CRM Online

Mobile CRM Becoming Key to Managing Customer Relationships - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

Companies that are not using mobile technology to manage customer relationships may find that they are losing ground to competitors that are.

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Questions or problems with Dynamics CRM Online billing? - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

Do you want to convert your trial to paid subscription? Change the credit card you’re using to pay for your subscription? Questions about your bill?
 
Help yourself to answers about your Dynamics CRM Online billing—we’re here to make it easy. Visit Frequently asked questions about Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online billing. There’s a great chance we have the answer you’re looking for. You can avoid banging your head on your desk while waiting on the phone.
 
This FAQ is for those of you who manage your billing via https://billing.microsoft.com/home.aspx. If you manage your billing via Microsoft Office 365, visit that web site to get help with billing.

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Use Online CRM Software to Connect With Your Customers - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

You have probably heard the old saying: “Leave your customers alone and they will go away“. In today’s business environment staying in touch with your customers is paramount to achieving a level of service that drives customer loyalty. While the human touch is important for building rapport and ensuring that your customers are pleased with [...]

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Commence Challenges Salesforce.com for Elite 8 Position in Capterra’s CRM Madness - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

Commence Corporation is pleased to announce its selection as a Top 16 CRM solution provider in the Capterra CRM Madness vendor tournament.  Commence will now challenge Salesforce.com for a position as an Elite Eight CRM system. Winning both round one and two supports the fact that Commence customers have had a strong voice in favor of [...]

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Commence Wins Round One of Capterra’s CRM Software Challenge - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

If you have been following Capterra’s CRM Madness online tournament you know that thanks to your support Commence CRM has moved into round two of the CRM vendor challenge. While this is exciting we need to call on you one more time so others can learn about the value they can realize [...]

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Employee Satisfaction Ensures Customer Satisfaction - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

Develop Customer Intimacy with CRM Software When reviewing your sales pipeline, a recurring question is how can we generate more leads, but still maintain our client base and ensure our customers are happy? Customer intimacy is the key to customer satisfaction. Whether your product or service is B2B or B2C it is essential that your entire organization [...]

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Leverage the Web for Managing Customer Relationships - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

You need to connect with your customers and respond quickly to customer inquiries, but access to information is difficult and often scattered throughout the organization.  If you’re a firm with remote or virtual offices the problem may be even worse.  Thank God for your accounting system and Excel spreadsheets that at least provide you with [...]

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What Customers Should Consider When Selecting CRM Software - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

The CRM software sector is highly competitive with dozens and dozens of product offerings that on the surface all appear to be the same.   As a consumer, it is not hard to get confused.  The vendors’ websites typically describe similar features and benefits, the products often look similar and the majority of them are web [...]

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Setting Expectations for Online CRM - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

Web CRM review -- What to look for in the top rated CRM software for small to midsize companies selecting an online CRM system. Compares cost and CRM features to differentiate between enterprise level and mid-market CRM competitors.

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Commence CRM Review – Noted in The Most Important Online CRM and Social CRM Applications - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

GetApp.com which provides information via their Business Software Marketplace has highlighted Commence CRM as one of the top providers of CRM software and  Social CRM software or SCRM.  Commence has been noted due to the company’s support for both CRM and Social CRM software. Commence CRM offers a comprehensive suite of customer management software including contact [...]

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On Line CRM Best Bet For Small to Mid-Size Enterprises - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

Small to mid-size enterprises looking for a Customer Relationship Management solution may find that online CRM software best suits their business requirements.  The current economic environment has placed a great deal of financial pressure on the SME sector.  Many companies have found themselves with limited resources and working with a dated IT infrastructure that will [...]

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Commence-ing with the Cloud - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

Commence Corporation, a leading provider of online CRM software, is helping companies transition from traditional desktop software to CRM programs that operate in a cloud computing environment. “Many small to mid-size enterprises are still a bit suspect of cloud computing,” says Tom Gibson, Sales Manager at Commence. “These companies have spent years using traditional contact [...]

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Small Enterprises Take Advantage of Cloud Based CRM Software - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

Small to mid-size enterprises have been using some form of CRM software for almost two decades. Once labeled contact management software, customer interaction software and collaborative groupware, the business objective behind these software programs was primarily the same; to capture, track and manage customer information.  In addition to similar functional capabilities these software programs also [...]

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CRM Anywhere - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

Over the last few months I have spent a lot of time  meeting with customers, partners and industry leaders around the world on the current trends effecting businesses. The discussions have been fascinating! An interesting theme emerged around technology. The most common questions put to me were what are the innovations other customers are asking for? How are they embracing the rapid change of technology? And how can we leverage technology and Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a vehicle to drive a truly dynamic business to thrive in a hyper competitive environment? Heavy questions!  I'll get to my answers in a moment.

In my last blog post I discussed the innovations going on in the CRM space and the fact that CRM is a big bet for Microsoft. Our "CRM economy", if you will, is a deep and vast network. It is big business. Couple that with our strategic "more innovation available more frequently" agenda which we announced last November along with all the work we are doing to synergize Microsoft technologies and bring them home to the CRM customer. Put that all together and you still only begin to scratch the surface of how much we are bringing to the table to change the industry. We will deliver more. Why? Because like you, we are relentless in our drive to outpace the competition.

So on to those answers I promised. We want to be revolutionary, not evolutionary. ...and the market is moving fast. Our customers are tackling CRM initiatives like never before. They can't afford to be casual. They are serious. They don't flinch. They are absolutely convinced that together with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM innovation agenda and pace of delivery, they can be a dynamic business. The most successful customers are innovating with mobility, using every kind of device they can deploy CRM functionality on, and they are going deeper with Microsoft Dynamics CRM flexibility for their specific needs than ever before.

Six months ago we announced our Social Productivity and Enterprise Cloud capabilities release. It was a great success and it was a good part of the answer to those questions I mention above. But we're not standing still. We have no rear-view mirror. I am thrilled to announce the next wave in our continuing cycles of rapid innovation in helping provide those answers: the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Anywhere release is coming in Q2 2012. With this release we are enabling you to be pervasively connected to your most valuable asset-your customer. We are providing more flexibility in mobility than any other CRM provider. Period. CRM where you want to consume it on the device you use.

Who doesn't love to get ahead of their competition in a big way? You do. And we just did in many ways!! And that's really only the beginning of what this release will offer.  There's much more to discover including cross-browser support for broad access, data visualization capabilities for unique insight, big additions to our Marketplace and enhanced social capabilities to keep you in touch with your network and customers.

I encourage you to learn more about our Q2 2012 Service Update in our Release Preview Guide.

I look forward to hearing from you as we roll this into the market in the next few months.

Dennis Michalis
GM, Dynamics CRM

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM SiteMap Editor Walkthrough - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

Yes there is. We have released the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SiteMap Editor last November. It is released as a solution that can be imported into a CRM organization, and customizations can be done within CRM in a snap. Once you load the editor’s user interface, you can view the sitemap and make all necessary updates. The accompanying user’s guide gives you a jumpstart on how to use the tool.  This blog provides you a concrete example on updating the sitemap using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SiteMap Editor.

Adding a New Area to the SiteMap

NOTE: Before updating your sitemap, make sure to save a back-up of your sitemap just in-case you encounter issues in the sitemap update process. Always follow this best practice. If you don’t have a back-up, you would need to recreate your sitemap, or dig through old sitemap copies and do a restore.

Consider that you are a system customizer for a nonprofit organization which has different kinds of volunteers and has decided to keep track of your volunteers in CRM. You wanted to achieve this sub-structure in the sitemap:

• Volunteering (Area)
  • Volunteers (Group)
    • Volunteers (Subarea)
    • Volunteer Skills (Subarea)

So you need to add a “Volunteering” area. To do this through the editor, click on any area in the sitemap and click on the + button at the bottom of the left pane (the navigation pane). This will add a “sibling” of that area immediately after the location of the selected area. You will then see an editing form at the right pane of the tool, which allows you to add/edit the necessary information attributed to that element.

You can go ahead and input an Id (any unique identifier) as well as the URL to the icon that represents volunteering. This URL uses the $webresource directive because this icon is a web resource in Microsoft Dynamics CRM named ‘msdyn_/imgs/sitemap/Volunteering.png’. All you need is include “$webresource:” in front of the name of the web resource.

This URL should not be confused with the other URL field which should contain the Outlook URL to render the Outlook folder that represents this area. If you want to show the groups of subareas under this area, click on the Show Groups checkbox. For the purposes of this example, let us have it checked so we will be able to see all components that we plan to add. Since this is a new area for a new entity, we need to add a title to it. Click on the New Title button, fill-in the LCID, which is short for Locale ID. The LCID for English is 1033. The title string text should be “Volunteering”. The Use Resource ID for Title should be left unchecked as it is for internal use only and should not be changed. The same steps can be executed for the description section. Enter an intuitive description for your new area and we should be done creating a new area in the sitemap.

Adding Groups to the SiteMap

To create a group, click on the Volunteering area and click on the Child button below the navigation pane. You can then set the Id and the other fields similar to that of the Area element. Let’s name this group “Volunteers”.

Adding a New Sub-Area to the SiteMap

So you have a “Volunteers” grouping but you don’t have any subareas under that group yet. To create the subarea, click on the newly created area, and add a child to it by clicking on the Child button at the bottom of the navigation pane. Similar to the creation of the area element, you have to set the Id as well as the URL of the associated icon. As we don’t have to pass information about the organization and language context through the URL (see CRM SDK Topic: Passing Parameters to a URL Using SiteMap for more information on this), you can leave the Pass Params checkbox unchecked.

Say for example you created a custom entity called “new_volunteers”. That being the case, you will have to set the Entity field to “new_volunteers”. For Client, you can check the All checkbox as this subarea should be available to all clients but since the default is “All”, you really don’t need to. This subarea is also expected to be available offline so you can also check the Available Offline checkbox. You can leave the Sku checkboxes as is since like the Client checkboxes, the default is also “All”.
 

The same steps as with creating the area element should be followed for the Titles and Descriptions section. Based on the target sitemap we have set at the beginning, we are naming this subarea “Volunteers”.

You can also prevent users from seeing this subarea if they don’t have specific access privileges to some entities. Say you don’t want to users to view this subarea if they don’t have Read, Write, and Create privileges to the activity entity (activitypointer). You have to set the Entity field to “activitypointer” and set the Read, Write, and Create checkboxes.

If you have help visors or Get Started pages to associate with this subarea, you can set the Get Started Pane Path values. You can set just the default Get Started Pane Path as we don’t expect different Get Started Pages when logged in as admin or in Outlook (see Change Application Navigation Using the SiteMap: Customize the Get Started Pane for more information).

If you want to create your own customized Get Started Panes, see Create Custom Get Started Pane Content. The SDK provides some template files a web developer can use to create custom Get Started Pane content using web resources.

You can follow same steps to create a different subarea for “Volunteer Skills” provided that you have a custom entity to associate to the subarea. If you want to interchange the order of the two subareas, you can easily just click on any of the subareas and drag it to the right position.

Wrapping it up

So according to plan, you have easily created all components that you needed to add to the sitemap. Now you just have to save all changes and publish the customizations in CRM. Just click on the Save button, confirm, and click on the Publish All Customizations button in CRM. When you refresh your instance, you should be able to see the updated navigation pane with the elements that you have added.

For more information on the SiteMap, see the Microsoft CRM SDK topics:

• Change Application Navigation Using the SiteMap
  • Edit the Site Map
  • Passing Parametersto a URL Using SiteMap
  • Control Access to the Resource Center

There should also be instructions on exporting/backing up the SiteMap in Edit the Site Map (see steps 1 to 4 of the “To edit the Site Map” section).

Maria Christina Joaquin

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Web Sales with the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace- Case Studies - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

PowerObjects

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Fast, Efficient Growth for Project Management Solution – Case Studies - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

itara

When presented with the opportunity to feature CRM-Project, the fourth module for project management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, in the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace, itara acted immediately. The company built a consistent marketing strategy to ensure the optimal visibility and effectiveness of its solution listing. In that effort, customer reviews and ratings are key. CRM-Project also received Certified for Microsoft Dynamics status, which greatly helps in highlighting the soundness and effectiveness of the solution. With CRM-Project ranking at the top of several Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace country sites, the company generates 70 percent of its new business through this resource. The increasing traffic from potential customers and business partners helps itara in taking CRM-Project to new markets around the globe.

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Activity Feeds Solution & Development Environment - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

If you are new to the term Activity Feeds and would like to learn about it and install it, then follow this article Introduction to Activity Feeds solution.

How is Activity Feeds Feature any different than regular CRM Feature?

Traditionally features within CRM were always part of the core product, with no options available for the end user to choose which features they wanted. CRM 2011 provided the Solution framework which allowed ISV’s, Partners to build solutions that can isolate their customizations, business logic from other others.

Activity Feeds is the first certified solution that the CRM team produced that abides by the same policies set by the Solution Development Model. What it means is that you can enable or disable this feature in your organization by installing or uninstalling the solution.

I. Activity Feeds Feature is split into 2 parts, Platform and Solution.

• Platform is delivered as part of the UR5 release. This means you get Entities like Post, Comment, Follow and the SDK Messages that retrieve posts as part of UR 5 update.
• Solution is available as MicrosftCRMActivityFeeds.cab from the Dynamics Marketplace. It contains:

• UI Components to:

  • Display posts via What’s New & Record Walls.
  • Enable Entities for Activity Feeds.
  • Choose which Auto Post Rules to enable.
• ActivityFeeds Security Role
• Auto Post Rules on some OOB entities like Task, Appointment, Phone Call, Recurring Appointment, Lead, Opportunity, Case,Dialogs

II. Online and On-premise differences

1. For On-premise and existing organizations in Online, you would need to install the solution by getting it from market place.
2. For New Online Organizations, we install the solution as part of the provisioning so you have it all ready to go.

 How does the solution work in my environment?

The Activity Feeds solution allows you to enable / disable an entity for Feeds. For example, you can enable feeds for Account and disable for Contact.  

When you enable an entity for feeds we do the following on behalf of the end user:

1. Create the following Saved Query’s to the Entity

• Accounts Being Followed
• Accounts I Follow

2. Customize the Entity FormXml

• Add “Record Wall” Tab to the Form

3. Enable Auto Post Rules for each entity if available

• Register Plugins so Auto Posts get created when changes happen in the system

You as an Admin can also go to each entity for eg: Account and Create the Views, Customize the Forms. But we wanted this to be as few clicks as possible, so we do that on your behalf when you create a new active row in the Activity Feeds Configuration section. We also clean everything up when you Disable the entity for feeds by removing the row from Activity Feeds Configuration section.

What should I know if I am developing another Solution in this organization?

I think this is the main reason why you are reading this article. So let’s cut the chase.

Remember the Solution development model where Managed solutions create components as managed and all end user customizations are treated as Un-Managed. (Read more about solutions model here. About Importing a Solution)

If you go through the last section, I showed you that we create Saved Queries, Customize Form Xml on behalf of end user. So this means those are Un-Managed customizations.

If you try to export Account entity, you will get those customizations exported within your solution. So if you export and import in customer organization, you will be trying to take ownership of those customizations in target organization. This is likely not what you intended as you did not directly make these customizations, effectively you do not own those customizations. When you export your solution, you need to make sure you export only the changes you intend and nothing else.

I understand this brings back the memories of CRM V4 where we have to worry about other ISV’s customizations in the system... I understand…

Here are the steps to remove Activity Feeds Un-Managed Customizations from your development org:

• Go to Settings-> System-> Activity Feeds Configuration ->
  • Delete all the entries except User
  • Delete User at the end
  • Publish all customizations
•  You can optionally uninstall the Activity Feeds solution in your Development Organization after the above 2 steps are done.
• Note: All New Online Orgs Provisioned after UR5 will have Account, Contact, User, Opportunity, Lead, Case automatically enabled for Activity Feeds. If you are developing against an Online Org you will need to Unconfigure these entities even though you did not manually enable them.

Now you can Export your solution - it will not export the components from Activity Feeds. 

Thanks

Ajith Gande

Developer – Microsoft CRM

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Commence Helps Desktop Customers Migrate to Hosted CRM Service - Story From: Commence CRM Blog

Commence Corporation, a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management software (CRM), is offering traditional desktop CRM customers the option to migrate to the company’s new online CRM hosted service.  “The economic environment has hit many small to mid-size businesses very hard” says Todd Pape, Chief Information Officer at Commence.  Many are working with dated hardware [...]

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“Thank You” to my Customers, Partners and Friends by Brad Wilson - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

What a journey it's been over the past six years!  ... from the ground-breaking CRM 3.0 release, to full multi-tenancy with CRM 4.0, and the amazing user experience of CRM 2011... with the launch of CRM Online in 2008, a global roll-out in 2011, and six more Online service updates along the way ... and with great customers and great partners around the world fueling double-digit growth of the Dynamics CRM business for 29 consecutive quarters.  It's been so much fun to be a part of this business, to bring a terrific and talented team together, and to help guide Microsoft into a leadership position in the CRM category.  As we start 2012, I'm very excited to transition my responsibilities over to Dennis Michalis, and to watch him continue to grow and scale the Microsoft Dynamics CRM business.

Microsoft provided a unique opportunity to build a business from the start-up phase to maturity, and that's what I love doing.  I'm taking some time to decide what to do next, but you can be sure that it will be about growth and passion.

With that, I want to say a huge "THANK YOU" to all of my customers, partners, colleagues, and friends who have made this a wonderful experience for me - your friendship and partnership are unforgettable!  I look forward to staying in touch, and you can always reach me at brad.t.wilson@live.com, or via my LinkedIn profile.

Best regards,

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