4.0 SDK details

Fromm the TEAM:  The product is shipped and now you may be asking, where is the SDK? Check the Downloads page in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Center the first week in January. We are working hard to ensure that the SDK contains all the sample code you’ll need to get started with the new features.

Thanks for your patience, Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK Team

Jon Petrucelli - President and Founder - ProductiveGap Corp

 

Phillip Richardson demos and shows off the Data migration process in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

http://www.philiprichardson.org/screencasts/titan/DataMigration/DataMigration.html

 

There is no sound.  But watching it is pretty interesting.  This guy put out some great stuff.  Thanks Phillip.

 

Jon Petrucelli - President and Founder - ProductiveGap Corp - www.productivegap.com

 

Brad Wilson - head of MS CRM - Interview on CRM buyer about Titan and integrated messaging

http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/60864.html

 

Worth the read.  Happy Holidays.

 

Jon Petrucelli - President and Founder - ProductiveGap Corp - www.productivegap.com

 

Some cool customizations and configs we are doing for clients. Some nice Productivity enhancements to the CRM UI and then a nice information consolidation.

These customizations below are helping clients to better use and leverage the power of the APIs of MS CRM with all the controls and then the intuitive Interface.

First of all (red arrow), we added Previous/Next buttons to the form. This is just a matter of modifying the isv.config file, restarting iis, adding the image files, and changing the web.config file to allow isv customizations to “All” client versions rather than “None”, which is default. These buttons will allow you to scroll through Accounts one at a time without opening/closing any forms. For example, if you pull up a list of Accounts, and you want to scroll through the list, open the first Account record and click the “Next” button, CRM will open the next Account record in the list and so forth. This works very well and is just a matter of adding javascript to the isv.config file. I particularly like this previous/next buttons because this comes up a lot when you are working in CRM all the time. They work out great just like on the records in the Outlook interface. These buttons are invaluable to a sales person.

Second (blue arrow), This is a custom SRS Report that is shown in an IFrame. This report is a summary of data that needs to be displayed for a particular Account record. The IFrame in CRM allows you to pass the GUID of the particular Account into the Report as a parameter and will generate the report with Account-specific information every time you open an Account. This is useful to clients with many integrations or sources of data to be brought together and analyzed in the context of one client or entity. This is going to be a summary for them, but the nice part is that we can pass parameters into reports and then show them on the form, as well as have them update every time the form is opened. Our next step is to use the CRM Style Guide and make this look seamless in CRM (change the background color and fonts, etc.)

Third (green arrow), we have all seen this before. Just another example of us using this method at a client site. Things to watch out for are making sure these are hidden on formtype create since there is no GUID yet, it will throw an error, so you need to only run the code if the form is NOT create or quick create.

Try Out Microsoft Dynamics CRM for 90 days - Download info here

Wow this is going to really hit the competition (SFDC) hard! We have been asking for this for a long time. Client can now download the full product of MS CRM and test drive it for 90 days. It will be very good and potentially bad (more on this later). This availability gives people the ability to really understand the product which has been more difficult to pilot and try out in the past. The easy access is awesome and I am positive will drive more interest and sales and growth.

Problem is that MS CRM is not quite as easy for a new user to get into as MS puts out there. It is a different way of thinking about Contacts, Accounts, Opps, Cases, Leads etc then the majority of buyers have dealt with. Don’t get me wrong. It is a great product and designed very well. It just takes some training, experience etc to get into it and feel the real power behind the application and its simplicity and design. So I already have scars from prospects/clients saying “just give me the product and I will figure it out” We have done that to varying and little degrees of success/failure.

Regardless, I fully support this and love it. It will really be great to help the clients get all the info to make the right choice for them. In the end I know that MS CRM is the best product on the market for most companies. I believe this will help people see that! Here is the link to get started: CLICK HERE!

*IMPORTANT! You may use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 editions with the respective License Keys for a maximum of 90 days. Each edition may be converted to a full use version by applying a commercial license key in the Microsoft CRM License Manager. A re-install of the software is not required. You will need to convert the license key to a commercial license before the 90-day period ends, as the 90 day period cannot be extended, and Users will not be warned of the impending expiration. Should expiration occur, access can be regained by applying a commercial license key.

Downloads for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 available now

Downloads for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 are now available for customers and partners.  This is the English language version, and other language versions will be available starting next month (specific announcements will be made at that time).

The downloads can be found at the following links:

Server generic page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=99CB3A7A-EBA9-4DE9-B0F1-2EBF11C3D756&displaylang=en

Server TRIAL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A9C110FD-AAC8-4D2A-B401-7801B1866E82&displaylang=en

Email router: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E1358499-3FDB-45B8-ADF0-7585F758277E&displaylang=en

Outlook client: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=60C4A6CC-59D7-416E-9F44-0AE8FF249768&displaylang=en

Data Migration Wizard: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6766880A-DA8F-4336-A278-9A5367EB79CA&displaylang=en

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas – Ho Ho Ho!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide Download available

Try this link. CLICK HERE> - Overview - The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide consists of the following three documents:

·       Planning Guide: This guide gives you the information and tools that help you get your organization ready for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. It includes two main aspects of planning for a customer relationship management (CRM) system:

o       Technical: These topics focus on such areas as the supported topologies, system requirements, and technical considerations to address before you install.

o       Implementation methodology: These topics cover the business management, CRM requirements, and project management aspects that are needed when you deploy a CRM system. Additionally, there are several documents included that you can use as tools to plan the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. These tools are in the planningtools folder where the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide is located.

·       Installing Guide: This guide provides the information that you need to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, such as step-by-step instructions for running Setup, command-line installation instructions for silent installations, and guidance about how to remove Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

·       Operating and Maintaining Guide: This guide gives you information about how to back up, restore, and provide data recovery for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Additionally, this guide provides troubleshooting steps for known issues.

Microsoft Dynamics Convergence - Orlando - March

Just a reminder that the registration for Convergence is now open. I have been going to these for years and they are invaluable. The opportunity to gain knowledge and gain mindshare from experts in the Dynamics field is a once a year event. This is a great place to re-energize and socialize for partners and clients. Below is the reminder from MSFT about registration:

Registration for Convergence 2008 Orlando is now open.

March 11—14 2008, Orlando, FL - Convergence is the premier Microsoft Dynamics event, bringing customers, partners, team members and industry experts together in an environment created for you to discuss solutions, address business needs and establish a true community that can be leveraged throughout the year.

Convergence 2008 Orlando highlights:

· Partner Briefing Day

· Keynote Address from Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft

· 242 Concurrent Sessions

· 110 Interactive Discussions (formerly Chalk & Talks)

· Structured Networking

· Technical Support Desk

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/default.aspx

Also, check out our blog for more updates: http://microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-live-titan.blogspot.com/

Click the RSS feed to subscribe to updates

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

Top 5 CRM 4.0 Installation Tips n Tricks

We have been in the Beta test programs for CRM 4.0 for the last 6 months.  It has been great to get in there and bang around and build out our test environments.  This has also afforded us the opportunity of doing installations and test conversions from 3.0 etc.  Some random thoughts as we get closer to GA of the 4.0 product will follow.  We will start posting a lot more about the new product and movement from 3.0 to 4.0.  Here is a first installment of some tips and tricks. 

One of the coolest things about 4.0 is the Multi-tenancy aspect.  MSFT invested a lot in this and it is really cool, extremely powerful and easy implement.  I have personally tested the multi tenancy features and was shocked at hose simple it was to create an entirely new and separate instance of CRM 4.0.  Especially when I consider the complexity of the 1.0 and 1.2 days.  3.0 installation was greatly simplified, basically you conditioned the domain properly and then ran the install.  4.0 is a huge step forward too.  Congrats CRM team on more great leaps and bounds.

Below are the Top 5 CRM 4.0 Installation Tips n Tricks from Tricia one of our top CRM consultants.  She has been working regularly on CRM 4.0 for the last few weeks.  Here are some quick thought from her:

1.      Connector for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

a.      After the CRM 4.0 installation, don’t forget to run the setup for the Connector for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.  Found in the installation files (CRM 4.0\srsdataconnector\setupsrsdataconnector.exe)

b.      It must be installed on the computer that has SQL 2005 Reporting Services installed.

c.      Without this connector, the CRM reporting feature will not work.

d.      The Connector for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services eliminates the Kerberos double-hop authentication that was required for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 deployments when SQL Server Reporting Services was installed on a separate computer.

2.      Data Migration Manager

a.      Although Data Migration Manager and Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook can be installed on the same computer, they cannot run at the same time.

b.      Data Migration Manager must be installed on a computer that has a connection to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server.

c.      We do not recommend that you install the Data Migration Manager on a computer that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server.

3.      Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router Setup

i.      If one or more Microsoft Dynamics CRM users will have their e-mail settings set to use the E-mail Router or a forward mailbox, you must run and complete E-mail Router Setup to enable Microsoft Dynamics CRM e-mail message tracking.

ii.     It consists of two main components:

1.      E-mail Router component (installs the E-mail Router service and E-mail Router Configuration Manager)

2.      Rule Deployment Manager component (deploys the rules that enables received e-mail messages to be tracked)

iii.    Microsoft Exchange Server is only required if you want to use the E-mail Router to connect to an Exchange Server e-mail messaging system.

4.      Pre – CRM 4.0 Install

a.      On a clean Windows Server Install, you must install a couple of Windows Components, and have the Windows Server installation CD on hand.

b.      CRM 4.0 requires that Internet Information Services and the SMTP services be installed and the services running before CRM 4.0 is installed.

1.      Go to Add/Remove Programs, then Install Windows Components.

2.      Click on Application Server and click “Details…”

Ø       Check Internet Information Services (IIS)

3.      Click on Internet Information Services (IIS0 and click “Details…”

Ø       Check SMTP Service

4.      Insert Windows Server Installation CD to install the components

5.      Make sure the services are running (Administrative Tools à Services).

5.      CRM 4.0 requires SQL Server 2005 to have the SP2 installed BEFORE CRM is installed.  CRM 3.0 did not require this service pack before installation.

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

Updated News on CRM 4.0 and TITAN

Got this from a blog first thing this morning.  From InternetNews.com:

"Microsoft announced Monday that it has released to manufacturing the long-awaited update to its Dynamics-branded customer relationship management software (CRM).  Previously codenamed "Titan," the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM actually has two names in its final form. For on-premise, customer-hosted, as well as partner-hosted deployments, the product has been dubbed Dynamics CRM 4.0. The company will also be offering the package on-demand in a Microsoft-hosted environment that it has named Dynamics CRM Live.  Existing and new customers will be able to download the update when it's released on the Web this week, a Microsoft official told InternetNews.com. The Microsoft-hosted version, however, continues to run under the early access program that the company began in September.  Microsoft plans to take that version live during the first half of 2008, said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "[In the meantime,] more than 100 customers are using [CRM Live] at this point," Wilson added." - Read more...

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

Official - CRM 4.0 RTM press release on microsoft.com

Microsoft has now released the official press about CRM 4.0

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 17, 2007 —The new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, formerly code-named “Titan,” has been completed and released to manufacturing, Microsoft Corp. announced today. The new version is offered under two product names: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 for on-premise and partner-hosted deployments and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live for Microsoft-hosted deployment. Designed with a single unified-code base for both on-premise and on-demand deployments, Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables customers to choose the right deployment model for their specific business and IT needs, with the flexibility to change deployment models over time if their needs or preferences change.

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM is making the power of choice a reality for businesses around the world,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM at Microsoft. “This new release further enables us to deliver on Microsoft’s software plus services strategy and provide our CRM solutions with a great user experience and exceptional business value.”

Some of the significant new benefits and capabilities of this new release include these:

•	An advanced multitenant architecture that supports multiple customers per server
•	Extended global capabilities including user choice of more than 25 languages and pervasive support for multiple currencies
•	New business intelligence capabilities including cross-entity views and an end-user ad hoc reporting wizard
•	Advanced business process automation based on Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation
•	New collaboration capabilities with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 including real-time presence indicators within the CRM application

The new release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been in extensive use over the past year by more than 600 partners around the world and more than 100 early access customers representing a broad range of on-premise, partner-hosted and Microsoft-hosted deployments.

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 meets our needs for an enterprise-ready CRM solution,” said Dirk Karl, general manager and chief procurement officer at ING Group, a financial institution that offers banking, insurance and asset management services to clients in 50 countries. “It will allow us to easily automate innovative workflows, quickly share knowledge across our global enterprise, and develop a more productive worldwide purchasing and vendor relationship management environment.”

Availability

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 will be available worldwide in more than 25 languages. The English language pack will be available within the next seven days to new and existing partners and customers. Nine additional language packs will be available in January and the remaining language packs will be delivered at a rate of four or more each month. Existing customers with an active Software Assurance plan for Microsoft Dynamics CRM are entitled to receive the new release at no additional charge.

The new Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM service is offered only in the United States and Canada, and is currently available to a limited number of customers via the Early Access program.

 

Click here to read: here.

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

CRM v 4.0 available soon! CRM Live coming too!

CRM version 4.0 Shipped yesterday and is going to be avail for purchase in about 2-3 weeks.  This is a big release for the platform we built our company around.  It is a very big deal.  Could mean a huge amount of business and validation or just continued 100% growth.  We will see.  Either way I wanted to let you all know.  It is a big release from Microsoft and gives us a lot more power and flexibility to do much larger CRM deployments.  So Horay for all and watch out competition!  CRM Live is next on the radar with a Release-to-Web (RTW) around March time frame is the latest report.  That is really going to blow the lid off this party

Regards and Happy Holidays to All! - Jon

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 TITAN RTM and availability dates.

http://www.mikelu.org/archives/170

 

Sounds like the wait is over.  CRM 4.0 has released to manufacturing (RTM).  Should be available in a couple weeks just after the new year!

 

Regards,  Jon Petrucelli

The New Campaign: Microsoft Dynamics - Everyone Gets It.

 

Microsoft has released a new Dynamics marketing campaign - "Everyone Gets It."  I think this one will attract a lot of attention over time. It definitely shows some complex concepts in a very concise manner which is great news. I like it and hopefully it will help explain the value of Dynamics to more folks.  The videos take about 20 mins to go through. I focused on the sales manager lady. It was very good. http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/everyonegetsit Regards, Jon Petrucelli

 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Data Migration Wizard

Below is a great video demo of the new data migration tool that Microsoft is bundling with MS CRM 4.0. It is very promising. We are still evaluating the differences and what it will be good for. Either way it is a huge improvements from the Data Migration Framework bundle that came with versions 1.0 thru 3.0. We never used the DMF because it was just so difficult and limited. We always used the SCRIBE migrate path and have become very certified, experienced and proficient with SCRIBE over the least couple years.

Data migration is a critical step in any CRM implementation. Getting the data from one or many systems and getting it into MS CRM in an optimal fashion can be a bit tricky. Data consolidation into CRM applications is a major driving factor in any executives ROI analysis before buying. To many organizations have team members toggling between many applications to get client data and do their daily interactions.

So data migration is critical and this new data migration wizard promises to improve that functionality. It has pre-built templates for ACT and Outlook but also custom data maps can be built and used for moving data into the system. It can do inserts and or updates. that is a major piece of functionality!

Check it out. We are very excited about this tool that comes with MS CRM!

http://www.philiprichardson.org/screencasts/titan/DataMigration/DataMigration.html

Convergence Registration is now open!

Don't miss this great event! Loads of information. We highly recommend this event for anyone using MS Dynamics or thinking about using Dynamics. It is a week packed with Dynamics information, offers, knowledge etc. You can even meet and question all the folks that are active in building and developing the actual Dynamics Products.

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/default.aspx

Convergence is the premier Microsoft Dynamics event, bringing customers, partners, team members and industry experts together in an environment created for you to discuss solutions, address business needs and establish a true community that can be leveraged throughout the year.

Ballmer to speak at Convergence 2008 Orlando
After attending his first Convergence event in San Diego this past March, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was impressed by the unique opportunity Convergence provides Microsoft employees, partners and customers to come together and interact. Mr. Ballmer is already slated to deliver the opening keynote at Convergence 2008 in Orlando.

CRM 4.0 TITAN Release Date January 2nd 2008

I have heard some announcements that CRM v 4.0 (TITAN) will be available for public purchase (General Availability) on Jan 2nd. That is great news.

There is also a Launch event tour coming to local markets. The first wave dates and locations have been released.

Click here for more info:

http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde/archive/2007/12/05/microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-0-us-launch-tour-sponsorship-opportunities-for-isvs.aspx

MS Dynamics CRM 4.0 Reporting Controls and Wizard - Channel 9 video

This is a post from Channel 9 that is a great presentation of powerful CRM reporting in 4.0 and the concepts surrounding it. I highly recommend viewing this. They present complex items very well.

Back in April we gave you a taste of some of the interesting work going on in Dynamics CRM group. That was a pretty good high-level view. We wanted to fill in some of the details for developers so we asked the Dynamics CRM team into the studio to chat about some of the cool stuff coming in CRM 4.0 (a.k.a. “Titan”).

We filmed 4 segments that go into various aspects of the developer experience. In this segment, Phil Richardson and Barry Givens (both Senior Program Manager Leads) walk through Dynamics CRM Reporting with Rory (actually Phil kinda takes over here for a few minutes). Dynamics CRM takes full advantage of SQL Server Reporting Services (SRS) and takes it even farther by adding capabilities that even end-users can use. Barry and Phil walk through the end-user features but also show how you can take reports so much further by pulling them into Visual Studio Report Designer.

Webcast here: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=360703

Presenters: Barry Givens and Phil Richardson

CRM 4.0 Videos

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Here are some great preview videos of dicsussions and demos of the power of the upcoming version of CRM.

In this first segment, Phil Richardson (Senior Program Manager Lead) gives us a fast tour of the Web and Outlook UI.

In this second segment, Phil Richardson talks out with Rory Blyth. He dives a lot deeper into the metadata and customization of forms.

This third video covers the new look and feel of Windows Workflow Foundation in MS CRM - It is covered by Ben Riga and Praveen Upadhyay (Program Manager for Dynamics CRM Workflow). Praveen breaks the CRM workflow investments into 3 basic areas: Making Workflow substantially easier for the end-user, Providing a rich framework for business logic construction and leveraging the power of Windows Workflow Foundation

Q&A: Jeff Raikes, President of Microsoft’s Business Division

Q&A: Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft’s Business Division, outlines how the company’s new services offerings and investments help overcome the challenges of information overload, as well as connecting and collaborating across today’s traditional online boundaries.Press Pass: Microsoft announced plans 14 months ago to offer an on-demand version of Dynamics CRM. How are things going today?Raikes: Our CRM business is doing very well. In fact, during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2007, we sold more than 85,000 seats of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Today, more than 11,000 customers -- including 475,000 users -- enjoy the benefits of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with either on-premise or partner-hosted deployments. These customers range from the Phoenix Suns basketball team to Cypress Care, a healthcare company that, incidentally, switched from Salesforce.com.

Next, we’ll offer a new CRM software-as-a-service offering, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, powered by the upcoming new release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The new release – code-named “Titan” – offers a single, multi-tenant code base for on-premise and on-demand deployments. Customers will be able to tailor and adapt their deployment to their needs at any point in time. We think this level of choice – along with the very competitive pricing announced in July – will give us a big advantage in the marketplace over our competitors. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live is already in the hands of more than 100 customer and partner organizations as part of the early access program that I mentioned earlier. This program launched earlier this month. Many more will be added between now and the end of the year. The on-demand service will initially be offered in North America. We will announce plans for international expansion of the service will at a later date.

Read the full Q&A

ISVs release CRM versions for TITAN 4.0 - Early!

Back in the 1.2-3.0 days it seemed like some of the major ISVs got caught a bit flat footed and did not have their upgrades and newer versions ready for the 3.0 launch back 2 years ago. It sounds crazy but it was true. MSFT had delayed the release of 2.0 then canceled it and then delayed other releases etc. It was about a year of changes and delays.

Then all of a sudden they popped up and released 3.0 EARLIER then most expected. Not sure what to make of it.

So far I have seen announcements that two major ISV partners C360 and SCRIBE have already released their new TITAN products or are about to. This is great news. This shows MSFT and the partner channel are really starting to hit on all cylinders as the CRM delivery team they are designed to be.

Congrats to SCRIBE and C360 and other vendors that are on the ball. For more info go to the below links:
http://www.scribesoftware.com/
http://www.c360.com

Regards, Jon Petrucelli - www.productivegap.com

Top 5 Ways the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 Implementation Guide Improved

From the CRM team Blog:

For about the past 18 months I have been planning, researching, communicating, and writing in an effort to improve the implementation documentation for our next major release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. During this exercise, it has led me to many changes in the documentation, which I think are the right decisions. I hope you do to.

To give an idea of the channels I have used to make decisions on how develop the IG, here a list of resources to name just a few that I have researched and or communicated with:

· Microsoft Dynamics CRM Support Team
· MVPs
· Knowledge Base and Support customer incident databases
· Newsgroups
· Documentation Feedback from CTP programs
· Our own MSCRM product team
· Convergence Conference Meetings
· VAR Partners
· Dynamics Sure Step virtual team
· Blogosphere (I’ve requested feedback about how to improve the IG on 2 separate occasions)

And the top 5 reasons why the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide (IG) is improved are...

1. No longer a single monolithic document. The IG has been separated into three documents. Each doc represent three primary phases of implementation:
· Planning- contains conceptual information about how Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed as well as system requirements and supported topologies.
· Installing - contains procedural information about how to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
· Operating and Maintaining - contains information about operational tasks, monitoring, troubleshooting, and known issues.

2. Word doc format. The English version will be in Word 2003 and Word 2007 formats. I know many of you print your IG, so I want to make it as easy and formattable as possible. Word rather then a bit-map format, such as PDF, gives you more control over the printed results that you want. (e.g. increasing margins for space to make notes, etc.).

3. Superfluous content removed. Several topics that contained non-CRM specific content have been removed and replaced with specific CRM content. For example, basic information about how to install and configure other technologies such as Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server etc. have been removed. So, you will no longer see steps to install another product as in past version of the IG such as, 2. Insert the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 CD or click on the setup.exe file in the root of the Exchange Server 2003 CD (a direct excerpt from the previous IG). For those unfamiliar with the task of inserting a CD into a PC, links to this type of documentation in the IG will be provided.

4. Feedback channel is incorporated. At the end of every chapter, there is an e-mail link that populates an e-mail message with information about the IG. The reader only need type their comment in the e-mail message and click send. Don’t touch the subject line or e-mail address and I’ll have everything I need to receive and review your comments. The subject contains information about what document and chapter the comment pertains to and the language the document is in (it can be one of nearly a dozen languages). This helps me locate where in the doc the comment is stemming from. Tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly as it pertains to the content. I want to know.

5. Regular update improvements. After the initial release, the IG will be revised every three months. A revision sheet will be included that summarizes each revision and where the revision occurs in the document.

Thanks for reading.
Matt Peart
LINK to this post: http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/crm/archive/2007/10/25/top-5-ways-the-microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-implementation-guide-improved.aspx


Published Thursday, October 25, 2007 11:04 AM by crmblog
Filed under: Documentation, Titan

CRM 4.0 TOP 20 features from Partner Readiness Event

This past week our team attended the CRM 4.0 partner readiness event in Dallas. It was a great deal of information in a short period of time. Also one of the Microsoft Executives gave a great presentation to kick off the day. All in all it was a great primer for CRM 4.0 for some of the folks on our team that have been heads down and not gotten too much time on CRM 4.0 yet. We have been very busy with some large projects.

The new code is supposed to be locked down and ready to send to the disk manufacturers next week! (Estimated Time Nov 1.) This means that the new product could be available for purchase and install some time in Late November or early December. That is coming up fast.

At the high application level not too much has changed on the front end. Nothing like the move from 1.2 to 3.0. There are a ton of new and needed features that are great, but nothing like the last version upgrade. It seems to me that most of the budget and hard work was done on the back-end of the application. I believe a lot of hard work under the hood was done to enable a robust multi-tenant and multi-national data model and architecture. It will be hard for most clients to really appreciate this. Nevertheless it is there and works really well. I have implemented the milti-tenant instances on one server and it only took minutes. Pretty amazing!

Here is a quick rundown of the Top 20 features the product team illustrated in the readiness event:

1. User Productivity Improvements to Interfaces
2. End User Report Wizard - For going beyond Views and Excel Spreadsheets
3. Workflow improvements - Windows Workflow Foundation
4. Real-time Visibility & Collaboration
5. Resource Center - For building internal community and external access to community
6. Better email interaction tracking and management (no more GUID option)
7. Intelligent Data Import and Migration
8. Data Integrity, Hygiene, and Duplicate Detection management features
9. Multi-National - Currency, Language
10. Business Process Management
11. Many-To-Many Relationships - System, Self, Core Entities
12. SDK improvements and Offline SDK
13. Leverage Technology Platforms - supports POP3 and Exchange 2007
14. Expanded Deployment Choices - CRM LIVE added into mix
15. Multi-Tenancy Options
16. Run CRM without VPN - Basically works in RPC over HTTP but called "Internet Facing Deployment"
17. Security and Outlook syncing improvements in speed.
18. Better Admin and Settings Management - Admin in Outlook folders too.
19. Performance, Scalability, & Availability Improvements
20. Clean Upgrade from CRM 3.0

That is a pretty solid list of improvements and Enhancements. Looking forward to the launch!

Regards, Jon Petrucelli - http://www.productivegap.com/

CRM Performance Scalability White Paper Information and Link

This is a great validation of the architecture of MS CRM. From the MSFT website:

Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM application software is designed to meet the performance and scalability requirements of large, global enterprises.

Benchmark results demonstrate that a single Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 instance can achieve sub-second response times with 6,000 concurrent users executing a heavy workload against a large, complex database.

Large enterprises often deploy multiple parallel CRM instances in order to meet the diverse needs of different business units or geographies. Distributed across multiple instances, a Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment can scale to meet the needs of the largest enterprises.

This white paper details the benchmark results of tests conducted on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.The technical white paper includes:

- A summary of the benefits Microsoft Dynamics CRM can provide to enterprise-class organizations.
- A description of the methods and CRM implementation used to obtain the 6,000 user benchmark.
- Details of the hardware configuration and optimization settings used in this test.
- A summary of key test parameters and results achieved in this test.

Download

Happy Reading, Jon Petrucelli - www.productivegap.com

Dynamics CRM 4.0 Versions, Deployment Options and Payment Models

The following Versions, Deployment/Delivery Model Options and Payment Plan Options will be available to get at Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (aka TITAN) (aka "The Next Big Thing"):

VERSIONS:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Workgroup Edition - This version is limited to 5 or fewer users. It can be installed on Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition, any of the supported Windows Server 2003 editions, or Microsoft Windows Server 2008. This version is limited to a single organization and a single computer that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Professional Edition - This version has no user limit and is limited to a single organization. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Professional Edition Server can, however, be installed to more than one computer.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Enterprise Edition - This version has no user limit. Additional features include support for multiple organizations, multiple server instances, and role-based service installation. Role-based services let you increase performance by installing component services on different computers.

DEPLOYMENT/DELIVERY MODELS AND OPTIONS:
On-Premise - This is where the client buys the software and deploys internally on their own domain or premise. The traditional enterprise applications delivery model. Very good for Complex server side integration requirements or compliance driven organizations that need to tightly control their data at all times.

Partner Hosted - This delivery options gets you the same robust code set, APIs and applications but a partner typically hosts the system outside the clients domain and firewall. Very good option for someone that does not need or want the application internally which would require support costs.

Microsoft Hosted/SAAS/Software-As-A-Service/ASP/Application Service Provider/On-Demand/In the Cloud - Geez how many ways can you say this?? - This model has been around a long time but changed names to re invent itself. As the Internet and Internet security has gained acceptance over the last 10 years, it has become a rage for smaller businesses that do not have or want IT costs and can be more flexible with the platforms as Costs management is critical. This solution will be hosted in the Microsoft LIVE data centers and promises to really shake up the Hosted CRM on-demand world a bit. There are some limitations currently on what can be put on the server side at this time. We expect those to fall away in the distant future. One can never be too cautious with all the "Nefarious" code out there looking to take down the big M in the cloud. CRM LIVE cometh! Seriously, we are in the beta program for this and I work on the CRM Live Beta/early access system daily and it is great. So we expect and embrace this as a great delivery model for MS Dynamics CRM! Cant wait.

One of the greatest things about these delivery models in 3.0 and 4.0 especially is the code is portable and transferable easily from each mode to the next!

PAYMENT OPTIONS:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be purchased six different ways from Sunday. You really have a lot of options.

1. Full payment up front for all users and server cal and maintenance. This can be a bit pricey but for the amount of software power, training, API, maintenance etc you get it is really pretty reasonable in the grand scheme of things.

2. OPEN - Buy the Software under the Open Business Licensing plan and you get to divide the costs into three payments over three years. Covers Software users, servers, maintenance and enhancements. This is really a great deal cause there is no interest.

3. MS Financing - Competitive rates and you can bundle software, services, hardware, maintenance and anything else you want into the purchase!!! All for one monthly payment over 36-60 months I believe. What a great deal. Some Interest applies here but it is part of doing business this way.

4. Partner Hosted - Pay Monthly service provider amounts from your partner. Varies based on SLA and partner. Generally $50-$125 from what I have heard.

5. CRM LIVE (March 08) - Pay monthly - About $40 - $65/user/month depending on version. Very competitive! - Deploy in minutes too. Pay on a Credit Card.

Either way you slice it or pay for it MS CRM is a great value.

For an exercise you can run the costs in a spreadsheet to amortize them accross three years. Take all the costs for the Software (users, server, maintenance) and spread it across 36 payments/3 years it comes to an average of $35/user/month! Wow that is cheap especially for all the value you get. Some say Dynamics CRM is now the fastest growing business application ever. 475,000 Users across 11,0000 companies. Almost all in 2-3 years. 100%+ growth a year!

Microsoft is all about giving you choice!

Regards, Jon Petrucelli - http://www.productivegap.com/

CRM for Dummies Book

Some people get offended when we recommend them reading a dummies book to learn more about CRM. To a new user MS CRM is a very big and complex application with lots of wrinkles and nuances. It takes time. The dummies book and the series in general is very good for communicating basic info and baseline training on complex topics. That is why it is a institution in book stores.

I would recommend that new users start with the MS CRM for Dummies book that is readily avail at Barnes and Nobles or Amazon. I would point them towards this and have a few copies in the offices avail for people. There is a great amount of info in this book that is all applicable to your needs. Here is a link to order:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-CRM-Dummies-Computer-Tech/dp/0471799459/ref=sr_1_1/105-8927735-8858004?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193157344&sr=8-1

The used ones are in good shape and going for $10.00 apiece.

Most of the basic questions that come up would be answered in this book.. Also with some background already on the application you will be able to read this in 3-4 hours. It is pretty fast and loaded with info.

I know this sounds stupid to read a dummies book but it is very good for a new user to get up to speed and answer the basic questions in all new users minds: "what does CRM stand for".

Regards, Jon Petrucelli - http://www.produtivegap.com/

We are Hiring and Growing

Check out our openings for detailed job descriptions - http://www.productivegap.com/careers/default.aspx

Current openings we have:

• Junior/Entry Level Consultant position open right now!
• CRM Consultants level I and II
• Microsoft ASP.NET Developer and Consultant
• Project Manager **NEW** - Job will be on the website soon.

No direct CRM Experience necessary. We will train. We have a boot camp starting in mid Nov for new hires.

Feel free to forward this to anyone interested.

Regards, Jon Petrucelli - www.productivegap.com

Key to CRM Implementation Success - Internal CRM SME

One of the first CRM 3.0 Implementations we did years ago for a large Bank here in Texas, the CIO was very adamant that we would not do all the work. He wanted me to understand that they had very strong IT staff and could do much of the work. He came right out and said "if you say you will do it all then we will find someone else."

He was correct also, their IT team and PM team were tops and smootly handled much of the implementation with some higher level help, advice and guidance from us.

This comes up time to time. Many larger orgs do have very strong and capable IT so we have learned and embraced this.

One of the key items we have seen that insures the success of a large scale, upper mid market or enterprise implementation is the appointment and investment if an internal subject-matter-expert (SME).

All implementations need to have this SME on the client side but we have found it integral to the success of larger (100+ user) deals. Smaller orgs and implementations usually do not have the budget for one dedicated CRM person SME on their team. So they work with us and we usually get a savvy manager to pick up some work.

We have done a number of implementations for larger $1Billion+ or Multi Billion dollar annual revenue clients and we have definitely found this factor very important.

We actually encourage and ask the client to appoint or hire a dedicated person for the implementation project and also for the follow up. The client will be very unhappy calling us to add fields or build a simple advanced find view. So we include this person on our implementation team and they work with us as a partner through the implementation.

There are a lot of reasons why this is important to us and also we feel it is the right thing to do for a larger deal.

First and Foremost the long term client satisfaction and sustainability and enhancement of the CRM system. With the internal SME constantly leveraging the system the business owner will feel they are getting value out of it. For some reason they feel better about hiring a person in house and managing them then paying consultants. That seems to be a norm.

Second, We have a knowledgeable buffer between our team and the end users and management. The SME serves as a liaison and internal champion. helping us to navigate the complex waters inherent to larger implementations. They can help clarify requirements and scope and get greater details etc.

Third, We like to and are designed to do Implementations and complex integrations and advanced customizations. Everyone on our team can do the basic application level customizations like adding fields and entities and relationships. Our team is not extremely excited about the basic customisations work. We really get excited and passionate about integrating 7 different systems into CRM so the client and end users have one interface to see everything [Not and exaggeration - We did this at a Fortune 100 client]. We really get pumped up to do the high level work and push the boundaries and show the client what can be done. So this SME takes a lot of the load off of our team for the small and normal application level customizations and configurations.

There are many more reasons that this is a valuable strategy and component but that should get you started thinking about it.

Regards, Jon Petrucelli - http://www.produtivegap.com/

Were Hiring for CRM 4.0 consultants. Please check out our careers page!

CRM and VoIP: A Perfect Fit - Jim Berkowitz Blog

Here are several excerpts from an article by Cindy Waxer, CRM and VoIP: A Perfect Fit:
Reducing operating costs and boosting customer service are activities that top the to-do lists of today’s best-known businesses. Fortunately, these twin goals can be achieved by pairing VoIP with CRM. In fact, with its promises of slashed costs, increased productivity and enhanced efficiency, VoIP is proving to be a perfect fit for CRM systems.
(more…)
View article...

Philip Richardson - Titan: Import/Export Customizations

CRM 3.0 had the ability to move customizations between different systems. Titan has some nice enhancements to this feature. You can now import/export much more stuff (eg. configuration settings, security roles, workflows etc) and we have used zip compression to make the files smaller. In addition - we did some work to make the import more reliable and we now offer 'less cryptic' error messages.

Import/Export customizations also underwent some major work behind the scenes to cater for lots of complex multi-lingual scenarios (eg. import customizations which were done in different languages).

Screencast: Export Customizations

View article...

CRM Report Levels in CRM 3.0 and 4.0 (Comparison)

Dynamics CRM Reporting levels overview in 3.0 and 4.0

We see 3 core levels of reporting in MS CRM as we explain it to clients and prospects. It mostly revolves around need and data model and also complexity.

1. The Grid views are your first level of reporting out of CRM. In version 3.0 these were primarily for single entity reporting but you can also create a relationship to another entity and draw that primary attribute into the grid view. So it will allow you limited cross-entity reporting in 3.0. Grid Views do not give you a lot of flexibility to run calculations etc. They do display a lot of great info and give a ton of ability to filter and query entity info in CRM. You can also query and filter based on cross entity attributes BUT in Version 3.0 you cannot Display a lot of other entity attributes in CRM like many clients want to. In version 4.0 you can query on many entities and attributes and also pull in many entities and attributes into one grid view. This is a huge improvement from 3.0.

2. Exporting to Excel using Dynamic Pivot tables and queries allows you an amazing, almost SRS like capability. You can then save these XLS files and load them into the Report Manager like an SRS report. You can even manually edit the queries in Excel to bring in CROSS Entity reporting like in SRS. This Dynamic Excel connection and the ability to load it into CRM Report manager and maintain security roles etc is amazing. It puts powerful db querying into the realm of familiar office products. Great stuff.

3. SRS - SQL Reporting Services - Over the last 10 years MS SQL Server has become the premier DB Server for the rest of us. SRS layers sophisticated Reporting and BI on top of this db and enables the connection to virtually any other db or flat file you might ever want to connect to! SRS and Visual Studio combined together provide rich and powerful reporting features that can be loaded into CRM in the report manager to provide easy 'pre-filtering' and maintain roles based security. Once again, GREAT STUFF! Problem here is that you have to learn and master VS application methodologies which can be daunting. MSFT CRM will have to come up with an easy to use reporting tool in the future that allows the same easy to admin controls that CRM does. Once they have this it will be easier for clients to embrace reporting. CRM has such great admin features it is sad that they stop at the SRS reports and VS etc. In CRM LIVE you will not be able to load custom RDL files (SRS reports) into it. You will be limited to the reports that come native. RDLs could hold nefarious (Bad) code and virus that would potentially damage the server. Not good. They may enhance this in the future. This is a major limitation to CRM LIVE. Many clients really leverage this powerful reporting suite for cross system and entity reports and or quotes etc.

Hope that helps explain the levels of reporting in CRM based on need and complexity.
Microsoft just sent out a link to a nice area that covers some powerful explanations of CRM reporting.

Check it out:
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/using/reporting/default.mspx
Jon Petrucelli - http://www.productivegap.com/

Multi Language - Easy and Flexible and Valuable to the client.

Quick info on Multi Language:

MUI = Multi-Language User Interface. this is the language interface packs. MS calls them localization. Something like that.

I used this a bunch in Redomnd last month and it is VERY cool. Basically, you load a MUI language pack into the system from an admin interface. Then this language becomes avail for a User to PICK at will from their user settings. If they want to see the UI in Spanish then they can do it by going to the User management and then just changing their language. Way Cool.

Also you can have two laptops sitting next to each other logged into the same CRM instance and system. One user can be viewing the same data in Spanish and another user can see it is English.

Down here in Texas that makes things Muy Bueno. We have some clients that will really use this.

We also have just completed a 17 country roll out on two continents. The UK and Europe system will really leverage this as in an area the size of Texas they might have 10 different languages spoken. That is valuable to the cleint!\

Regards,
Jon Petrucelli - http://www.productivegap.com/

Simon Hutson - Post on Multi Language

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Tidbits - Multi-Lingual UI
Forsaken...
It is widely known that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 supports MUI (Multi-Lingual User Interface), but what does this mean in practice? Well for starters each CRM deployment will have a base language, which means if you are upgrading from the Spanish language version of CRM 3.0 then you will need to install the Spanish language version of CRM 4.0.
However, now you can add additional language packs to your deployment such as English, French etc. The following language will be available for CRM 4.0 and similar to CRM 3.0, we will be releasing them in multiple waves, with wave 1 available at RTM and subsequent waves every few weeks thereafter:

Wave 1 - English, German, Spanish, Dutch, French
Wave 2 - Chinese (Simplified), Danish, Italian, Finnish
Wave 3 - Japanese, Hebrew, Swedish, Nowegian
Wave 4 - Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, Portuguese (Brazil)
Wave 5 - Czech, Polish, Hugarian, Chinese (Traditional)
Wave 6 - Greek, Korean, Chinese (Pan)
Wave 7 - Arabic

Once the langauge packs are installed, they need to be enabled by the CRM administrator. Remember that CRM 4.0 is also multi-tennant aware which means a single deployment can support one or more instances of CRM, and each instance has its own administrator. It is quite possible to have two instances of CRM on the same deployment, each with different languages enabled.

Finally, once the CRM administrator has enabled the appropriate language packs, each user chooses their prefered language.

So what excatly get's the MUI treatment? As you would expect menus, navigation labels, form lables and picklists are fully translated. But what about reports, e-mail templates, KB articles etc as these are language-spcific. Well, with all the out-of--box reports & templates, we ship the appropriate language version of these with each language pack. If you have created your own then you have a couple of choices once you have upgraded to CRM 4.0:

Leave these alone and just use a single base language
Copy your orignals and create language-specific reports & templates
CRM is intelligent enough to know that if a version of a report is available in the user-selected language then it will chose this, otherwise it will chose the version of the report in the base language. The same thing happens when you create custom attributes and form labels. If no translation is available, then CRM will default to the base language.
Oh, just in case you were wondering, no user data is translated at any time - that would be just plain silly.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Laughing Boy
Posted: Monday, October 01, 2007 4:44 PM by simonhu
Filed under: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Simon Hutson - Posts on the improved CRM 4.0 Event Framework

One of the biggest area of investments in CRM 4.0 is the complete re-design of the of event framework in order to improve the consistency and reliability of handling events through custom code. As part of this re-design, we have changed the CRM 3.0 name of business logic extensions from "Callouts" to the far more groovy name "Plug-ins". The high-level changes are as follows:

Unified Event Model - The same event framework is used by both plug-ins and workflow.
Multi-Tennant Aware - Plug-ins are registered per tennant and not deployment-wide.
Improved Deployment - Plug-ins are registered using the SDK and the assemblies are stored in the database.
Offline Pluggin Support - The ability to run plug-ins whilst working offline in the Outlook Laptop Client.
Improved Performance - Support for both synchronous and asynchronous plug-ins.
Richer User Experience - Form data recovery on plug-in errors.
Better Developer Experience - Full execution context passed to the plug-in assembly

CRM 3.0 Callout Architecture
The callout model in CRM 3.0 was built on the .NET Framework v1.1 runtime and provided a fairly robust mechanism for running synchronous business logic written in C# or VB.NET. If you called the simple entity Create, Update or Delete methods then everything would work as expected (most of the time) and your callouts would be executed. However, if you called an entity-specific method then you might experienced some inconsistent behaviour.
For example, the "ConvertQuoteToSalesOrder" method causes the platform to execute a number of sub-steps including "CreateSalesOrder". However, because the platform performs these steps using an internal call (for performance reasons) rather than going via the Web Service, any callout handling the "CreateSalesOrder" pre-stage or post-stage events would never be executed. This is shown below.

CRM 4.0 Synchronous Plug-in Architecture
In CRM 4.0 we have implemented an execution pipeline model based on the .NET Framework v2.0 runtime. Pre-stage and post-stage plug-in events are now called as part of the execution pipeline and not within the Web Service process. So now when you call the "ConvertQuoteToSalesOrder" method a new execution pipeling is created within the platform. Each time additional steps such as "CreateSalesOrder" are called, another execution pipeline is created. This causes the pre-stage and post-stage events to for this step to execute correctly regardless of origin (UI, Web Service, Platform, Workflow etc) . This is shown below:
My thanks go to Vlatko Mrsic and Akezyt Janedittakarn from the CRM product team for the use of their architecture diagrams.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Laughing Boy
Posted: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 11:49 AM by simonhu
Filed under: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0