step by step process.

You can also use the app to configure against IFD (Internet Facing Domain) environments.  If you want to connect to an IFD organization, you need toggle the switch “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online” (it becomes “Custom” as seen on the below screen) and enter your Server URL & Home realm URL. You can talk to your administrator if you don’t know what to put in for these fields.

Note: If your administrator doesn’t have a Home realm URL, you can leave it as blank.

Also, if you belong to more than one organization, you need to choose the right organization after entering your login details.

Using “Dynamics CRM” App:

You’ll get the full experience of app only when administrator enables Activity Feeds for your organization. 

To know more about Activity Feeds, please take a look at recently released Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds solution to the Dynamics Marketplace. You need to be running on UR5 or greater update to take advantage of Activity Feeds.

Once you configure the mobile app and activity feeds is enabled for your organization, it will not only help you stay on top of the situation but also helps with several other day to day CRM activities.

Here is a brief list of things you can do from your phone:

• View latest Posts (both auto & user posts)
• Make a Post or Comment
• Delete a Post or Comment (if you have appropriate permissions)
• Refresh a Post
• Navigate between Posts(using left & right arrows appearing on screen)
• Navigate between entities(by tapping blue text on the form)
• View CRM entities (Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Users, Leads and Custom entities )
• Pick a View for an entity
• Search for a record
• View a record in the form
• Follow/Un-follow a record
• Launch Email, Phone, Bing Maps tasks from record form
• Ability to look at record wall next to the form itself
• Change saved password (Settings -> change login)
• Reconfigure the app to a different organization(Settings -> forget me)

 You can also work with your system administrator or system customizer to do the following tasks.

• Enable specific entities for Mobile
• Choosing right columns to display for each entity view.

Note, by default, primary sort column and first column of the view are shown on the phone. If your first column is already the primary sort column then it will be replaced by second column of the view.

Additionally, you can setup personal views on your web or outlook client which will get downloaded to the phone after 24 hours. The same applies to any metadata changes that happen on the server.

Cheers,
Srikanth Nallamothu

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Now available – Beta of Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog www.microsoft.com/dynamics/marketplace ...
2. Innovation Abounds – Powered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog This past week I had the pleasure of joining my good friends from PowerObjects for their PowerConnect event in Minneapolis. This was a gathering of around 200 customers, prospects and...
3. New Training Resources Available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog New Course Available: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 2011 This one-day instructor-led course provides an introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The course focuses on the user ...

 If you are an existing CRM user who has created multiple main application forms on some entities before you enable the entities for Activity Feeds, you may find that enabling Activity Feeds for them won’t add the Record Wall control to the forms of the entity which has multiple forms. This blog walks you through the steps of how to add the Record Wall control to such entities’ chosen forms.

Pre-condition:

• You have multiple forms on an entity, e.g. Account.
• You have installed the Activity Feeds Solution. With this condition, you are assumed to have at least system customizer privilege.
• You have enabled Activity Feeds for Account. There is no Record Wall on any of the Account’s main application forms because this entity has multiple main application forms.

What you need to do:

• Following the instructions step by step in order to add Record Wall to one of more forms of Account.

Post-condition:

• Record Wall is enabled on any chosen Account forms.

1. Launch one of the Account entities and choose the form from the form selector the one that you want to have a Record Wall.

2. Click Customize Ribbon and click Form to launch FormEditor

3. Click on Insert -> Tab -> One Column to launch Tab Properties dialog

4. In the Tab Properties dialog, set the follow values

4.1   Name= tab_recordwall (Name has to be exact same as tab_recordwall)

4.2   Label = Record Wall

4.3   You can uncheck the “Expand this tab by default”

5. Click Events Tab and add msdyn_/ActivityFeeds.Form.js

5.1   Expand Form Libraries

5.2   Add -> msdyn_/ActivityFeeds.Form.js

6. Adding the Event Handlers

6.1   Click on Event Handlers

6.2   Add -> Details

6.2.1          Select msdyn_/ActivityFeeds.Form.js

6.2.2          Function = ActivityFeeds.Form.CustomizationUtils.updateRecordWallRenderingState

6.2.3          Enabled = Checked

6.2.4          Parameters -> Check the Pass execution context as first parameter and Click Ok

7. Click OK to persist Tab properties settings and go back to FormEditor.

8. Select the Record Wall Tab and double click the Section to launch the Section Properties dialog

8.1   Select Formatting -> One Column

8.2   Click OK to persist settings and dismiss the Section Properties dialog

9. In FormEditor, click on the Web Resource in the Insert Ribbon

10. Choose msdyn_/RecordWall.htm as the Web Resource in the lookup.

10.1 Select the Web resource = msdyn_/RecordWall.htm

10.2 Name= Record Wall

10.3 Check Pass record object-type code and unique identifier as parameters

11. Set the Web Resource formatting

11.1 Click on Formatting Tab

11.2 Number of Rows = 15

11.3 Click OK to persist settings and dismiss the Add Web Resource dialog

12. In the FormEditor, make sure that the Record Wall Tab is collapsed

13. Save and Publish Form

14. Go back to the Account Entity grid and launch the entity page of an Account entity. Choose the form you just modified, you will see that record wall is added to the form.

Zhen Zhang

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

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 This blog intends to walk through the steps by which a user can enable Activity Feeds for an entity.

Pre-Conditions:

• User has a CRM organization created. This covers the new OnPrem deployment and existing CRM Online users. Activity Feeds solution will be automatically provisioned for new CRM Online user. If you are an existing CRM user and interested in Activity Feeds feature, you may find the solution at http://dynamics.pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-US/applications/microsoft-dynamics-crm-activity-feeds-12884926310.
• User installed Activity Feeds Solution.

System user (System Administrator or System Customizer) actions

• Follow the steps listed below

Post-Condition:

• Entity is enabled for Activity Feeds feature.
• Record Wall is added to the Entity’s form in which you can Follow/Unfollow the entity record and also see auto-posts from the entity record.

1.       Launch CRM in WebClient

2.       Go to Settings from the site map at left hand side

3.       Under System, you will find Activity Feeds Configuration and Activity Feeds Rules

a.       Activity Feeds Configuration will lead you to enable / disable ActivityFeed for entities.

b.      Activity Feeds Rules is where you create/delete and activate/deactivate Activity Feeds Rules which generate Auto Posts upon Entity record’s changes. This is out of the scope of this blog.

4.       Clicking on Activity Feeds Configuration from the sitemap which will lead you to Post Configuration grid which is captured in the follow screenshot.

5.       Clicking New in the Ribbon as highlighted will lead you the Post Configuration popup dialog.

a. Type in entity name. “contact” is being used here as an example. The used here should be the given entities logical name. It could be found by looking the entity definition in the Solution explorer by going to Settings -> Customizations -> Customize the System. Expand Entities and click on the entity you want. The value in Name is the one you want to type in to create Post Configuration.

b.      Click Save and Close in the Ribbon. This will create Post Configuration record in the grid and dismiss the dialog.

Note: When you enable an entity for Activity Feeds, you might see “Multiple forms of type Main are found. No Record Walls are added. Configure the walls to the required forms manually.” in Troubleshooting section. This was caused that you have multiple forms in the entity. To resolve this, you may read another blog about how to manually add the Record Wall to the entity’s form.

c.       To disable Activity Feeds for an Entity, you will need to click to choose an Entity from Post Configuration grid and click Delete. Publish the change to take it effect.

Note: System User is automatically added when you enable other Activity Feeds capable entities. It cannot be deleted unless you deleted everything else from the Post Configuration grid. The out of box Activity Feeds capable entities are listed at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh547386.aspx. You may also enable Activity Feeds for the custom entities you crated.

6.       After step 5, you are supposed to be brought back to Post Configuration grid. In the grid you will see that contact has been enabled for Activity Feeds.

7.       Click Customize Ribbon and click All Customizations to publish the change you have made.

8.       After the change is published, go back to Contact grid and launch a Contact record. You will find that Record Wall is added and ready for use.

Note: By default, the Record Wall is collapsed. After clicking on it from the Tab navigator, you will expand the tab and render the record wall.

9.       Clicking on Record Wall, you will see Record Wall is rendered.

Zhen Zhang

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

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The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component adds functionality to SharePoint which enables Document Management capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In order to deploy the List Component Solution the following modifications to SharePoint are required:

• Run the following command in the SharePoint Management Console for a specific Web application: AllowHtcExtn.ps1 <Web Application URL>.
• Alternatively, set the Browser File Handling to Permissive to allow automatic execution of Web content. Only a farm administrator can change the Browser File Handling settings.

These modifications cannot be made directly to SharePoint Online due to the multi-tenanted nature of the service. The SharePoint team is currently deploying new features to SharePoint Online – included in this update are the necessary modifications to support deploying the List Component.

I have posted a blog to CRM Connection describing the end user experience in Microsoft Dynamics CRM once the List Component has been installed. The purpose of this post is to highlight the steps required to deploy the List Component to SharePoint Online and configure within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The following steps highlight how to enable SharePoint Online as the Document Management functionality in Microsoft Dynamics CRM:

• Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Install the Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component Solution to SharePoint Online

1. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded CRM2011-SharePointList-ENU-amd64.exe, and double-click it.
2. In the Open File - Security Warning dialog box, click Run.
3. To accept the license agreement, click Yes.
4. Select a folder to store the extracted files, and click OK.
   The following files are extracted:

• AllowHtcExtn.ps1 (NOT required for SharePoint Online)
• crmlistcomponent.wsp

1. Open your browser.
2. In the address bar, type the URL of the site collection on which you want to install the Microsoft Dynamics CRM List component.
3. Click Site Actions, and then click Site Settings.
4. Under Galleries, click Solutions.
5. On the Solutions tab, in the New group, click Upload Solution.
   Click Browse, locate the crmlistcomponent.wsp file, and then click OK.
6. On the Solutions tab, in the Commands group, click Activate.

Configure Data Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

1. Navigate to Settings and click on Document Management in the left Navigation bar
2. Click On Document Management Settings
3. Select the CRM entities to enable for Document Management and then enter your SharePoint Online URL, click Next
   
4. Select how you would like the Document Libraries organized in SharePoint Online (Account – B2B or Contact – B2C), click Next
   
5. Document Libraries will now be created in SharePoint Online to support the hierarchy selected in the previous step, click Finish
   

Document Management with SharePoint Online is now configured within Microsoft Dynamics CRM. When a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user click on Documents on the CRM form, the List Component will look for a corresponding Document Library and if one does not exist create one.

Eric Boocock
Senior Technical Product Manager

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

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We get a lot of questions from customers about the value of social capabilities in business applications.  They're skeptical.  They tell us that before they invest in social tools, they want to be sure they're giving their teams greater power to make a difference.  What they don't want is to add more noise to the workplace and make people's jobs more complicated, rather than easier.

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Update Rollup 9 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 9 on Thursday, February 11, 2010. The links below will take you to the necessary information...
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The SharePoint team is in the process of deploying some new features to the SharePoint Online service.  The rollout of these new SharePoint Online features across the data centers is expected to be completed by end of November. 

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Trying out Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online even easier in the R4 release - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The best moments creating software are when you see your hard work directly have a positive impact on your customers. With the recent CRM Online R4 release, one of our...
2. What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online? - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog The resource center has been updated with a What’s New article for CRM Online.  Enjoy! http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/2011/en-us/online/5.0/whatsNewCRM5.aspx Oh, and did you sign up for beta yet?  www.crm2011beta.com ~Laura...
3. Automatic Document Library creation with CRM 2011 Online and SharePoint 2010 - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog Here are some notes to describe setting up automatic document library creation with CRM 2011 Online and SharePoint 2010 on premise.  This allows you to automatically create document libraries associated...
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5. New Training Resources Available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog New Course Available: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 2011 This one-day instructor-led course provides an introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The course focuses on the user interface and working with...
6. Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering (SE) team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 5 on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. The links below point to important information about Update...
7. Released White Paper: Deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and CRM Online Solutions from Development through Test and Production Environments - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog On behalf of the CRM Engineering for Enterprise Team and the CRM Content Publishing Team, I am pleased to announce the release of the white paper, Deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM...
8. Introduction to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog This release is being delivered to Microsoft Dynamics customers as the November 2011 service update for Online customers and as Update Rollup 5 for On premise customers.  These updates are...
9. Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog If you are a developer working on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you are by now familiar with the game changer in town, Solution Framework, which ...

 In this blog article, I will walk you through new capabilities introduced in Workflows to support Post creation based off business requirements.

Goals:

-          Create a Post and Mention other records using Workflow

-          Walk through Workflow Designer and Post Url (Dynamic Value) Capability

Pre Requisite

-          Upgrade CRM 2011 Organization to UR5

-          Install Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds solution and Configure Lead entity to have Wall

-          Read about How to do Mentions with Activity Feeds

Once Activity Feed Solution is installed, users in CRM can talk about Account, Contact, etc… entities using Posts. You can use Posts to ask questions, announce the updates to an opportunity etc… At the same time others can respond back by commenting. So this is all nice for end users to communicate. Wouldn’t you love having Auto Posts?

CRM does allow ISV’s, Partners, Users extend or tailor the out of the box functionality to your business needs. Once such extensibility is “Creating Post using Workflows!!!”.

Let’s get to the Steps to get the work done.

Scenario: When the Lead rating is changed to Hot, Create a Post on the Lead Record Wall

“<Lead name> is changed to “Hot’ by <UserName>

Steps

-          Navigate to Settings -> Processes and Click New Process

-          Process name =  “Lead Converted to Hot”

-          Entity = Lead,

-          Category = “Workflow”

-          Click ok

-          Now let’s configure the process to trigger on “Lead Update” for “Rating Field” only.

• Un check “Record is Created”

• Check Record Fields Changed. Click Select and Select Rating. Click Ok

-          In the Process, we want to verify if the “Lead.Rating” is Hot and then only create the post.

• Click –Add step -> Check Condition. Click Specify Condition and select Lead, Rating , Equals and Hot as shown below.

-          In the Condition, you would want to Create a Post.

• Click Add Step -> Create Record
• Select Post Entity
• Click “Set Properties”. You will be presented with a form (shown below) to enter Post details

-          Create Post Form .. Let’s talk about what the fields mean

• Text: Data in this field is presented to the end users on the wall
• Source : Manual / Auto

• Manual : Icon of the Post would be User (Intended for users entering manually)
• Auto : Icon of the post would be the Regarding Object of Post (Recommended for Posts created by Workflows)
• They show in corresponding Filters in Personal Wall
• Regarding ObjectId: Entity that Post is About. In our case, it is post on Lead Wall. So it is Lead.

-          Populate Post.Text

• Finally, this is where it gets interesting. Recalling that we want to post something like
• “<Lead name> is changed to “Hot’ by <UserName>
• To get the Lead Name “Mention Tag”, you need to select Post Url(Dynamic) from the Form assistant for Lead entity. (Shown in Picture below)
• Once Slug is inserted , you can type other text and Slug for Rating{Lead} and Modified User Slug (shown in Picture Below)

-          Here is Final screen shot of the Post form

-          Once you save the Process. Click Activate as shown below.

-          Create a New Lead.

-          Update the Lead Rating to “Hot”

-          Wait for Workflow to fire and you would see a Post on the Lead Record Wall…

That’s all. Now users can click on hyperlinks for Modified User & Lead directly from the Post  and they get to be on top of the situation …

Thanks

Ajith Gande  

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. SugarCon Spotlight: Orchestrate Your Business With Workflow - Story From: CRM Outsiders A lot of companies still fail to see the value of CRM versus contact ...

If you are a developer working on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you are by now familiar with the game changer in town, Solution Framework, which allows you to extend the capability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM web application has excellent tools for creating the non-code components that are part of your solution, for instance tools to extend the schema or create new forms. However, development of code-based solution components such as Plugins, custom workflows, and UI web resources such as JavaScript, has required developers to continuously update the solution with the latest versions of these components.

The Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 represents our integration with Visual Studio and is focused on accelerating the development of custom code solution components for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 solutions. Microsoft Dynamics CRM developers now have the ability to write all of their custom code from within Visual Studio by using native tools and then to automatically deploy that code to the CRM Service in the cloud or in their on-premises environment.

The Developer toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 was released as part of UR5 SDK release and is available for download here.

So what can you do with the Developer toolkit?

• If you are familiar with VS and .NET code development, but have not dipped your feet into CRM extensibility, the toolkit would get you started in less than 10 minutes.

• The Toolkit supports the end-to-end create, update, delete and deployment of CRM Plug-ins, Workflows (both XAML and custom workflow activities), Silverlight applications and other Web resources; including Jscript and HTML.
• Easily generate strongly typed proxy classes without having to run CrmSvcUtil.exe.
• Works with Dynamics CRM Online, On-premise AD and IFD deployments.

Enhancements from the CTP version that we released earlier this year include

• Better Authentication support - Integrated Authentication for on-premise, Automatic renewal of token for other deployments.
• Manage all aspects of plugin registration inside the toolkit (CRUD of plugin assemblies, steps)
• Better illustration of the CRM Solution components in the CRM explorer that indicates what I am working on as part of the current VS solution.
• Better support for dependent solutions
• The toolkit comes with an Installer that installs the tool and its dependencies, no more registry keys or manual copy of files required!

The definitive source for all documentation related to the toolkit can be found here.

Key Features

Native Visual Studio Integration

Plug-In Creation in 4 Steps

1. To initiate the process from the CRM Explorer window, right-click on the Entity, and then click Create Plug-in.

2. In the Create Plug-in dialog box, specify the appropriate Plug-in settings.

3. Add custom code.

4. Click on Build->Deploy menu action to build and deploy plug-in on the CRM Server.

5 If you need to edit the plug-in settings, you can do so from inside VS, notice the plugin that is part of the VS solution is highlighted.

Connect to CRM deployments seamlessly

Support for key CRM Web Resources including the Visual Studio Silverlight Application template

Familiar development surface for Dynamics CRM developers

Download and Feedback

The V1 release provides the opportunity for us to gather CRM Community feedback that we will use to provide future enhancements of the Toolkit. We look forward to your feedback and suggestions on the Toolkit and its accompanying documentation. Please provide your feedback via the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Connect site at: http://connect.microsoft.com/dynamicssuggestions (select Microsoft Dynamics CRM)

More Love for Developers

I would also like to mention two other tools we recently released to enable developer success with our platform:

• Plug-in profiler to troubleshoot plug-ins.
• Entity Metadata Browser, which allows developers to view the entity metadata in the system.

Another great resource that has grabbed the interest of the product team is the “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Development Resources” wiki page started by George Doubinski where you can find additional tools developed by the community.

What is coming next

• We are looking at additional functionality enhancements for the toolkit that will allow bigger development teams to work together on a single solution.
• Additional functionality enhancements for the toolkit

Mahesh Hariharan 

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software ...

This release is being delivered to Microsoft Dynamics customers as the November 2011 service update for Online customers and as Update Rollup 5 for On premise customers.  These updates are complemented by additional Microsoft Dynamics and Windows Phone Marketplace downloads.  The November 2011 service update has been applied to all CRM Online Data Centers as of October 25, 2011.  On premises customer will be able to obtain Update Rollup 5 via:

This release marks the first time Microsoft will be releasing additional functionality through online Marketplaces.  The Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace has been populated with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds solution and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile, our first Windows Phone application is available in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

• Existing CRM Online Customers: As of October 25, 2011, Microsoft has deployed the November 2011 service update to all CRM Online datacenters.  This will immediately give you access to the new features (some highlighted below).  To utilize the new Activity Feeds, your System Administrator must download and install the solution into your CRM Online environment.  The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile application must be deployed by each user that wants to leverage this functionality on their Windows Phone 7.5 device.
• New CRM Online Customers: As of October 25, 2011, all new trials and purchases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will be provisioned with all the latest functionality including the Activity Feeds solution – No additional downloads required.  The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile application must be deployed by each user that wants to leverage this functionality on their Windows Phone 7.5 device.
• New & Existing CRM On premise Customers:  Update Rollup 5 can be downloaded manually via the Microsoft Download Center as of October 25, 2011, or automatically via Microsoft Update on November 8, 2011.  This will immediately give you access to the new features (some highlighted below). To utilize the new Activity Feeds, your System Administrator must download and install the solution into your CRM Online environment. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile application must be deployed by each user that wants to leverage this functionality on their Windows Phone 7.5 device.

Additional Feature Enhancements

With the crux of this release being the great social innovation highlighted by Brad Wilson in his post, there are a number of feature enhancement that are highlighted below.

• Multi-series Chart Support – The chart wizard now supports the ability to specify multiple data series when designing
  charts.
  

• Outlook Client Enhancements – The Reading Pane has been enhanced to include: Sub grids & Notes, clickable links (email, telephone, lookups, party lists) in the form and sub grids,  clickable links in sub grids, Lync presence integration and several other miscellaneous enhancements.

• Dialog Enhancements – Dialogs have been significantly enhanced providing support for hyperlinks in dialogs and workflows, data retention when moving backward/forward, and support for additional CRM data types.

Enjoy the great new features in this exciting release!

Eric Boocock
Senior Technical Product Manager

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Story From: Webfortis - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering team just released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 7. This update also includes some substantial changes to the Outlook Client. Microsoft Download Center:...
2. Update Rollup 9 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 9 on Thursday, February 11, 2010. The links below will take you to the necessary information...
3. What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online? - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog The resource center has been updated with a What’s New article for CRM Online.  Enjoy! http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/2011/en-us/online/5.0/whatsNewCRM5.aspx Oh, and did you sign up for beta yet?  www.crm2011beta.com ~Laura...
4. Microsoft Dynamics CRM: The Road Ahead - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog It is truly an exciting time to be engaging with Microsoft Dynamics CRM! Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 was a significant release for our customers ...

On behalf of the CRM Engineering for Enterprise Team and the CRM Content Publishing Team, I am pleased to announce the release of the white paper, Deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and CRM Online Solutions from Development through Test and Production Environments, which is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=232288.

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, “solutions” provide a simple and reliable way for deploying packages of related extensions to Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementations. In professionally managed development organizations, these solutions will be deployed and analyzed in various test and staging environments prior to deployment into a production environment.  This white paper explores deploying real-world Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions across test and production environments in reliable and repeatable ways by using automation. The paper also provides some automation example and highlights the specific constraints associated with deploying and testing solutions in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online environment.

We’d especially like to recognize the efforts of Darren Hubert, Darren Liu, and Joey Su (Microsoft Consulting, US); Roger Gilchrist and Phil Hand (Microsoft Consulting, UK); Ryan Casey (Zero2Ten CRM); and Riaan Van Der Merwe (Neudesic), and the broader CRM Product team for contributing to and reviewing this paper to help ensure its completeness and accuracy.

Note: The paper will subsequently be available via MSDN and the TechNet library in the CRM section under Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 – Enterprise.

Regards,

Jim Toland and Chris Brooks

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Sharing Data across Microsoft Dynamics CRM Deployments The CRM E 2 team is pleased to announce the release of two complementary documents, a white paper and a build guide, related to Sharing Data across Microsoft Dynamics CRM...
2. Microsoft Dynamics “CRM5” Technology Preview Released Worldwide, On Premises and Online Today is a major milestone in the development of  the next generation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM , code named “CRM5” as we are pleased to announce the availability of the...
3. RELEASED WHITEPAPER: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online: Security Features - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog The CRM Engineering for Enterprise team has just announced the release of a new white paper, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online: Security Features, which is available for download from the Microsoft...
4. What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online? - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog The resource center has been updated with a What’s New article for CRM Online.  Enjoy! http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/2011/en-us/online/5.0/whatsNewCRM5.aspx Oh, and did you sign up for beta yet?  www.crm2011beta.com ~Laura...
5. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Released for On-Premises and Partner-Hosted Deployments - Story From: Webfortis Blog   Original publication can be found atMircosoft.com REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 16, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for on-premises and partner-hosted deployments has...
6. Dynamics CRM 2011 Online – Go Live Checklist - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog This document is designed to improve your overall experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online (CRM Online), even before your business begins using the solution. This document is a compilation of...
7. CRM 2011 Online Test Drive Guide - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog The CRM 2011 Online Test Drive Guide is a high level guided tour of the application to try and help you get the most out of your 30-day trial experience.  ...
8. Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering (SE) team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 5 on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. The links below point to important information about Update...
9. Introduction to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog This release is being delivered to Microsoft Dynamics customers as the November 2011 service update for Online customers and as Update Rollup 5 for On premise customers.  These updates are...
10. Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration with SharePoint Online is here - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The SharePoint team is in the process ...

During a group discussion, sometimes we want to call the attention of a specific person. Social networking discussions are no different. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds, we call this a “mention”.

This blog covers the following topics:

• Why Mention?
• How we can Mention in the UI
• Entities we can Mention
• Mentions through the SDK

Why Mention?

Posting with a mention would make that post visible in the target record’s wall (if the record’s entity is wall-enabled). For example, Nancy and her team are discussing a sales pitch in the Activity Feeds wall and Nancy realizes that they need Jim’s opinion on something. She wants to call Jim’s attention by mentioning his name in a post, and Nancy’s post would show up in Jim’s personal wall. So the next time Jim views his wall, he will see Nancy’s post and would be able to easily reply and follow-up on the issue. Isn’t that convenient?

How we can Mention in the UI

To do a mention, just type in the ‘@’ symbol and select the record that you want to mention. The MRU (Most Recently Used) dropdown list shows the records that you have just recently accessed or opened with each row having the format of <Record Name> + <Record Entity> (e.g. Jim Wilson ● Contact).

The MRU is like a cache of the most-recently visited pages. The complete list can be viewed by clicking on the  icon in the upper portion the Navigation Pane. The MRU dropdown list in the wall displays selected out of the box entity records and all custom entity records.

There are two ways to access a record to mention: through the MRU dropdown list or through the lookup dialog.

A record will only be listed in the mentions dropdown if it has been previously accessed or opened. The dropdown by default shows only the last 7 most recently accessed records, and by typing in more text when doing a mention, would filter dropdown results specific to the typed string. This would allow you to view and select a record that is in the MRU but was not immediately displayed when typing ‘@’.

If the record that you wanted to mention is not in the dropdown list, select “Look up more records”. This will show the lookup dialog, which allows you to search for your target record. After selecting the record, just click on ‘OK’.

This should add the name of the record to the post box with curly brackets surrounding it. Removing the brackets or any part of the mention will automatically remove the whole mention.

After posting with a mention, the mentioned record will then be added to the MRU, so the next time you start a mention, the dropdown will contain the mentioned record. If that record was already present, it will be pushed to the first row of the list.

Entities we can Mention

All records of different entity types can be displayed in the MRU dropdown list including records of custom entities.

The lookup dialog allows you to search for records of the following entities: Account, Appointment, Case, Contact, Dialog Session, Lead, Opportunity, Phone Call, Queue, Recurring Appointment, Task, Team, User and all custom entities. For a custom entity to show in the list of entities in the lookup dialog, it needs to be added in Post Configurations by going to Settings -> Activity Feeds Configuration (make sure not to forget to publish the customizations). That is what I did to make the custom entity “Custom Entity” show in the lookup list of entities below:

Mentions through the SDK

To do a mention through the SDK, create a Post entity (see Post Entity Metadata) with the Text attribute value including a string with the format @[ObjectTypeCode, Guid, “DisplayName”] .

• The first parameter is the type code of the entity (to know how to find the type code of a record, see How to Find the Entity Type Code).  
• Every created record has an ID associated with it (which is the second parameter in the mention format).
• The last parameter is the string that is displayed for the mention. So when we ...

Activity Feeds solution is now released in the Dynamics Market Place and ready to use with the latest Microsoft CRM update. You can use our solution out of the box, but  if you want to customize or further integrate with your application, you can use the latest CRM SDK to access the new entities and API for Activity Feeds. That’s what I am going to walk you through in this blog.

Creating an Activity Feed post

If you are already familiar with creating CRM entity instances, creating an Activity Feed post is very simple. You just need to create a Post instance and specify where or which object you want to create your post at (RegardingObjectId) and what do you want to say in your post.

1.       Creating a post in an account record wall

Code snippets:

// Assume account1 is already created

Post account1Post = new Post

{

      RegardingObjectId = account1.ToEntityReference(),

      Text = String.Format("My first Activity Feed post.")

   };

 2.       Creating a post in your personal wall (What’s New)

Creating a post in your personal wall is basically creating a post with your user record as the RegardingObjectId.

Code snippets:

WhoAmIRequest whoAmIRequest = new WhoAmIRequest();

WhoAmIResponse whoAmIResponse = (WhoAmIResponse)serviceProxy.Execute(whoAmIRequest);

var currentUserRef = new EntityReference(SystemUser.EntityLogicalName, whoAmIResponse.UserId);

// Assume lead1 is already created

Post post2 = new Post

   {

RegardingObjectId = currentUserRef,

Source = new OptionSetValue((int)PostSource.AutoPost),

Text = String.Format("You are now following lead \"{0}\".", lead1.FullName)

   };

Notice that the source of this post is defined as an AutoPost. Using the SDK, you can specify the source as AutoPost or ManualPost. If unspecified, source of the post is set to ManualPost. In our Activity Feed solution, the Source attribute is used to specify whether a post is automatically generated by a system (AutoPost) or whether a post is created by a user from the UI.

The difference can be seen on where the posts are shown in the What’s New page. Manual post will be shown under “user posts” section.

Commenting on a post

Creating a comment for a post is very similar to creating a new post. The difference is that you are creating a PostComment instance as opposed to a Post and you are specifying which post you want to comment on (PostId) as opposed to RegardingObjectId

Code snippets:

// Assume account1 is already created

PostComment comment1 = new PostComment

{

PostId = accountPost1.ToEntityReference(),

Text = String.Format("Great progress on this account1!")

};

Following a user or a record in the system

To follow a user or a record in the system, you create a PostFollow instance and you specify the id of the user or record that you want to follow in RegardingObjectId.

Code snippets:

// Assume account1 is already created

PostFollow follow2 = new PostFollow

{

RegardingObjectId = account1.ToEntityReference()

};

Displaying posts and comments in record wall

To display posts and comments in a record wall, you can query them using the regular Retrieve and RetriveMultiple. However, using the new custom SDK messages for Activity Feed, you can retrieve posts and their comments in one single call using RetrieveRecordWall and RetrievePersonalWall request and response.

1.       RetrieveRecordWallRequest returns the list of posts in the specified record wall based on the parameters passed. These are the list of parameters you can specify:

- Entity. The record where the posts resided

- PageSize. How many posts do you want to retrieve at a time

- CommentPerPost. How many comments you want to retrieve in each post. This SDK message will give you an entity collection of post. In each post, you will get the list of Post comments. You can always query all the comments using RetrieveMultiple against the PostId.

- <Optional> Source: do you want to retrieve AutoPost or ManualPost or all of them. By default it will retrieve them all.

- <Optional> StartDate: You specify the StartDate and EndDate if you want to retrieve posts from a specific time range.

- <Optional> EndDate

Code snippets:

// assume lead entity and post are already created in the specific lead record

RetrieveRecordWallRequest retrieveRecordWallReq = new RetrieveRecordWallRequest

{

Entity = lead.ToEntityReference(),

CommentsPerPost = 2,

PageSize ...

Here, we will go through the different ways you can follow records in CRM. Note that in order to follow any record of an entity, that particular entity must be enabled for Activity Feeds.

Following a Record from the Record Wall

Once an entity has been enabled for Activity Feeds, you are able to follow records of that type from the record form.

After opening the record form, navigate to the Record Wall tab where you will see a “Follow” button. All you need to do is click it.

After clicking the Follow button, you can see that you’re following the record and have the option to Unfollow it.

Bulk-Following Records from an Entity Grid or Advanced Find

If you want to follow multiple records of the same type of entity, you can do so from the Entity Grid. Select the records you want to follow and click on the Follow button in the ribbon as shown below.

After clicking the Follow button, a confirmation dialog will pop up where you can continue to confirm that you want to follow the selected records or cancel out of the operation.

Another way to follow multiple records at once is through Advanced Find. The same Follow button can be found in the ribbon on the page that displays the results of your query.

Unfollowing Records from your "Records Being Followed" View

On both your Personal Wall and own User Record Wall, there is a pane on the right-hand side with information about who’s following you and what records you follow. There is a link that shows the total number of records that you’re following. If you click on that link, a view called “Records Being Followed” pops up which shows all the records that you are currently following.

From this view, you can then select certain records and click the Unfollow button on the ribbon to unfollow those records.

Auto-Following an Entity via Workflow

In this example, we will create a workflow that has a user automatically follow accounts that are created. After this workflow is created and activated, you’ll be rest-assured that any newly created accounts will be followed without having to do any extra work.

First of all, go to Settings à Processes à New in order to create a new workflow. Enter a name and choose Entity == Account, Category == Workflow.

The default option is to have the workflow “Start when” the record (the account) is created and that’s what we want so we leave that setting alone. Add a new step that creates a Follow and click Set Properties.

In the properties, you want to set the Owner to be whoever it is you want to automatically follow accounts when they are created.

Since you want yourself to auto-follow accounts that are created, find and pick yourself in the look-up. Save and Close.

Once you save and activate your workflow, you’re all set! And of course, you can modify the conditions of this workflow to suit your particular needs.

There you have it—various ways to follow/unfollow records in CRM. These are not the only ways you can follow records, but they are the most common routes that will be taken.

Happy Following,

Christine Tran

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

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Microsoft is entering an exciting new phase for Microsoft Dynamics CRM! Today, we are announcing the general availability of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update. This release reinforces our commitment to delivering familiar, connected and intelligent experiences to our customers.

 This blog demonstrates how to create a chart from data in the current entity alongside data from related entities.

Let’s take the following scenario:

A Not For Profit Organization is using CRM 2011 to track the pledges and donations made by their donors.
Each pledge a donor makes has a Pledge Amount and will have 1 to * donations associated to it. Each Donation has a Cash-Value and a Status. The Status will have one of the following values: Outstanding, Processing, or Collected.

The CRM user that is responsible to manage the pledges for a given cause needs to be able to quickly see the status of a given pledge i.e. the original amount of the pledge and the amount collected. One possibility is to show the following chart in the Pledge form:

where:

• Pledged is the Pledge Amount. This value is only available in the Pledge entity (e.g. $1000).
• Collected is the sum of all the Cash-Value of the Donations that have been collected. (e.g. three donations @ $200 have been collected)

We will cover how to:

• Display the value of a field (Pledge Amount) from the current entity (Pledge) in the chart. This is not possible out of the box because a chart can only display field values from a related entity (Donation).
• Display the sum of the values (Cash-Value) of related entities (Donation) having a specific Status (collected).

To create this chart and display it in the Pledge form, do the following:

1.       Go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System.

2.       Create a Pledge entity with the field ‘Pledge Amount’ and a Donation entity with the fields ‘Cash-Value’ and ‘Status’.

3.       Open the Donation entity

4.       Create  a new bar chart

5.       Create a series for the field Cash Value.

6.       Open the Pledge main form

7.       Add a One Column Section

8.       Insert a Sub-Grid. Enter the unique Name and Label. Select the entity (Donations) and the default View. Also check the box ‘Show Chart Only’ in order to hide the sub-grid.

9.       In the formatting tab, set the number of rows to 12

10.   Save, Close, and Publish all the customizations

11.   Open a Pledge form

12.   You will see the following chart.

13.   Add a Global OptionSet in order to be able to change the legends’ labels

• Go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System.
• Click on ‘Option Sets’ in the left pane and click on the menu item ‘New’
• Add the 2 Options: Pledged and Collected. 

14.   Now we have to manually modify the chart.

15.   Export the chart.

• Go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System.
• On the left pane, select Components > Entities > Donations > Charts
• Select the chart ‘Pledge Status By Amount’
• Click on the ‘More Actions’ > Export Chart and save the chart on your hard drive

16.   Open in your favorite XML editor or notepad

17.   Replace the generated <fetch>  with the following:

• The first <link-entity does an outer-join between Donation and Pledge and computes the average of all the Pledge Amounts. The problem is, to include the pledge amount attribute in the same FetchXML query that contains other aggregated attributes; we need to specify an aggregation on the pledge amount as well.
  Since there will be one Pledge Amount per record, we need to compute the average in order to get the original Pledge Amount.
• The second <link-entity does an outer-join between Donation and Donation. This is necessary because we want to filter the rows for a given value of the Status. The Filter clause uses the values of the Option Set that is used by Status (Collected)

18.   Rename the aliases in <category>  to match the ones above

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering (SE) team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 5 on Tuesday, October 25, 2011.

The links below point to important information about Update Rollup 5:

• Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b9dd0bd7-8b1f-45af-a5ae-ee73a07ec90c

• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2567454

• Microsoft Update: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2567454

Release Channel Schedule

The resources available at these links will be active according to the following Release Channel Schedule:

• CRM Online Datacenter: October 18      to October 25, 2011

• Microsoft Download Center: October  25, 2011

• Microsoft Update: November 8, 2011

General Details about Update Rollup 5

• Update Rollup 5 cannot be uninstalled.

• Client packages installed manually by downloading the packages and running install will require administrative privileges.  If the client packages are installed via the Windows Update (Microsoft Update) system, they will not require administrative privileges.

• For help with installation, please see the Installation Information section in KB2567454.

Dates for Future Update Rollups

Update Rollup 6 is to be delivered on its predefined schedule, 16 weeks after Update Rollup 4, which puts the delivery in January 2012.

Support for Update Rollup 5

For support on Update Rollup 5, please contact Microsoft Product Support.

Note: In special cases, charges ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem.  The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Support web site at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[LN];CNTACTMS.

Cheers,

Matt Brown

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Story From: Webfortis - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering team just released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 7. This update also includes some substantial changes to the Outlook Client. Microsoft Download Center:...
2. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Rollups – Fixes and Issues (and a warning) - Story From: Webfortis - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions Microsoft recently introduced Microsoft Dynamics CRM Rollup 8 (it is available here). It has some nice fixes and updates over Rollup 7, which we detailed in our post located...
3. Update Rollup 9 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 9 on Thursday, February 11, 2010. The links below will take you to the necessary information...
4. Attention Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Users - Story From: Webfortis Blog The Microsft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering Team released Update Rollup 18 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 today. For more information about Update Rollup 18 go to: http://bit.ly/ipotky....
5. Microsoft Dynamics CRM: The Road Ahead - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog It is truly an exciting time to be engaging with Microsoft Dynamics CRM! Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 was a significant release for our customers with a broad range of new...
6. New Training Resources Available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog New Course Available: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 2011 This one-day instructor-led course provides an introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The course focuses on the user interface and working with...
7. Released White Paper: Deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and CRM Online Solutions from Development through Test and Production Environments - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog On behalf of the CRM Engineering for Enterprise Team and the CRM Content Publishing Team, I am pleased to announce the release of the white paper, Deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM...
8. Introduction to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog This release is being delivered to Microsoft Dynamics customers as the November 2011 service update for Online customers and as Update Rollup 5 for On premise customers.  These updates are...
9. Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog If you are a developer working on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you are by now familiar with the game changer in town, Solution Framework, which allows you to extend the ...

New Course Available: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 2011

This one-day instructor-led course provides an introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The course focuses on the user interface and working with the application and provides a foundation for other Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 courses. The course describes Microsoft Dynamics CRM concepts, the Web interface, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook interface, searching, and reporting.  Send your partners to the
following resources:

• Click here to visit the Learning Center today.
• Click here to download the Course training materials.

The Dynamics CRM Q4 2011 Service update training is now available for Partners

The content is available to your partners via the Partner Learning Center (PLC) at no cost to them.

• Partner Technical Services Product Release Training: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Q4 2011 Service Update - New Features: Outlook Client, Dialogs, Charts, and Data Management - Description: This course will cover new features in the Microsoft Dynamics ® CRM Q4 2011 Service Update.  Topics covered include the Outlook Client, Processes and Dialogs, Data Visualizations and Charts, and Data Management Duplicate Detection.
• Title: Partner Technical Services Product Release Training: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Q4 2011 Service Update - New Features: Activity Feeds and Windows Phone - Description: This course will cover the new features in the Microsoft Dynamics ® CRM Q4 2011 Service Update.  Topics covered include the new Activity Feeds Solution as well as the Dynamics CRM Mobile application for Windows Phone.

Lisa Crutchfield, Communications and Analytics Project Manager

Worldwide Dynamics, Partner Readiness

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Outlook Synchronization in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Explained - Story From: Webfortis - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions The folks over at the E2 team have prepared a great whitepaper titled "Outlook Synchronization in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Explained" describing the client synchronization process that is associated with...
2. Getting started resources - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog If you are new to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and arelooking for information to get started, you should take some time and readthrough the article that we have recently published for...
3. Microsoft Dynamics CRM: The Road Ahead - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog It is truly an exciting time to be engaging with Microsoft Dynamics CRM! Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 was a significant release for our customers with a broad range of new...
4. Innovation Abounds – Powered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog This past week I had the pleasure of joining my good friends from PowerObjects for their PowerConnect event in Minneapolis. This was a gathering of around 200 customers, prospects and...
5. Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s Mashable Ecosystem to Change Customer Care Market? I think So… - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog Microsoft Dynamics CRM is making significant investments in our partner ecosystem and our core CRM customer care solution. We provide a powerful yet flexible platform (Microsoft Dynamics CRM and its...
6. Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sustained Engineering (SE) team released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Update Rollup 5 on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. The links below point to important information about Update...
7. Introduction to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog This release is being delivered to Microsoft Dynamics customers as the November 2011 service update for Online customers and as Update Rollup 5 for On premise customers.  These updates are...
8. Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog If you are a developer working on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you are by now familiar with the game changer in town, Solution Framework, which allows you to extend the capability...
9. Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration with SharePoint Online is here - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog The SharePoint team is in the process of deploying some new features to the SharePoint Online service.  The rollout of these new SharePoint Online features across the data centers is...
10. Update Rollup 20 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 ...

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is making significant investments in our partner ecosystem and our core CRM customer care
solution. We provide a powerful yet flexible platform (Microsoft Dynamics CRM and its Customer Care Accelerator) to allow our partners to 'out-innovate'
the competition. The idea is to work closely with industry leading ISVs and SIs who can leverage Microsoft's core products such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SQL
Server to enhance their own offerings accelerating user adoption, improving time-to-market and significantly reducing TCO.  Microsoft is a partnership company and we
are proud of our heritage of working together with an ecosystem of partners that each deliver differentiated value to our customers.

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Named a Leader by Two Independent Research Firms - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog Microsoft Dynamics CRM has garnered recognition as a Leader from two leading independent research firms, Gartner Inc. and Forrester Research Inc. Forrester acknowledged Microsoft Dynamics CRM for offering a flexible...
2. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Released for On-Premises and Partner-Hosted Deployments - Story From: Webfortis Blog   Original publication can be found atMircosoft.com REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 16, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for on-premises and partner-hosted deployments has...
3. Microsoft Dynamics CRM: The Road Ahead - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog It is truly an exciting time to be engaging with Microsoft Dynamics CRM! Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 was a significant release for our customers with a broad range ...

This past week I had the pleasure of joining my good friends from PowerObjects
for their PowerConnect event in Minneapolis. This was a gathering of around 200
customers, prospects and employees to wallow in all things Microsoft Dynamics
CRM for a day. I was amazed by the innovation I saw around the foundation we
provide.

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM “Always On” solution from CA - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog John "O’Donnell shares an opportunity for Microsoft Partners. Simple outages planned or unplanned can significantly damage business productivity.  Data loss and downtime translate directly into lost sales and diminished service...
2. Now available – Beta of Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Team Blog www.microsoft.com/dynamics/marketplace ...
3. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Released for On-Premises and Partner-Hosted Deployments - Story From: Webfortis Blog   Original publication can be found atMircosoft.com REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 16, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for on-premises and partner-hosted deployments has...
4. Microsoft Dynamics CRM: The Road Ahead - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog It is truly an exciting time to be engaging with Microsoft Dynamics CRM! Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 was a significant release for our customers with a broad range of new...
5. Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s Mashable Ecosystem to Change Customer Care Market? I think So… - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog Microsoft Dynamics CRM is making significant investments in our partner ecosystem and our core CRM customer care solution. We provide a powerful yet flexible platform (Microsoft Dynamics CRM and its...
6. New Training Resources Available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog New Course Available: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 2011 This one-day instructor-led course provides an introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The course focuses on the user interface and working with...
7. Update ...

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Commence Corporation to Offer Cloud Computing Option - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions designed specifically for small- to mid-size businesses, today announced details of the new cloud computing edition of its...
2. Commence CRM Offers Solution for Stranded Goldmine Customers - Story From: Commence CRM Blog February 4, 2010 - Commence Corporation has announced a competitive upgrade program for small businesses currently using the Goldmine contact management software.  More than a year ago FrontRange announced that...
3. Customers Share Thoughts on Future Product Releases - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation customer relationship survey results for 2010. Customers share their thoughts on service and future product releases in this CRM survey....
4. Hosted CRM Makes Good Sense - Story From: Commence CRM Blog The migration to cloud based computing offers several benefits and customers who have switched to an online CRM service are realizing a higher degree of value than they did with...
5. Commence CRM Rolls out Challenge to Salesforce.com Customers - Story From: Commence CRM Blog TINTON FALLS, N.J. /PRBuzz/ March 10, 2011 –- Commence Corporation a leading provider of CRM software for mid-size and small enterprises is making an interesting and aggressive offer to companies looking...
6. Commence Delivers Unique Hybrid CRM Hosted Offering - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Photo owned by davidgsteadman (cc) When people think about hosted CRM software they think about using the Internet to access their data.  This is because the majority of CRM...
7. Larger Companies Cut Expenses With Commence CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog TINTON FALLS, N.J. / March 31, 2011 –- Commence Corporation a leading provider of cloud based Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) for mid-size and small enterprises has announced the ability...
8. Commence CRM and Sugar CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog A Brief Comparison of Two Middle Market CRM Providers Mid-size businesses and small enterprises looking for a CRM solution typically focus their energy on a few specific CRM software providers. ...
9. Cloud CRM Vendors – Not For Beginners - Story From: Commence CRM Blog The hype about cloud computing is all around us from television commercials, to businesses to college campuses and for good reason. Cloud computing has shown to provide exceptional value...
10. Commence CRM Scores Big with Account Rating System - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation, a leading provider of on-premise and cloud based CRM software is winning new business by demonstrating that all CRM systems are not alike.   Designed specifically for mid-size companies...

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Commence Corporation Announces Video Series - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation, one of the leading providers of Customer Relationship Management software for small to mid-size businesses, has announced the release of the first in a series of product and...
2. Commence CRM Offers Solution for Stranded Goldmine Customers - Story From: Commence CRM Blog February 4, 2010 - Commence Corporation has announced a competitive upgrade program for small businesses currently using the Goldmine contact management software.  More than a year ago FrontRange announced that...
3. Commence CRM Offers Solution for Abandoned Intuit Customer Manager CRM Users - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation invites customers of the discontinued Intuit Customer Manager CRM product to review Commence CRM as a migration option. Commence CRM is an online CRM system designed for small,...
4. Commence CRM Announces “March Madness” Promotions - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Photo owned by bigcityal (cc) Customers Offered Big Discounts on Top Rated CRM Software TINTON FALLS, N.J. (March 01, 2011) – Commence Corporation, a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management...
5. Commence CRM Rolls out Challenge to Salesforce.com Customers - Story From: Commence CRM Blog TINTON FALLS, N.J. /PRBuzz/ March 10, 2011 –- Commence Corporation a leading provider of CRM software for mid-size and small enterprises is making an interesting and aggressive offer to companies looking...
6. Commence Delivers Unique Hybrid CRM Hosted Offering - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Photo owned by davidgsteadman (cc) When people think about hosted CRM software they think about using the Internet to access their data.  This is because the majority of CRM...
7. Contact Management Users Express Interest in Commence Online CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation, one of the leading providers of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, is experiencing a higher than usual interest in their online CRM software from users of traditional desktop...
8. From Hosted CRM to Cloud Based CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog “Customers who thought they had a handle around the different deployment models of CRM software have been thrown another curve ball” says Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation.  “Today everyone’s...
9. Top 3 Mid-market CRM Contenders - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence CRM – Salesforce.com – Sugar CRM The CRM software sector is one of the most competitive segments of the computer software industry.  Despite this, each year more and more...
10. Commence CRM Scores Big with Account Rating System - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation, a leading provider of on-premise and cloud based CRM software is winning new business by demonstrating that all CRM systems are not alike.   Designed specifically for mid-size companies...

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Commence CRM Offers Solution for Stranded Goldmine Customers - Story From: Commence CRM Blog February 4, 2010 - Commence Corporation has announced a competitive upgrade program for small businesses currently using the Goldmine contact management software.  More than a year ago FrontRange announced that...
2. Commence CRM Offers Solution for Abandoned Intuit Customer Manager CRM Users - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation invites customers of the discontinued Intuit Customer Manager CRM product to review Commence CRM as a migration option. Commence CRM is an online CRM system designed for small,...
3. Commence CRM CEO Caretsky Spells Out CRM Product Differentiation - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence CRM Customers Commence Corporation is a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management solutions. The company’s products are designed to provide small to mid-size businesses with flexible solutions that leverage...
4. Online CRM Software Made Easy - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Companies of all sizes are now taking advantage of online CRM or online Customer Relationship Management software.  The days of long and costly implementation cycles have been replaced by rapidly...
5. Larger Companies Cut Expenses With Commence CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog TINTON FALLS, N.J. / March 31, 2011 –- Commence Corporation a leading provider of cloud based Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) for mid-size and small enterprises has announced the ability...
6. From Hosted CRM to Cloud Based CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog “Customers who thought they had a handle around the different deployment models of CRM software have been thrown another curve ball” says Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation.  “Today everyone’s...
7. Sales Management Software a Breeze with Commence CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Is your Sales CRM Software Hard to Use? You’ve heard it all before, sales people fighting tooth and nail with overly complex sales management software that provides little if any...
8. Commence CRM – The Perfect CRM Solution for the Middle Market - Story From: Commence CRM Blog For more than two decades Commence Corporation has been providing high quality affordable CRM software for mid-size companies and small enterprises. While certainly not a household name like Salesforce.com CRM...
9. Commence CRM a Robust Offering for SME’s - Story From: Commence CRM Blog TINTON FALLS, N.J. /WiredPRNews.com/ November 21, 2010 –-  Commence Corporation a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management software for small to mid-size enterprises has evolved into a robust CRM offering that now...
10. Commence CRM Well Positioned for Continued Growth - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Companies seeking Customer Relationship Management software solutions (CRM) traditionally focus their attention on industry giants Microsoft and Salesforce.com, but if there is a true David vs. Goliath story in this...

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Are Desktop CRM Solutions Giving Way to Software as a Service (SaaS)? - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Businesses looking for customer management software solutions better known as CRM, have numerous alternatives to choose from, but for those looking specifically for desktop or on premise CRM software, the...
2. CRM Software – More Than Just Sales - Story From: Commence CRM Blog When people think about CRM software, they often think only about sales and that is understandable because without sales you don’t have a business.  But Customer Relationship Management is more...
3. Contact Management Users Express Interest in Commence Online CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation, one of the leading providers of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, is experiencing a higher than usual interest in their online CRM software from users of traditional desktop...
4. Larger Companies Cut Expenses With Commence CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog TINTON FALLS, N.J. / March 31, 2011 –- Commence Corporation a leading provider of cloud based Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) for mid-size and small enterprises has announced the ability...
5. Make Your Life Easier With Customer Relationship Management Software - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Previously, businesses depended completely on their personnel to interact with their customers. Companies had to sift through thousands of resumes just to find the best workers around in order...
6. From Hosted CRM to Cloud Based CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog “Customers who thought they had a handle around the different deployment models of CRM software have been thrown another curve ball” says Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation.  “Today everyone’s...
7. Sales Management Software a Breeze with Commence CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Is your Sales CRM Software Hard to Use? You’ve heard it all before, sales people fighting tooth and nail with overly complex sales management software that provides little if any...
8. Sales Management Software Shortens the Sales Cycle - Story From: Commence CRM Blog A well oiled sales organization is traditionally the result of a process driven sales manager, an individual that understands the value of implementing a process for properly qualifying leads and...
9. Picking the Best CRM Software - Story From: Commence CRM Blog What should you be looking for when selecting CRM software?  Well it depends on what is important to you, but let me offer a few tips that may help you...
10. Best CRM Software for Small to Mid-Size Businesses - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Small to mid-size businesses are turning to CRM software to help them capture and distribute leads, manage the sales process, and take advantage of cost effective bulk e-mail marketing to...

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Commence Customers Welcome New Hosting Service - Story From: Commence CRM Blog -FREE Software Upgrade Offered to Existing Customers- TINTON FALLS, N.J., (October 15, 2009) – Commence Corporation, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions, today announced that it...
2. Commence Corporation Announces Video Series - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation, one of the leading providers of Customer Relationship Management software for small to mid-size businesses, has announced the release of the first in a series of product and...
3. Commence CRM Offers Solution for Stranded Goldmine Customers - Story From: Commence CRM Blog February 4, 2010 - Commence Corporation has announced a competitive upgrade program for small businesses currently using the Goldmine contact management software.  More than a year ago FrontRange announced that...
4. Commence Announces New Product Release with Year End Celebration - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation hosted a miniature golf tournament to celebrate the release of a new version of their cloud based CRM product that incorporates a Project Management application and a Customer...
5. Why is Selecting a CRM Solution so Hard? - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation Makes the Selection Process Easier with “Try Before You Buy” CRM Program Why are so many people disappointed with their CRM system?  Nigel Park, Managing Director of TPS...
6. Contact Management Users Express Interest in Commence Online CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Commence Corporation, one of the leading providers of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, is experiencing a higher than usual interest in their online CRM software from users of traditional desktop...
7. Larger Companies Cut Expenses With Commence CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog TINTON FALLS, N.J. / March 31, 2011 –- Commence Corporation a leading provider of cloud based Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) for mid-size and small enterprises has announced the ability...
8. Commence CRM – The Perfect CRM Solution for the Middle Market - Story From: Commence CRM Blog For more than two decades Commence Corporation has been providing high quality affordable CRM software for mid-size companies and small enterprises. While certainly not a household name like Salesforce.com CRM...
9. Commence CRM Software Offers New Customer Ranking Feature - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Cloud based CRM software provider Commence Corporation continues to differentiate its CRM software through a number of innovative features. The company’s newest CRM product release scheduled for July will now...
10. Commence CRM Well Positioned for Continued Growth - Story From: Commence CRM Blog Companies seeking Customer Relationship Management software solutions (CRM) traditionally focus their attention on industry giants Microsoft and Salesforce.com, but if there is a true David vs. Goliath story in this...

Tech researchers, analysts, journalists, bloggers and vendors agree that "Social CRM" is a hot sector, and validation of this is that companies are increasingly adopting it to engage and include their customers in business. But few people agree on a precise definition of what social CRM is and the #scrm hashtag on Twitter has frequent links to offerings as this market takes shape. The "Godfather" (or should we say General) of the social-CRM-definition-wars is CRM expert Paul Greenberg whose oft-referenced definition includes the position that social CRM strategies are a "company's response to the customer's ownership of the conversation" out there in social media land. In this we seem to all agree.

Social CRM as it applies to Bantam Live refers to both internal collaboration among a business team and external engagement with the voices of customers, prospects, and partners across the social web. Outside is in, inside is out. We explain...

Let's first start out with the internal social CRM aspects of Bantam Live. At the core of Bantam Live, in the dashboard, is the real-time activity stream, which fuses business data objects and communication among a team, so it can stay in the loop and collaborate. In Bantam Live, everything from status updates and team commenting to workflow activity updates (eg. progress on projects, completed tasks, and modifications to deals that a team is collaborating on) cascade in the stream.

This design is similar to the Facebook news feed and it's becoming all the rage in web-based business software. As Marc Benioff of Salesforce wrote on TechCrunch, it's "The Facebook Imperative" for software companies. As ReadWriteWeb said at our private-beta debut last summer, "Bantam Live is part CRM, part Twitter, and part Facebook for business teams." Even content from the web can be imported by users and displayed in the activity stream of Bantam Live, which leads us to the external part of social CRM.

While team members collaborate internally within the activity stream, they can also search from within their Bantam Live workspace out on social networks like Twitter. For example, if you're selling industrial solar panel technology to commercial office parks, you can search for keywords - say "solar panel recommendations" - and upon discovery import a new contact's full profile and the relevant tweet with one click into Bantam Live. From here, you can initiate workflows with team members to engage this new contact, and converse with the new contact for various CRM purposes, while maintaining all annotations and live feeds of this person from a single contact page in Bantam Live. All of this activity cascades in the real-time stream of the Bantam Live dashboard, where team members can comment and interact. For lead-generation (and soon other CRM features), Bantam Live makes the filtered and captured spontaneous content of Twitter transformative and valuable for sales and biz-dev people. As we've said, Thar's gold in them thar tweets!

Altimeter Group's Jeremiah Owyang and Ray Wang recently issued a report  that provides a framework and successful use cases of social CRM. In its broad spectrum, we'd say Bantam Live initially falls into the Sales and Collaboration categories of their Social CRM construct, specifically in the SMB space, for now. Interestingly, as we've suggested (see Hunter-Gatherer and Farmer in Social CRM), it's possible that the deeper social "relationships" (in the human bonding sense of the term) between two people will increasingly flourish in small and midsize businesses (without the restrictions of the large enterprise) and, moreover, in the sales and biz-dev end of the social CRM spectrum, more so than in the ephemeral and transactional nature of a customer service relationship with a brand and its on-duty rep. It may turn out that the sales and biz-dev end of the social CRM spectrum is the most richly authentic and social of all. Who knows? As we continue to build Bantam Live in the triad of CRM's domain in sales, marketing, and customer support, we'll find out.

Internal CRM collaboration among the team, external CRM engagement with prospects, partners, and customers, all managed in a social workspace with complimentary productivity and collaboration tools for business teams. That's the social CRM you'll find ...

CRM Software Free Trial - Your CRM online guide to Web-based Contact Management Software Free Internet Trials and the latest news Articles, reviews & comparisons.

1. Creating a Lead Sprinkler in Salesforce - Story From: Popular Ideas Many of youleverage assignment rules for distributing leads to your inside sales teams butsometimes you need a distribution system that provides a random and equal flow ofinbound leads to everyone...
2. 7 Uncommon Free Tools For Marketers - Story From: Infusionsoft Blog The key to effective marketing is to create a “message to market match.” This requires you know and understand a lot about your market. It used to be difficult and...
3. Best practice: Bring cloud computing to your entire company with the AppExchange - Story From: Recent Ideas With hundreds of  applications—ranging from dashboards that extend Salesforce CRM to full-featured Financials applications—salesforce.com’s AppExchange makes finding and deploying new applications fast, easy, and secure. ...
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9. Search Marketing and Lead Management vs. Sales Prospecting - Story From: Sell, Sell, Sell! The reasons to consider an online marketing campaign and use lead management systems to manage and respond to those leads are compelling. Most important is the increase in sales! Related...
10. AppExchange App of the Week: Lead Scoring from Force.com Labs - Story From: Recent Ideas Superbowl Sunday is almost upon us and everyone here couldn't be more excited for our halftime ads.   Check out this awesome video to see behind the scenes. I digress...