Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Training guides and links and information

Here is a great post about MS CRM and all the various training available to the community.  There is a TON.  I have been through this and it is very good now and they will continue to enhance and build on it for years! 

 

There are at least 500 hours of training available to full clients.  That is a lot of information.  Trust me, I have been through a lot of it getting triple certified  Last Fall I went to the Microsoft Redmond Center for 5 days immersion on 4.0 and we previewed much of this training materials.  Thankfully the new content and materials and product is a lot better than the old 1.0 and 1.2 training.  Back then it still had the Great Plains logo on the materials.  I think I still have my manuals from the early days. 

 

Here is the catch.  Training is a must but it cannot replace the real world experience on the product with clients.

 

From a Technical perspective: All this training and studying cannot replace the experience on the product and the experience of bending your mind around client problems and requirements to figure out what is the OPTIMAL way to solve them.  The key term here is optimal.  This is critical because pretty much anything can be done in MS CRM but you do not always want to do what can be done.  Certain areas of the system and outside the SDK should be treaded on very lightly because the long term sustainability of the client system can be greatly impacted if you do not do things optimally.  Explore all the normal options before recommending the last resort: crack the code and go crazy.

 

From a Business Perspective: You must have the experience not only on the product but also with the business processes and domain knowledge to be able to hold your own in discovery, design, and envisioning meetings with VPs of Sales and Marketing and Business leaders.  These are the decision makers that ultimately decide your success and failure and pay the bills.  You have got to be able to engage them on their ground and gain a "trusted advisor" relationship footing.  If they do not respect you they will not listen, if they don't listen then the project can quickly become a low priority or get out of control.  When these things happen you can almost guarantee they will be having a meeting in 6 months and blame the product for all the problems in their business.

 

Training is awesome but there is not substitute for experience and cycles in front of clients solving their problems optimally!

 

Regards, Jon Petrucelli