Riics.com

Next Service Update: CRM Anywhere in Q2 2012

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (February 9th, 2012) Filed under 3. Events/Announcements

Earlier this month, Microsoft released information on what will be included in the next CRM Online Service Update (Q2 2012) and I was excited to find out about the following 10 new features/enhancements. I am especially looking forward to Mobile and Cross Browser Support.

1. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile” (New Cloud Based Mobile CRM Service Subscription)
2. Cross Browser Support (IE, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome)
3. Rapid View Forms (Load forms quickly)
4. Enhanced Activity Feed (“like”, “unlike”, improved filtering)
5. Industry Solution Templates (Vertical solutions)
6. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (Improved Performance)
7. Business Intelligence (BI) Insights with Power View (Excel workbooks)
8. Certifications (Industry Compliancy)
9. Portal Framework Enhancements (Enhanced Customer and Partner Portal)
10. Custom Workflow Activities in CRM Online (Custom Workflow: .NET Development)

Here’s a short summary of these features. For more thorough descriptions on the upcoming service update, you can take a look at the “Release Preview Guide Q2 2012 Service Update“.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile

Microsoft will provide a cross-platform native mobile client for Windows Phone 7.5, iPad, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices. At starting price of $30/user/month, organizations will be able to subscribe to any number of users. Each licensed mobile user will be allowed to access Microsoft Dynamics CRM from up to three different mobile devices. It will also offer an offline mode so that users can access the CRM data offline.

Cross Browser Support

The Q2 2012 Service Update will also include cross browser support for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. Users will be able to access Microsoft Dynamics CRM from browers such as Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 6+, Chrome, 13+, and Safari 5.1.1+.

Rapid View Forms

To allow fast loading of data, Microsoft will add Rapid View Forms capability so that users can quickly view the CRM data. The rapid view form is a read-only form that will be introduced in entity form and users will be able to edit data shown in this form by clicking a edit button.

Enhanced Activity Feed

Existing Activity Feed from November 2011 Service Update will be further enhanced to provide additional functionalities (“Like”, “Unlike”, and improved filtering capabilities) and simplifed access to relevant feeds.

Industry Solution Templates

Microsoft will make available Industry solution templates for CRM including data model, pre-configured dashboards, workflow processes, and samle data. Industry Solutions will include Life Annuity Insurance Sales, Non-Profit, Health Plan Sales, and Wealth Management.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 will be made available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM On-Premise so that users can take advantage of SQL Server 2012 performance and reliability. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data centers already have Microsoft SQL Server 2012 deployed.

Business Intelligence (BI) Insights with Power View

A set of Microsoft Excel workbooks with pre-defined PowerPivot models and Power View Report templates will be made available for On-Premise customers. The four templates will include Product Sales Analysis, Sales Pipeline Analysis, Customer Care Trends, and Customer Demographics Analysis. Future service updates will expand teh reach of Power View to CRM Online customers.

Certifications

Microsoft Data Centers will be compliant with an number of certifications including ISO 27001, SAS70 Type II, and Sarbanes-Oxley. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Services will be compliant with a number of certifications including Safe Harbor, ISO 27001, SSAE 16 SOCI (Type II), Data Processing Agreement (DPA), EU Model Clauses, and Business Associates Agreement – enables a company to be Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) compliant.

Portal Framework Enhancements

The Service Update will include enhancements to the portal framework that powers customer and partner portals connecting to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online/On-Premise. The enhancement will allow portals to use Microsoft Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) for authentication so that organizations can use various standards-based identity providers such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Windows Live ID and ADFS 2.0 for portals that require authenticated sign-on security.

Custom Workflow Activities in CRM Online

With Q2 Service Update, developers will be able to build custom .NET workflow activity assemblies for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. This will ensure parity in the developer experience between Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and On-Premise.

SMB CRM: Which CRM Solution is right for your organization? (Part 2 of 3)

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (January 9th, 2012) Filed under 2. Project Tips

There are many factors that can influence a CRM solution scope for an organization. Factors may include meeting specific timeline, budget, business requirements, user/department preferences, available resources and technologies, and others. Thus there’s always going to be some tradeoffs and negotiations in scope/feature, cost, and/or timeline in successfully implementing a CRM solution.

In the previous article, I bundled CRM Solutions into one of the three groups: Basic, Standalone, and Integrated. In this posting, I will talk about an approach you can take in choosing the “right” CRM Solution for an organization.

I am going to elaborate on Value and Pareto’s Principle (the 80/20 rule) concepts and how applying these two concepts can be beneficial for an organization in getting a handle on their CRM solution scope and approach.

Value of product/service is defined by weighing the benefit(s) and the cost associated in obtaining that product/service. Thus when one assesses the “Value” of one of these CRM Solutions, they need to weigh the benefits these CRM solutions can bring to an organization and the cost associated to acquire them. It should be noted that the value is subjective, since not all benefits are easily quantifiable, and often is based on individuals’ perception; however, using a value criteria can help an organization to focus on what’s important (not all important features may be necessary right away) and assist them in selecting the right set of CRM features for their organization at a point in time. Following are couple of high level questions that should be addressed by an organization pursuing to implement one of the three CRM solutions:

What specific benefits does an organization want to realize out of the CRM solution?
How much can an organization afford or budget for the CRM solution?

Secondly, we can apply Pareto’s Principle (80/20 rule) to application solution usage. Pareto’s Principle states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In CRM application usage, one can say that 80% of CRM usage will come from 20% of the CRM features/requirements. In other words, implementing the top 20% of the most frequently used features will make up the 80% of the CRM application usage by the users. This is not to say that an organization should only implement the top 20% of the most frequently used features and not the rest. In addition to the most frequently used features, there will be other important specific features/requirements that will need to be implemented for a given organization based on their business needs. Thus careful analysis and planning of business requirements and CRM features are required to scope out the right CRM solution whether it’s Basic, Standalone, or Integrated CRM solution. The point is that an organization can realize CRM solution benefits even if they do not implement all of their business requirements and features of CRM to realize productivity benefits of the CRM solution.

When an organization takes the approach of looking at their CRM scope from the value perspective and pick and choose the features/requirements that are important and/or will be frequently used by the users of the system (80/20), they will be able to create a CRM solution that’s useful and cost effective for the organization.

SMB CRM: Basic, Standalone, or Integrated CRM Solution? (Part 1 of 3)
SMB CRM: Which CRM Solution is right for your organization? (Part 2 of 3)
SMB CRM: Implementing Successful CRM Project (Part 3 of 3)

SMB CRM: Basic, Standalone, or Integrated CRM Solution? (Part 1 of 3)

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (June 8th, 2011) Filed under 2. Project Tips

So, you’ve finally decided on Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution for your Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB) organization and now you need to implement it.

Before you get yourself into knee deep in implementation, you need to ask yourself “What type of CRM solution is right for my organization from budget and scope standpoint?” This is non-vertical specific question thus it . . . → Read More: SMB CRM: Basic, Standalone, or Integrated CRM Solution? (Part 1 of 3)

CRM 2011 VPC

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (June 2nd, 2011) Filed under FAQs

CRM 2011 is a 64-bit only thus VPC is not available for CRM 2011; however, there is a Hyper-V coming that will be available shortly.

CRM 2011: Dashboards

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (May 13th, 2011) Filed under 1. CRM Tips

Administrator can create System Dashboards for organization wide availability or users can create their own personal Dashboards for their consumption and also share them with others in the organization. It is easy to configure and use yet delivers powerful reporting capabilities to executives, management, and staff. . . . → Read More: CRM 2011: Dashboards

Maximum number of Picklist Option Set

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (May 6th, 2011) Filed under FAQs

CRM 2011 picklist attribute can hold up to 400 entries of Option Set.

Exporting Data out of CRM 2011

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (March 15th, 2011) Filed under 1. CRM Tips

In CRM 2011, you can now export data out of CRM in xml, edit and or add new records, and upload the file back into CRM. Newly added records in the file will be created in the CRM. However, there is a limit of 10,000 (10K) on the number of records that can be exported out of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Importing Data into CRM 2011

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (March 15th, 2011) Filed under 1. CRM Tips

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 you can add new records in bulk into CRM using Import Data Wizard. If you want to save time in mapping the source data to target fields in CRM, you can download import templates in xml “Download Template for Import”. Microsoft Dynamics CRM importing feature accepts csv or xml file types and you can also compress . . . → Read More: Importing Data into CRM 2011

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 On-Premise Release Date

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (February 16th, 2011) Filed under 3. Events/Announcements

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 On-Premise software was made available to public on 2/16/2011 with 90-day trial keys.Prodution keys will be made available on April 1, 2011. The trial keys can then be upgraded to production keys with no re-install required. The update to production keys is done using teh Deployment Manager Console (MMC).Production systems will need to be upgraded to . . . → Read More: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 On-Premise Release Date

Get Ready for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online

By Jonathan Lee, PMP, MCP (January 7th, 2010) Filed under 3. Events/Announcements

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online is scheduled to be released on January 17, 2011. . . . → Read More: Get Ready for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online