Customization

A Little Help from My Friends - Story From: CRMFYI

In a demonstration of community and collaboration, Mike Gerholdt and I have created a blog post / demo video of utilizing inline Visualforce to display rich text info in standard page layouts without using fields. →

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Why CRM Projects Fail

No one specific factor is enough to dramatically increase the probability of a very successful CRM implementation; to achieve a solid return on investment; companies must do a good job on several fronts. The difference between success and failure of a CRM system project is not divine intervention, but preferably a end result of the way a company approaches the work. The secret to victory is placed in the knowledge and ability you and your rollout team takes to the project. If you know what real problems you are trying to solve, what likely mistakes you can make and how to avoid them, what technological innovations can and cannot do to help you, you are much more likely to succeed.

A CRM implementation’s failure to attain a few targets may constitute a general failure in some people’s estimates, when as a whole, the implementation works as designed. The lesson here is clear: When developing the targets of a CRM package, companies have to be reasonable with a phased approach. Corporations also need to prioritize their Web-based Contact Management goals so that the significant features actually get achieved.

Another important feature by far is the new Customer Relationship Management system lacking a customer-focused Web-based Contact Management system methodology. Pick up almost any business, sales, or technical publication nowadays and it is simple to see that on that point is a CRM system mad dash. And as well there should be. In virtually every industry, companies who are concentrating on maximizing their sales process are realizing the significant rewards of doing so. They are outselling their competition by 60% or more, they are reducing their selling cycle time by as much as half, there sales methods are developing into more customer oriented processes, there sales teams are performing more smoothly across inter-enterprise and intra-enterprise boundaries, and they are doing all this at a considerably lower cost.

In the present business conditions, business managers when making choices about the path of their company, have a lot more requirements because of the hi-tech world we live in. The goal for making new investments in their organization is to hold on to that advantage they have over the competitor. As a result, some choices may be rushed into which, actually, may become inadequate decisions. That’s exactly what may happen when speeding to put a new CRM system in place. So how do you prevent the wrong decision from being made? It’s easy; ask your customer what “they” need in your new Customer Relationship Management system before you purchase.

Up front, a evident divide for many corporations is a tendency to over-focus on “what and how” they want to sell. To get the new CRM system right, they really need to create a deeper understanding of “what, why and how” their customers want to work with them, and even more important, how they what to buy from them.

Develop a customer-centric mindset: “The company’s focus should be to have a greater understanding of the gap between their customer’s/prospect’s current state of how they do business with us and their desired potential state of how they want to do business with us.”

The real relevance of the scenario is the customer is having to pay for the new Customer Relationship Management system, so the glaring end result is; build the new CRM system to fit the customer’s requirements.

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Readiness Assessment Description:

Using survey measures and interviews, experienced change management consultants determine the status of staff and management related to computer use, work processes, and change management. The two-day on-site visit focuses on determining the preparedness of staff for the broad scope of change resulting from the transition to a new system. In addition, staff is provided the opportunity to engage in the project, identify expectations and concerns related to the project, identify their roles within the project and provide suggestions for the consideration of the leadership within your organization. Potential redundancies in documentation, discrepancies between work practice and policy and unclear or undefined processes are identified.

This process allows for the necessary corrections, improvements, or clarifications in work processes and documentation to be managed before training staff on a new computer information system. Specific guidelines are provided to establish the internal mechanisms to address the change processes and the observations made during the site visit. Early preparations can then be undertaken to expedite the implementation process. An overview of the implementation process provides staff and management with the perspective to establish the internal structure to manage the change process and engage the staff affected by the change process related to the new system.  A written summary following this visit identifies pertinent observations related to the existing culture and skills within your organization and provides individualized recommendations for your consideration.

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Working with System Views and Related Entities - Story From: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

Views allows you to display data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a customized manner, designed for the way you work. Creating them is easy and only requires a few clicks. The types of views include system and personal. Each entity has different system views...(read more)

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CRM Utilities – Free, Paid, Supported and Unsupported - Story From: Webfortis - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has many great features and functions, however there is a LOT you can do with the application. From an open/downloadable SDK (located here and up to version 4.0.11, last updated 11/24/09 as of this post) to a free Developer toolkit from the Dynamics CRM Engineering for Enterprise (CRM E2) team located here.

Our page has several of these utilities and a few more. This page is located here: http://www.webfortis.com/crm/crm_utilities/:

There are a ton of other utilities out there that have some interesting functionality that is worthy of pointing out:

1. Mitch Milam's blog and postings on CRM utilities located here: http://blogs.infinite-x.net/free-utilities/. Mitch has the following utilities available:

CRM 4.0
CRMExportJavaScript - Extract all of the custom JavaScript found in a CRM organization and write the code for each event to a file.
Enhancement Request - A customization that allows you to track enhancement requests for a CRM system from within CRM.
CRM 4.0 Development Skeleton - Provides a CRM developer with Visual Studio solution that allows for quick prototyping and development of applications which use the CRM SDK.
Plugin Settings - A customization that allows you to store settings for plugins inside of CRM itself. 
CRMExport - Is a command-line application that allows you to export all customizations from a CRM organization.
Run CRM Deletion Service runs the CRM 4.0 deletion service which will physically delete any CRM records that have been marked for deletion.  See this post for more detail.

Misc
Description Version - ROI Calculator allows you to calculate the Return on Investment for a proposed CRM customization.
Duplicate Email Detection SQL script. 
 
CRM 3.0 and 4.0
Description Version - CRM Tracer allows you to activate and deactivate diagnostic tracing without having to modify the required registry settings by hand. 

CRM 3.0
CRM StartStop starts and stops the CRM-related services and web site.
CRM SMTP Settings configures the SMTP server settings required for the CRM Server to utilize a different SMTP Server than itself.
CRM Scan Contacts Scans the CRM Contacts Entity to identify and correct possible data corruption issues in the Job Title Attribute.
CRM Metadump exports a list of Entity Attributes to an XML file that can be easily imported into Microsoft Excel.
Birthday Update utility. 
Change Request customization allows you to track change requests inside of CRM. 

2. Michael Höhne over at Stunnware offers a couple of utilities, both paid (filtered lookups) and free. Of particular value is his Trace Log Viewer located here: http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/topic.aspx?id=TraceLogViewer. We use this viewer regularly and it makes searching for errors a lot easier:

• CrmDiagTool4
• CrmKB968793FixIt
• Crm4EmailConnectorLogger
• CrmDiagToolTurbo.zip
• MSCRM30OutgoingEmailConfigWizard
• MSCRM30RetrieveBUHierarchy.zip
• MSCRM30KB925780AdminTool.zip

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Great Article – Field-level Security in Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Story From: Webfortis - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions

The folks over at the CRM E2 team (Engineering for Enterprise) - yes, the same ones responsible for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit available at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/E2DevTkt, just released a great article on Field-Level Security in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The article can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=471f8670-47b3-4525-b25d-c11a6774615c

And some of the highlights include how to control access to the CRM platform by defining the interaction points graphically:

• Access Channels and Methods
• Usability Considerations
• Role and Role Based Filtering
• Options for Filtering Data, including:
  • Access via Forms and the consequences of restricting access by using Client-Side JavaScript (this was something we blogged about back in August of 2008 here: http://blog.webfortis.com/post/2008/08/Hiding-fields-in-Microsoft-CRM.aspx - and it is good to note that they agreed with us that it is important to realize that the primary purpose and benefit of using client-side JavaScript is to enhance User Experience and usability rather than to provide the underlying security - which is what we indicated)
  • Restricting Access by using Plug-Ins
• Access via Views/Advanced Find
• Access via the CRM SDK
• Access via the CRM Metadata Web Service
• Access via the Export to Excel Feature
• Access via Reports
• Direct Access to the Database
• Access via Outlook Synchronization
• Access via the Offline Client
• Implementing Data Filters
• The export to excel feature
• Performance and Scalability

As the paper indicates at the conclusion: Although Dynamics CRM does not currently offer field-level security as a product feature, the paper has shown that it is possible to use the flexibility of the CRM platform to offer relatively rich capabilities.

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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: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a4893988-7804-4e23-ab58-740441cc696e
• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=971782

General Details about Update Rollup 7

• Update Rollup 7 is cumulative. You do not need to install any previous Update Rollups prior to Update Rollup 7
• The Update Rollup 7 download contains updates for the 40 supported Language Packs. Prior to installing the Update Rollup 7 Language pack you must install the original Language pack. If you have Language Packs installed, you should:

1. Download the Update Rollup 7 Language Pack
2. Install the Update Rollup 7 Language Pack
3. De-provision the Language Pack
4. Re-provision the Language Pack

• Update Rollup 7 adds support for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2
• Information about how to avoid reboots when installing the CRM Outlook Client can be found in the Update Rollup 4 blog posting. If the Client is being installed via AutoUpdate a reboot will be required because the AutoUpdate code is being updated in Update Rollup 7.
• The Update Rollup 7 Client can be deployed before the server is upgraded to Update Rollup 7
• The Update Rollup 7 Client cannot be uninstalled because of schema changes made to the offline database. All other Update Rollup 7 components (Server, Language Pack, SRS, Exchange Router, etc) can be uninstalled.
• The Update Rollup 7 Client package will be a prerequisite for all future Client Update Rollups. Starting with Update Rollup 8 the client updates will block installation if the Update Rollup 7 Client is not found.
• The Update Rollup 7 Client has new prerequisites
  • An internet connection is required for successful Client installation
  • Client update installation will take longer than previous URs, so please be patient
• Steps to make the Update Rollup 7 Client available via AutoUpdate can be found in the Update Rollup 4 blog posting. Once published the Link and Patch IDs can be found in kb article 971782.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data Migration Manager

The Data Migration Manager Update Rollup 7 package will not ship on October 22, 2009 with the other CRM components. That package is expected to be added to the Update Rollup 7 download page during the week of October 26.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router

Exchange 2010 support is currently scheduled for Update Rollup 8.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile Express

Update Rollup 7 enables Mobile Express for the 24 additional CRM base languages.  The new Mobile Express supported base languages are German (Germany),French (France),Spanish (International),Italian (Italy),Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Chinese PRC, Chinese Hong Kong, Japanese, Swedish, Russian, Portuguese (Brazil),Portuguese (Portugal),Turkish, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Chinese Taiwan, Norwegian, Greek, Korean, Arabic and  Hebrew.

Also, this new Mobile Express release offers client-side user interface rendering into any of the 39 Language Packs available for Dynamics CRM. In addition to the languages above, extra Language Packs are available for Basque, Catalan, Croatian, Estonian, Galician, Hindi, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Serbian (Latin), Slovenian, Slovak, Thai and Ukrainian.

Please see the Getting Started: CRM Mobile Express blog for more information about CRM Mobile Express.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client for Microsoft Outlook

The following is a list of improvements made to the CRM Client in Update Rollup 7.

Computer performance

• Reduced sign-in time. This is especially significant for users who have a large amount of offline Microsoft Dynamics CRM data. In earlier releases, Microsoft Dynamics CRM stored many files in the roaming profile, such as metadata, logs, traces, and the offline database. To reduce sign-in time, these files are now located in a local data folder.
• Improved overall performance. In earlier releases, the hoster process and offline database continued to run, even while the computer was in online mode. This could decrease performance and reduce battery life. These processes now run only in offline mode. The desktop client no longer requires the hoster process.

Outlook performance and synchronization

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook now loads in the background. This enables users to read e-mail messages before Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook is fully loaded.
• E-mail tagging now runs in the background. This improves Outlook performance, especially for users who have a large number of tracked e-mail messages in their inbox.
• CRM Address Book Provider (ABP) run-time storage of in-memory ABP XML has been moved to a Microsoft SQL Server CE in-memory representation. This helps manage CRM address book data more efficiently.
• State management logic has been improved. This enables Microsoft Dynamics CRM to handle network, authentication, sleep, and hibernation transitions more efficiently without requiring users to restart Outlook for each transition. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Laptop Client now automatically transitions to offline mode when a remote Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server cannot be contacted (as long as user has gone offline at least once in past). It automatically switches back to online mode when the connection is restored.
• Outlook synchronization now runs in the background and has significant performance improvements in terms of numbers of records synchronized per minute.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook now supports Outlook delegates.  If an Outlook user is a delegate for another Outlook user, the delegate can mark items for tracking in the primary user's inbox. The Exchange Server stores the tracking information until the primary user starts Outlook. At that time, Microsoft Dynamics CRM verifies the data and then synchronizes with Outlook.
• Manually synchronizing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM produces item-level failure details. The synchronization code now handles row-level failures in a way that does not cause the entire synchronization process to fail. Also, the synchronization progress dialog box now displays the list of specific record-level failures.
• The synchronization process is now optimized to help prevent synchronization failures from damaging the offline database.
• The synchronization process has been improved to ensure that changes made to CRM tracked records inside Outlook are propagated to CRM server even when CRM addin is not active (e.g. – via OWA or when addin is in disabled state).

Setup and configuration

• Background Intelligence Transfer Service (BITS) has been implemented to improve component download performance.
• Configuration Wizard now starts automatically when the user restarts Outlook after Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook is installed. An ability to auto-configure CRM for Outlook has been added via use of config.xml file.
• The number of Configuration Wizard screens has been reduced and the overall configuration process is simpler.
• After Update Rollup 7 is installed, updates will no longer require the user to have Administrator privileges on the client computer.
• A download button has been added for CRM Outlook client in application web UI to help users discover the right client for their deployment type. Additional flexibility has been enabled for organizations to modify the download package in a manner that enables them to package CRM configuration information specific to their organization (Please refer to KB 2004601 that will be published shortly)
• Silent unattended installations of CRM via SMS has been enabled by adding support for MIF files and removing the need for end users to be logged into the machine during laptop client deployment.

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Deploying the CRM Social Media Accelerator - Story From: Webfortis - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions

Earlier today we installed the CRM Social Media Accelerator for Twitter. It is very cool and it is free. It is available here on Codeplex:

http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=29979

When installing it be sure to check these points if you run into issues:

1. As noted in the discussions, be sure your date/time format is correct (and restart the Asynch service if necessary)
2. Be sure you have a c:\debug directory (the Acclerator will error with a non-descriptive error if not)

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Webfortis 

Here is our first Tweet from CRM (we have a ton of other Tweets):

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Gartner EAS Magic Quadrant Ranks Microsoft as Leader - Story From: Webfortis - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions

Microsoft Dynamics CRM relies on the capabilities of the Microsoft Application Platform—Windows Server, IIS, SQL and .NET.   Given this,  I wanted to draw your attention to recent research from Gartner Research (www.gartner.com). The report – released September 24, 2009 – delivers valuable information regarding the current landscape of the Enterprise Application Server market, as defined by Gartner. The report is under the title of: “Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Servers”

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