Webfortis
I just love all the time and attention that our clients and consultants are giving to user adoption these days. Ten years ago, we consultants used to have to describe user adoption to our clients, explain that it was their single greatest risk for project failure, and try to convince them that the efforts built into our budget and project plan to facilitate adoption were indeed vitally important to the success of their project.
But it seems we've turned a corner in the last few years, and I'm finding more openness to that conversation on recent projects. While this new openness is real progress - and it's comforting to find in our industry - the practical steps of assessing and addressing threats to solid user adoption remain obscure to many project teams.
Here are five data points that I think are worth evaluation for every CRM user audience. If we can assess and address each of these five issues early and often, building user adoption into our project lifecycle as a separate and distinct discipline, the total risk of CRM project failure will drop significantly.
1. Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants
A guy named Marc Prensky coined these terms back in 2001. Kudos to him! The "digital divide" is of primary concern to a CRM project team. If our users are totally comfortable with technology, our job in designing software that is easy to use, and training users to perform specific tasks, is that much easier. But let's not think in terms of black and white; it is useful to consider both the median, and the lowest reasonable or acceptable, techno-savvy represented among our intended CRM user audience. Next, let's allow that assessment to constrain and inform our design and training efforts throughout the project. (For more information on educating across the digital divide, see Marc's website at http://marcprensky.com.)
2. Collaborative and Virtual Workspaces
Has your user audience been working with data silos, or are they accustomed to the "pile on" nature of shared content and data? Facebook is a great example of a very pedestrian collaborative virtual environment. If your soon-to-be CRM users have lived their entire corporate careers working one user at a time on data stored in Excel spreadsheets, you may need to help them along the capability maturity model to realize that when CRM is introduced, they will be sharing data with many other users. How do they perceive that change? It may scare them, and it is your task to calm, soothe, and reassure them that a collaborative workspace is a positive change.
3. Relational Databases
Many of us take for granted the ability to watch as another colleague diagrams boxes and lines on a whiteboard, labelling the connections with one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many tags that are in fact meaningless and complex to non-tecnical users. Your user audience may understand parent/child relationships within data sets when they are presented in the form of a report or print out, but may need your help translating that logical heirarchy onto the screen of a living, breathing, feature-rich CRM application. Don't take your own intelligence for granted. As CRM implementation consultants, it is our responsibility to close the gap between our soon-to-be CRM users and the nuances of the new software. Don't blame them if the relationship of a Contact to an Account is not second nature to them - they're new to the system. Look in the mirror - you built the thing.
4. Points of Pain
Moving away from the technical abilities of users, let's consider their expectations vs. what you are actually going to deliver. CRM users assume that you have made a promise to them - whether or not you have explicitly verbalized that commitment. They assume that if their company is investing time and money in this new system, that that same new system should make their lives substantially easier. It should provide a net gain in productivity for them. This is an entirely distinct user adoption risk that deserves serious consideration. For each user that will log into CRM, specifically which of their daily points of pain do you intend to eliminate in exchange for their daily use of the system? They assume there will be a quid pro quo. "I will use this system, keep the records up to date, track my stuff, and do my job using this tool. But, what's in it for me?" Can you answer that question, for each role you intend to support? The time to ask this question is before you begin to design the solution, while you are setting the overall direction for the project effort. A caution: Never bite off more than you are sure you can chew; ask for points of pain and priorities for them, and shoot for the low hanging fruit first. And another caution: Never assume that you know what the user would say without asking them; your arrogance would soon eclipse your ignorance.
5. Insight vs. Oversight
You know the Golden Rule, right? No, I mean this one, "The one with the gold makes the rules." Nothing could be truer in a CRM project. How often do we walk into design workshops for CRM, and the managers and executives in the room (the folks with the gold) begin driving our requirements towards improved reporting and data capture ("Those all should be required fields!") rather than focusing on removing bottlenecks and breakdowns for regular staff? When working with new CRM clients or delivering best practices seminars, I often point out that there are four types of stakeholders on any CRM project, and that their needs are often different, and sometimes conflict. Managers expect better data for reporting and forecasting; that makes sense, since a manager's job is to monitor and measure things. But end users expect real productivity gains from CRM, and they are far too often disappointed. In the heart of every sales rep I have ever trained to use CRM, they are begging, "Please... just help me sell more in less time." And for a support rep, "Help me resolve cases faster, with better customer satisfaction." Every CRM stakeholder could use better data, but we have to understand that data insight results in higher productivity, and data oversight results in more fields on every page in the software. There is an art to designing for productivity while still delivering data for measurement.
It is a mistake to consider user adoption as a late phase or effort in the overall project. No, user adoption is a thread that runs throughout the entire course of the implementation, influencing everything from hardware selection for users to cosmetic names of fields on forms.
This new and recent openness to proactively address user adoption during our CRM projects is comforting. But it is incumbent on us, as folks responsible for executing successful CRM projects, to leverage that openess and lead our teams to deliver substantial improvements on prior efforts. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Contact me here, at Webfortis, or online via LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/crmconsulting.
Here's to your success!
Christopher Bates
Read more...
One area that Microsoft CRM 2011 needs assistance in is establishing data input standards and validation. Simple data entry points can quickly start to lose shape if a system administrator doesn’t apply framework to ensure that the application users input data matches the desired requirements. Things like formatting a Phone Number or checking a Zipcode can go a long way to ensuring the data in a system is reliable and presented in a user friendly format, as well as making the data present correctly when used in views and reports.
Because MS CRM 2011 uses JavaScript as its client side scripting language you can rely on Regular Expression Objects (RegExp) to perform these sorts of tasks. I prefer not to restrict a user from entering data, but rather collect the data and if it matches an expression, ensure it is stored in a predetermined format. There are also many things to consider, when determining how to produce the data in the predetermined format. Consider a phone number, in some cases an application user might enter a seven digit number without the area code which would be less then desirable.
Following the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), long distance United States number would start with a 1 as the Country Code followed by the area code, then the prefix and then finally the last 4 digit of the number. So in this example we will assume that the Contacts in the application are primarily from the United States and it is the desire to format the number in the following format. +1 (XXX) XXX-XXXX, this format presents nicely for views and reports.
Phone Number entered into a field without formatting assigned:
The first step to setting up a feature to review a Phone Number that has been entered is to provide a function. The function will test what was entered by the application user, and if it matches the desired expression it will return it formatted. When adding these sorts of functions, it is best to design them to be used universally and not tied to a specific data attribute. In the example below a string variable is passed into the function to be tested against the expression. The method which you store these sorts of scripts in MS CRM 2011 are outside the scope of this Blog discussion, but will ensure we include that topic in a future blog.
function formatPhone(phonenum)
{
var regexObj = /^(?:\+?1[-. ]?)?(?:\(?([0-9]{3})\)?[-. ]?)?([0-9]{3})[-. ]?([0-9]{4})$/;
if (regexObj.test(phonenum))
{
var parts = phonenum.match(regexObj);
var phone = "";
if (parts[1]) { phone += "+1 (" + parts[1] + ") "; }
phone += parts[2] + "-" + parts[3];
return phone;
}
else
{
return phonenum;
}
}
Once you have establish the function you would simply call it from the onChange event of the data attribute you wish to test and format.
function phone_OnChange()
{
if (Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_phonenumber").getValue() != null)
{
var startphnnum = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_phonenumber").getValue();
var finishphnnum = formatPhone(startphnnum);
Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_phonenumber").setValue(finishphnnum);
}
}
Phone Number that has been passed to the formatting function:
You can enforce the entry of data in a certain format by clearing the value and triggering an alert that warns the application user that the data they entered matched the requirement. Caution should be used if enforcement is deployed. Ensure that you conduct comprehensive testing of your expressions as not to block valid data.
Sample Regular Expression Object string:
Zipcode var regexObj = /(^\d{5}$)|(^\d{5}-\d{4}$)/;
Email var regexObj = /^([a-zA-Z0-9_\.\-])+\@(([a-zA-Z0-9\-])+\.)+([a-zA-Z0-9]{2,4})+$/;
Note that the Email Regular Expression above determines if the string appears to look like an email, there is a standard that outlines exactly what a constitutes a valid email. That standard is outlined in RFC2822 and to achieve that standard additional development would need to occur on the provided expression.
Read more...
If you or members of your organization are asking questions such as……
- Can I use my iPad, Droid or tablet to access Dynamics CRM?
- Can I have meaningful conversations with clients and prospects within my CRM while viewing their latest social media updates and status?
- Can activity feeds flow through Dynamics CRM and store at client and prospect records?
- Can I use cubes to design “What If” style forecasting and analysis in Dynamics CRM?
Then check out the latest and greatest updates for Mobility, Cross-Browser Support, Social Tools, Business Intelligence Tools in Dynamics CRM in this recently released Microsoft Dynamics CRM Q2 2012 Service Update "What's New Video". This is the video version of our Release Preview Guide. Includes great demos of mobility, BI and Analytics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HVqc5MthbI
For more information, please feel free to contact me at sbeals@webfortis.com.
Read more...
In Crm 2011 if you want to view more debug information than (Help à About) go to this page
Crm Online: https://<YourOrg>.crm.dynamics.com/home/home_debug.aspx
For On-Premise Crm: http://<SereverName>:<Port>/<YourOrg>/home/home_debug.aspx
This information change based on user security role.
Read more...
When customizing CRM for your business, you will undoubtedly run into the need for form-level customizations and business logic. In this tutorial we will be covering basic "Attribute" & "Control". Interactions in this tutorial which will help with implementing basic calculated fields. In order to understand this post, please read "A Brief Introduction to CRM 2011 JavaScript". This will cover creating and loading web resources into a solution as well as some other useful scripting resources.
Tutorial Scenario:
- You need to trigger a calculation on a form when a field is updated
- The user cannot edit the calculated field
Identified Needs:
- Destination field needs to be disabled
- Trigger field needs a trigger event
- A web resource is needed to store the JavaScript
Each field has events associated with its control, you can see which triggers are associated with any control by opening the form customizations for any given entity and “Double Clicking” on a field.
NOTE: An attribute refers to the actual JavaScript object that contains data about the field, the control contains information about the base DOM element, visibility and whether or not a field is disabled.
Step 1: Disable field
Step 2: JavaScript Needed
I've named my fields new_triggerfield & new_calculatedfield. This function will update the calculated field when called. NOTE: I've created a web resource for this, and added it to the form.
function UpdateField() {
// Trigger Field
var trig = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_triggerfield");
// Destination Field
var dest = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_calculatedfield");
// Test to make sure the trigger field has a value, this will return null if blank.
if(trig.getValue() != null)
{
// Perform the calculation
var newValue = trig.getValue() * 3.14;
// Set the destination field's value to the new value (NOTE: To clear - dest.setValue(null);
dest.setValue(newValue);
}
}
Step 3: Add the event and test the changes
Now we can test the calculations, we should see results when the field loses focus.
Unfortunately, when we save the form and open it again we discover that the changes did not save! To fix this we must add an additional statement in order to save the changes back to the server. This happens because the field is disabled.
Step 4: Update Script To Save Changes
function UpdateField() {
var trig = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_triggerfield");
var dest = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_calculatedfield");
if(trig.getValue() != null)
{
var newValue = trig.getValue() * 3.14;
dest.setValue(newValue);
// Make sure the changes are saved back to the server - in CRM 4.0, this was crmForm.new_fieldname.ForceSubmit = true;
Xrm.Page.getAttribute("new_calculatedfield").setSubmitMode("always");
}
}
Finished: - Key Points
- Updating field data by schema name
- Retrieving field data by schema name
- Disabling fields through UI
- Force submit disabled field data
Read more...
Hi All!
I have Exciting news in the world of Dynamics CRM!
Yesterday at eXtremeCRM 2012 in Berlin, Microsoft announced the upcoming release of “Service Release 8” (aka R8) for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 slated for availability in Q2 2012 [which is right around the corner!!].
They’ve labeled this Service Release with the Tagline:
“Microsoft Dynamics CRM Anywhere” ... and it lives up to this mantra too!
The R8 service update is expected to promote 6 areas of interest:
1. Mobility
2. Multi Browser Support
3. Social Improvements
4. Industry Templates
5. SQL Server 2012
6. Industry Certifications
1.) Mobility
The launch of a new product named “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile” will enable CRM Online, partner-hosted and on-premise customers with IFD to use CRM on up to three devices per user. These will be native clients, which means full offline support, on all the main mobile platforms including:
-Windows Phone 7.5
-iPhone & iPad
-Android
-BlackBerry
*This is a subscription service for $30 per user per month.
2.) Multi Browser Support
This feature has finally arrived! With R8 applied to your CRM 2011 server, Dynamics CRM will be fully supported on the following browsers:
-Internet Explorer 7 or above on Windows 7, Vista and XP
-Safari 5.1.1 or above on Mac OS-X or iOS5
-Firefox 6 or above on Windows 7, Vista and XP or Mac OS-X or iOS5
-Chrome 13 or above on Windows 7, Vista and XP.
3.) Social Improvements
Microsoft released the new Activity Feeds feature in November 2011 which provided Social features into CRM 2011. R8 introduces a series of enhancements to the Activity Feeds feature including:
-like/dislike
-enhanced filtering (e.g. @me, types of records I follow, record views)
-an updated mobile activity feeds client for Windows Phone 7.5.
4.) Industry Templates
Building on the work of Microsoft partners and its own consulting team, the Dynamics Labs will be releasing several industry templates into the Dynamics Marketplace. The first few templates will include:
-Wealth Management
-Non-Profit
-Health
The templates will include data model customizations, dashboards, workflows and sample data. They’re designed to help customers in these specific industries visualize how Dynamics CRM can help their business, and speed up an implementation without necessarily being a fully-packaged vertical industry product.
5.) SQL Server 2012
Microsoft’s have already been upgraded their data centers to SQL Server 2012 and the R8 service update will bring official support for partners and customers wanting to upgrade their own deployments to SQL Server 2012. Additionally, there will be some new CRM features that make use of SQL Server 2012 new capabilities including:
-Performance improvements
-Enhanced database recovery
-Next generation Business Intelligence providing pre-defined Power Pivot models, Power View reports, and real time-animated reports.
6.) Industry Certifications
Certifications are critical to enterprise adoption and Microsoft has been working hard over the last year to ensure that its data centers and CRM Online service meets several important certification standards including:
-ISO 27001
-SAS 70 Type II
-SOX
-SSAE 16 SOC1
-Safe Harbor
-Data Processing Agreement
-EU Model Clauses
-HIPAA compliance (supported through Business Partner Agreements).
Microsoft’s official announcement can be found at the Dynamics CRM 2011 Roadmap site here: http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/roadmap
…And for even greater detail, as well as some nice screenshots, feel free to download the “Q2 2012 Service Update Release Preview Guide” here: http://crmpublish.blob.core.windows.net/docs/ReleasePreviewGuide.pdf
The future looks pretty exciting for Dynamics CRM… We’re a long ways away from our humble beginnings with CRM 1.2… And it just keeps getting better! :-)
Cheers,
Rob
Read more...
“Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away…” Has your company seen sunnier days? Well, with cloud based CRM, the chance of sun and sales has just increased. So go find some shade, because you sure are going to need it!
The key to any strong business is using technology in a way that allows for increased interactions with customers. The goal is to create a three-dimensional view of the customer. For example, customers who know their sales representative’s name are more likely to return, and the retention of existing customers is key to sales goals. However, managing all information needed is a challenge for most companies. Dynamics CRM is a cloud-based solution to this problem. Imagine having all information needed about your customers in a centralized location. Well, with Dynamics CRM, that imagination becomes reality.
CRM:
In order for you to know the latest history and status of a contact, it is important to be able to access data at a moment’s notice. CRM, Customer Relationship Management, offers Web-based contact management applications that maintain data over the Web. Whether you need to store upcoming meetings, check pending tasks, or view opportunities for leads, the contact data you need is available by accessing the Internet. CRM systems also have tools that enable users to assign and dedicate tasks to employees with due dates. Your sales representatives have access to updated information on the Web relative to what they should be doing and when. This is especially useful when leading a group of sales representatives assigned to a single task. Communication has never been easier with the tools offered through Dynamics CRM.
Automation:
Sales Force Automation is crucial to successful sales. Businesses who spend too much time determining prospects of buyers often limit the amount of time actually spent with customers. Since customer service interactions better sales opportunities, programs that promote customer interactions are key to success in sales. Sales Force Automation allows for pipeline management when forecasting sales and managing relationships with customers. Sales representatives devote time to leads rather than prospects, which allows more deals to be closed. Sales Force Automation is beneficial to both management and sales people.
Reporting:
Having a way to quickly access contact numbers and addresses is only one struggle for businesses. Completing reports that are easily shared with an entire company is another. Luckily, Dynamics CRM offers vital reporting features. With these features, users automate to-do lists with creative templates. Sales reports are then available for editing. Some companies have unique methods for generating sales reports. Dynamics CRM 2011 has custom reports tools that enable users to produce high-quality, personalized reports more efficiently. Some companies require access to summary reports that list all contact data on a single sheet. Dynamics CRM software uses services online, which means that data is always updated in real-time, and information is never lost. More importantly, data is easily exported to the most popular applications used in the office.
Read more...
What's in a name? Well, depending on the selected region you enter when you sign up for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, your URL will have several different options in the URL. These options are as follows:
- <<organization name>>.crm.dynamics.com
- <<organization name>>.crm4.dynamics.com
- <<organization name>>.crm5.dynamics.com
What does it mean?
Well - the URL that you are assigned is your Microsoft Dynamics data center location. Here is the mapping:
- CRM = United States
- CRM4 = Europe
- CRM5 = Asia
Where is crm2 and crm3, and when do we see crm6 and crm7? Perhaps we'll learn more about that in another blog post. This blog is dedicated to the fact that it IS POSSIBLE to be provisioned in whatever datacenter you like - however that does not mean that you will receive any better performance, and in fact, will probably receive worse just due to the number of hops it takes to get from the data center to you.
The Country/Region setting is the second step when signing up for an organization and is shown below:
When you select the Country/Region, you are presented with options for your Country or Region:
If you select a country in Asia, you'll get the Asian datacenter, in Europe the European datacenter, etc.
On a whim we decided to run a test and provisioned out an organization in EACH of the datacenters to test the performance from our San Francisco headquarters. To run the test, we debated running a series of web traffic capture tools (such as fiddler, etc.), as well a network analyzer (to evaluate hops) and while each of these does have their place, we instead went with the NATIVE diagnostics that are available with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
For those that don't know of these diagnostics, simply go to your URL and add the following to the end of the URL:
tools/diagnostics/diag.aspx
So if your URL is: http://<<organization name>>.crm.dynamics.com
Change it to http://<organization name>>.crm.dynamics.com/tools/diagnostics/diag.aspx
The tool looks like this:
Pretty cool, eh? It checks the following:
- Latency Test
- Bandwidth Test
- Browser Info
- IP Address
- JavaScript Array Benchmark
- JavaScript Morph Benchmark
- JavaScript Base64 Benchmark
- JavaScript Dom Benchmark
So there are a couple of options with the Tool (at the bottom), but the big button in the center that says 'Run' pretty much is key component to the tool.
In our case, we ran it on 3 sample Orgs, recently provisioned on each of the data centers from San Francisco, CA, USA with the following results:
Additionally, we ran (non-scientific) searchs and basic lookups and noticed SIGNIFICANT lag when working with anything other than the US data center.
Finally, you can review the log files/results that are run within the diagnostic tools to confirm and further validate the diagnostics.
Hopefully this is helpful when you are troublshooting client performance - but REMEMBER - this is only PART of the equation when evaluating performance with CRM Online - there are other factors such as Office/IE versions, Number of Records, etc. It is my recommendation to use this diagnostics IN COMBINATION with the following:
Finally- We would all love lightening fast speed for our CRM data, however the reality is that we are in a hosted model and there just sometimes things that we can't control - like when it's 5:30 in the evening, you're home and the entire neighborhood decides to jump their Cable modems and start downloading their Netflix episodes of "Breaking Bad"....Netflix now accounts for 25% of North American Internet traffic
Read more...
Have you wondered when and what is coming next for Dynamics CRM? (Perhaps even Dynamics CRM 6.0 or Dynamics CRM 2013/2014?)
Check out the Statement of Direction for CRM.
The following is from the introduction:
With upcoming releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we will continue to put our philosophy into action with enhanced experiences that promote end-user productivity and demonstrate the rich, "better together" value of Microsoft technologies. We also expect to provide new experiences and capabilities that help customers and partners get the most value from key emerging trends such as cloud computing, mobility, and social technologies.
We will continue to focus on rapid, but substantive, innovation that leverages Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the easiest and fastest way to experience the full benefits of Microsoft technology for your organization. Additionally, we remain committed to sustaining the „Power of Choice‟ and the ability to transition between cloud-based and on-premises delivery of CRM as a key point of customer value and flexibility.
We encourage you to read the whitepaper for additional details, and believe you‟ll agree that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is well-positioned to provide tremendous value to organizations of all sizes and industries going forward.
The following addressed the particulars related to the latest features around Activity Feeds:
Microsoft has significant collaboration assets and is continuing to extend those capabilities across a number of products including Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Lync, and Microsoft Office. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will harness and surface these broader Microsoft investments as part of specific new experiences that facilitate direct customer engagement and clear business value. We will deliver an innovative new experience in this area, while supporting some common capabilities such as:
Micro-blogging: encompassing important status updates and notifications regarding business events and actions.
Business activity feeds: delivering configurable real-time notifications regarding important relationships and significant business events.
Social intelligence: identification of data patterns and streams to enhance customer service and marketing decision-making.
Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Statement of Direction (SOD) here:
http://www.webfortis.com/downloads/crm2011/CRM_StatementOfDirection_May2011.pdf
Read more...
Webfortis, The CRM Experts, who recently released their third book on Microsoft Dynamics CRM/xRM, announced plans to expand their reach for Microsoft Dynamics CRM/xRM service offerings with an expansion to the state of Washington. The new office is approximately ten minutes from Microsoft Offices in Bellevue, WA.
Seattle, Washington (PRWEB) January 09, 2012
With the new year comes more growth for Webfortis - a Northern California headquartered Microsoft Gold Partner in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and xRM, who recently announced plans to expand their reach with an expansion to the state of Washington. The new office is approximately ten minutes from Microsoft Offices in Bellevue, WA.
Webfortis, The CRM Experts, are well known in the industry for offering excellent services and innovative solutions. With over 40 dedicated full time resources ONLY to Microsoft Dynamics CRM/xRM, Webfortis continues to offer best of breed business solutions. The new office means improved customer service to our Washington customers, as well as increased depth on our sales team with the introduction of Jeff Taylor, Sales Account Executive.
“With the addition of this new office, we expect to improve internal and external communication, and most importantly our speed in responding to customers’ needs outside of California where our headquarters are located,” said Operations Manager, Beth Armendariz.
“Given our rapid growth over the past few years, this expansion just makes sense for Webfortis. Our new location and enhanced operational efficiencies will allow us continue to grow and evolve to keep pace with our customers’ needs, while also allowing us to continue to provide exceptional value and superior service,” said Marc Wolenik, Webfortis’ President and CEO. "With the consolidation of other smaller partners due to recent changes in the Microsoft Partner Program (MPN), there now exists an opportunity for partners such as Webfortis that offer ONLY CRM/xRM services. We have already established our customer base in the region organically, and just moved a small 100 Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization from another less focused partner to Webfortis."
About Webfortis
Since 1996, Webfortis, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has been a leader in developing and deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM/xRM solutions for companies of all sizes. CRM is all we do, so you can trust us with your business critical application. Having authored three top-selling books for both the deployment and integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Webfortis is a nationally recognized thought leader in system integration and an expert in deploying software applications across the Microsoft product line. Webfortis has additional offices throughout California in San Francisco/Bay Area and Los Angeles, Santa Rosa and Sacramento. For more information about Webfortis, visit http://www.webfortis.com or call (866) 279-5215.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9072519.htm
Read more...
Go to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Marketplace and do a search for "Social CRM" and what is the first result you see? It's Parrot by Webfortis. As the Social Media Coordinator for Webfortis, it is exciting to watch Parrot grow to become a prominate product on the Dynamics Marketplace. It is astounding how Parrot attracts masses of interest from users all over the world from all types of business. The fact that Parrot is such a unique product to the Marketplace allows it to grow and become the best Social CRM product for Dynamics available, despite its short lifetime or being released to the public. If you don't have Parrot installed already into your CRM, now is the time to get it.
Read the full solution brief of Parrot at: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM/Webfortis/Selling-Social-CRM-Through-the-Microsoft-Dynamics-Marketplace-Establishing-Web-Presence-with-Microsoft-Dynamics-Marketplace/4000011686
Read more...
The MSDN websites are one of the best places to get new and relevant information on Dynamics CRM 2011. The post on December 28 of last year by Shawn Dieken was a great one that listed almost every relevant white paper and technical documentation on Dynamics CRM 2011.
The MSDN sites that I frequent most are located here:
The specific post I'm referencing is here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crminthefield/archive/2011/12/28/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-white-papers-amp-technical-documentation.aspx
And featured the following list (however be sure to check the link above for Shawn's update):
Read more...
Social media and CRM go together like a movie and popcorn or cookies and milk. Tracking all interactions with customers helps to make CRM as effective as it is. Social media gives your business another channel to interact with your current and prospective customers in an environment they are comfortable in. In order for your company to be approachable on a social media channel you must first develop a successful social media strategy by using the most effective Social Media channels. To help you kick start your Social CRM here is a list of the eight most used channels for Social CRM and reasons why they may be right or wrong for you:
1. Twitter – Twitter allows you to put bits of news out to your followers.
Pros: It takes little time to set up a Twitter account and even less time to keep it up. This is recommended for all companies, especially if you are skeptical of the social media tactic of CRM.
Cons: Since the pace of Twitter is so fast, few people will see each post. Posting regularly is key for a successful Twitter based Social CRM. Making time throughout the day to post on Twitter can be challenging. Likewise for readers, following a conversation is also not as simple as most other social media outlets.
2. Facebook – Facebook allows companies to create pages with just about any type of content they would like.
Pros: Facebook is great if you have diehard fans. Use Facebook to create a following around your brand by offering special promotions and information only to those who become fans of your Facebook page. You can create a cult following by giving your fans something unique to talk about both on your page and theirs.
Cons: It can become difficult to create fans of your page if your organization provides an obscure service. One way of getting around this is to find an exciting topic.
3. LinkedIn – LinkedIn is the professional social media website.
Pros: Having a company profile gives the viewer insight into your business. This is a must if you are a small business; making yourself a celebrity in your specialty will only draw people to you.
Cons: All interactions happen on the individual level. Meaning, self-promotion as a company representative is the best way to attract customers and prospective customers. When generating business, many companies confuse LinkedIn with being the go-to site for Social CRM and generating business. In reality, LinkedIn is a great channel to connect with people you already have a connection with. Since it is saturated with professionals, when connecting with new individuals you will be drowned out by all the other professionals screaming for attention. Use LinkedIn as a channel of communication and not for generating new business.
4. YouTube – YouTube allows you to post any type of videos for others to view.
Pros: You can record tutorials, interviews, public speaking, commercials and facts about your company. Draw people to you by showing you have the knowledge necessary to give people what they want. They can also leave comments about your videos and ask questions.
Cons: Badly edited videos can make your company look unprofessional on YouTube. And even though “going viral” can bring business, your goal is to receive positive exposure, not negative. Rule of thumb here is that less is more.
5. Google+ - Google+ is Google’s response to Facebook and works in much the same way.
Pros: Google+ had huge hype during the launch, but unfortunatly corporations were not invited to join in the excitement. Now there is a rumor that Google+ is related to search rakings on Google.
Cons: The hype is fading and just about everyone has moved back to Facebook. My suggestion would be to stick with Facebook and not to bother with putting time into making an impression on Google+.
6. Quora – Quora is a question and answer site.
Pros: This works very much in the same way that LinkedIn Answers works but is not as saturated with other professionals to compete with. Most people asking questions on Quora are genuinely looking for answers whereas on LinkedIn Answers many people are trying to generate business for themselves. Quara is a great way to start communication with people who may become new customers. Quora is also a great place to come up with blog topics.
Cons: Most of the “good” responses are lengthy. If you would like to draw attention to yourself on Quora, my suggestion would be to kill two birds with one stone and create answers that you can also put on your blog.
7. Foursquare – Foursquare is a location based social site.
Pros: Foursquare is a must if you are in the retail business. Just the game of winning points and becoming mayor is enough to draw business. Communicate with your customers by giving rewards.
Cons: Not for home based business or businesses which do not have customers visiting frequently.
8. Blog – Blogs are a place to share anything and everything with people on a website you monitor.
Pros: Blogs give you the opportunity to share your expertise and draw people to your website from search engines by using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and should be used by businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Cons: They can be very time consuming. Use WordPress.com to set up a site and choose a theme that is not a default option (choosing the default theme screams amateur). Coming up with new topics can also be difficult. Use a question that you have recently been asked or use Quora to generate topics.
When creating a Social CRM strategy it can be very easy to be ambitious and get on every social site on the web. This thinking is a set up for failure. To be successful with Social CRM first develop a strategy to include the social media channels that would be best for your purpose. At Webfortis we have the experience with Social CRM to help you to develop this strategy. We evaluate the best tactics to use in Social Media channels and the tools necessary to execute these ideas. Email Madeline Goepp at mgoepp@webfortis.com for more information.
Read more...
Recently, after installing Update Rollup 5 to several machines for a set of new users at a client, we noticed that they began to receive script errors every time they opened a contact record from a list within the client. It looked a little something like this:
Naturally, we assumed culpability and began to review our code from all the other environments. We studied the client side Web Resources we had in play, we varied the Security Roles set against the record, fields, and forms, we even looked at every registered plugin and ISV solution deployed. We even turned on full trust in Outlook to allow all macros, scripts, etc. One by one we turned them all off but the problem prevailed!
Our next level was to look at the client side trace file. Sadly, it only led us to the get_WebBrowserExternalObject() function of the client with no distinct reference to the get_unselectedlds function from the actual error being thrown.
We still had the old uninstall/reinstall trick in our back pockets, so we performed our surgery and ripped everything out. However, even after the failsafe trick, the error still persisted....
At this point we knew that the error was pointing to code that was not our own, so we pointed the Outlook client to a clean Out-of-the-Box Organization in CRM. Guess what?!?! The error still persisted!!!
Now that we knew the error was being produced by the native code of the Outlook client we knew our places to look would be even more limited. After a short look, we found the answer.
If a user had personal options choosing any option other than to opt in for the Customer Experience Improvement program, the errors would appear. However, as soon as we began sending them automatically to Microsoft, our client script errors went away!
I would suspect that in the next Update Rollup there will be a correction for this due to standard Opt in regulations, but for now, if your Outlook clients are producing this error, simply Opt In for the time being and they will subside....
Read more...
It’s that time of the year again. You are either reading a renewal notice email from your SSL certificate provider or you are less fortunate and are looking at a failed connection message in your Lync client.
Before you can get your new certificate you will need to generate a new Certificate signing request (CSR).
1. Inside your Lync environment, click on Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Lync Server 2010 -> Lync Server Deployment Wizard.
2.Click on Install or Update Lync Server System
3. Under Step 3, click on Run Again
4. Select the certificate you would like to renew and click on Request
5. Click Next
6. Select Prepare the request now, but send it later (offline certificate request), and click Next
7. Select where you want the request to be saved and click Next
8. Click Next in the Certificate Template window
9. Specify a name you want to use for identifying this certificate
10. Enter the organization and organization unit name, as well as geographical location on the next window.
11. Next window will list Subject Names what will be included in the certificate, click Next.
12. If you are requesting a certificate for an Edge server,you will be able to select your SIP domain, click Next.
13. In this window, you will have to enter all of the Subject Alternate Names used in your Lync environment. For example lync.domain.com, edge.domain.com, dialin.domain.com, meet. domain.com etc.
14. Verify your information and click next.
15. Click Next to generate the request then click Finish.
16. Now that you have your CSR request file, send it over to your SSL provider. When you get your new certificate files, right click on each one and select Install Certificate.
17. Go back to your Lync Certificate wizard and click on Assign. Look for the friendly name you created in step 9, and select it. Click next until your certificate is assigned.
18. Restart Lync services and they should start right up. Check for any error logs in the Event Viewer.
If you plan on using the same certificate on your other Lync servers, you will have to use the Microsoft Management Console Certificate Snap-in to export and import the certificate to other servers. Now repeat from step 16.
Read more...
With the R7 update, you can create multi series charts easily. What this means is you can have a chart showing up to five fields (y axis) against a single category field (x axis). An example of what you could use this for would be comparing projected sales (Est. Revenue) vs. actual sales (Actual Revenue) per fiscal quarter (Est. Close Date (Quarter)) from your Opportunity entity.
You would set up this chart by going to the Opportunity entity area in the Sales section. Find the “Charts” tab near the top and click the “Chart Pane” button. I prefer showing the chart pane at the “Top” for this, as it provides more visibility. After the chart pane is showing, click the “New Chart” button.
Under the “Legend Entries (Series)” heading is a dropdown menu of all the fields available for charting from the current entity. Find “Est. Revenue” under this heading and make sure the dropdown on the side says “Sum”. Under Est. Revenue, click the “Add a series” button.
This gives us another field to report on. Open the dropdown and find the “Actual Revenue” field. In the Category dropdown search and find the “Est. Close Date” field. If you’ll notice to the right of “Est. Close Date” you can set the period for the category. In this example set it to “Quarter”. After doing this, the chart is complete. You can give it a new name instead of “Est. Revenue, Actual Revenue by Est. Close Date” if you’d like, or even change the format of the chart to Area or Line. I would not recommend Stacked or 100% Stacked Column or Areas for this view, as this is a comparison between two values. Go ahead and save the chart, and you’re done!
One important thing to notice is that there are now two different Y-Axes for the chart. The left Axis is the scale for the first series (Est. Revenue) and the right Axis is the scale for the second series (Actual Revenue). If you want a more direct comparison (using the same exact scale for both) you need to manually edit the XML of the chart. Don’t fret! This change is fairly simple, so give it a chance and you’ll be happy with the results. You’ll notice the examples below show how much doing this can change the way a chart looks. On the left we have two Y Axes, and the Actual Value looks to be higher than Est. Revenue across the board, but when we directly compare the two a much different story is told.
After saving the chart, have the chart showing in the Chart Pane. Once it’s loaded, click the “Export Chart” button, and save the chart some place easy to find. Once it is saved, browse your computer to find the file and open it in “Notepad” (Nopepad++ and Visual Studio both work great for this). You don’t want to edit this in Word or any other word processing program. Once the XML is opened, look through the file for the area that says “Series” about in the middle of the file.
You’ll notice there are two “Series” here. The first is going to show Est. Revenue, the second shows Actual Revenue. If you go to the rightmost end of these lines you can find the “YAxisType” in the second series. Simply remove the whole ‘YAxisType=”Secondary”’ section so both series look identical.
Once you’ve done that, save the file, you’ve just successfully edited the XML! After it’s saved, go back to CRM to the same place as before, and click the “Import Chart” button. Browse to where you saved the file, select it, click “Open” and click “OK”. You should get a pop up saying there is a duplicate chart found. Both “Replace” and “Keep Both”, but for this I’m just going to “Replace” the original chart, as we won’t need it after this one is in place. If you’ve done everything else correctly to this point it should tell you the chart was successfully imported, hooray! Open up the new chart and you should see it now show both series using the same exact scale on the left.
When you’re working with more than two series, the second series from the top is going to use the second axis, and all other series (1, 3, 4, 5) use the first series on the left. You can do the same kind of XML edit to make all series use the same axis. Alternatively, the opposite changes are possible as well by adding the ‘YAxisType=”Secondary”’ to the end of other series.
Read more...
CRM Online and other cloud services take the IT burden from customers and cost-effectively moves it to the cloud. While the savings on IT and hardware are obvious to most users, many customers feel nervous about trusting a third party with their sensitive data. With Scribe Software’s latest product, Scribe Online Replication Services, customers can now have both the ease of cloud-based services and the security of on-site data.
What it Does
Scribe Online’s Replication Services can pull a custom selection of data from either a CRM Online or Salesforce online instance and transfer that data to a local data source. Currently, Scribe Online only supports movement to a SQL Server or SQL Azure in the cloud, however connectivity to other targets though development with Scribe's CDK is an option. The Replication Services’ 6-step wizard allows easy setup of full database, recommended entity, or hand-picked entity backups to a local data source. These backups can either be performed manually or on an automated schedule, based on selections made in the setup wizard.
Control of Data
Aside from the security that comes with having frequent backups of sensitive business data, Scribe Online Replication Services also provides a number of other benefits. While cloud services provide convenient and generally reliable access to your business data, any internet-based service has the occasional hiccup. Having a local copy of data will provide access to a recent version of your data even during an infrequent outage.
CRM Online 2011 performs hard deletes. What this means it that when a user selects a record for deletion, the record is not simply flagged and removed from the user interface, as was the case with CRM Online 4.0. Deleted records in CRM Online 2011 are actually purged from the system, with no chance of recovery. The availability of a local backup allows clients to reimport/restore mistakenly deleted records or data.
One of the largest pain points of having one’s data in the cloud is the frustration associated with migration. With Scribe Online Replication Services, a full SQL backup can be available for easy migration from one system or CRM instance to another.
Offline Analytics
While CRM Online 2011 provides its out-of-the-box dashboards, charts, reports, and report wizard, sometimes more complex analytics are desirable. The ability to keep an updated SQL mirror of live data on hand gives your organization the flexibility of SSRS reporting, including the powerful SSRS report builder for creating professional-looking reports with the ease of a point-and-click interface. Having your data on a local SQL database also allows for mixed queries with external data sources and the use of 3rd-party analytics software such as Good Data.
Offline Data Cleanup
Anyone who’s tried data scrubbing CRM data on a large scale knows that sometimes out-of-the-box tools simply aren’t flexible or efficient enough. With a working copy of business data on a local SQL server, system administrators have the freedom of large-scale SQL scripting to clean data. Also, more complicated duplicate detection/resolution measures can be taken with a convenient copy of the data at hand.
Flexible Pricing
Scribe Online provides a number of pricing options, accommodating a customer’s needs. The Starter package provides the necessary backup functionality for small businesses needing to keep an on-hand backup, whereas Standard and Premium packages provide additional functionality such as multiple solutions, entity selection and automated replication.
http://www.scribesoft.com/Buy-Scribe-Online
More to Come
Scribe Online’s Replication Services are only the first of Scribe Software’s Online Services. Coming in Q4 is Scribe’s Synchronization Services, and slated for 2012 is Scribe Online Integration Services.
Note: Article has been updated for accuracy (10/19/2011)
Read more...
When reviewing CRM systems to consider for your business you may have preconceived ideas about what you are looking for. A good CRM system will allow a strong working relationship between your customers and company from the salesmen and marketers to the customer service team. Even if every part of your CRM desires are met, there are other aspects to consider when in the market for a new CRM system.
Microsoft products are widely used within businesses whether it's Powerpoint, Word, Outlook, Access, or Publisher. Microsoft has designed their products to have standard functions, which makes them easy to learn and use. This means that if a new user with past experience in a Microsoft product is using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for the first time, they are well on their way to understanding how to use this CRM system. Because Salesforce is a company that is only CRM, their system is unfamiliar to many new users.
Depending on the needs and wants of a company, they may want to handle their CRM system on their own on premise or they may want Microsoft to handle this for them by using Dynamics CRM in the cloud. Dynamics CRM users have the flexibility of choosing which solution works better for their needs. Salesforce users are not given this choice and are forced to use CRM in the cloud only.
Because Microsoft is a large company that has the ability to handle multiple platforms and technologies including the .NET Framework that is used by a wide variety of technological professionals, there is a native integration between Dynamics CRM and these platforms and technologies. Salesforce, being much smaller, must create each platform specifically for CRM purposes which is a tall order for a small company. Since Salesforce uses Visualforce, a technology specific to Salesforce, customizations can only be made by a Salesforce professional who is familiar with Visualforce.
When shopping for a new CRM, keep in mind that there is more to consider than key features. Dynamics CRM not only has an extensive list of features that engage all aspects of a business's customers into a single place but it has been designed to meet the needs of CRM for all types of businesses. For more information on this topic download: Comparing the xRM Application Framework and Force com - A Guide for Technical Decision Makers.pdf (672.30 kb)
Read more...
As a Social CRM expert, one of the things that Webfortis prides itself on is our climbing status in social media. We do not just work on our social media status for status sake, we work to give our followers and fans relevant information about CRM and Webfortis to improve our customer service, reinforce our expertise in CRM and develop a trust in our brand.
To be a company who uses social media successfully, the business must keep a close eye on what their specific social media trends. In other words, what is working for their company and what is not. Each business is different and understanding what fans and followers feed off of is an important aspect of developing a strong social media strategy. As Webfortis becomes a stronger force in social media, we are building a stronger strategy everyday that satisfies those who are involved. Some of our most exciting stats are as follows:
· Our Twitter profile is, on average, receiving one new follower a day and gaining momentum.
· Our views this month on YouTube are more than 10x what they were in June.
· We are rated in the top 9% of all social media users on Tweet Grader.
· Our two most recent hires have been a direct result of social media.
Contact me at mgoepp@webfortis.com for more information on improving your company's Social CRM strategy.
Read more...
"A local presence based in Washington will allow Webfortis to service both Seattle and Portland, and has already resulted in an organization with 100 Microsoft CRM users transitioning to Webfortis as their xRM partner", Marc Wolenik, Webfortis CEO
