EHTC Technology Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Certified Dynamics^® Partner, providing professional sales, implementation and support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP solutions.Our CRM Practice works with companies and organizations to leverage Customer Information for maximal revenue growth by managing customer information efficiently and accurately. My name is Dan Holzgen and I will be posting articles on Professional Sales Strategies along with my colleague Pierre Hulsebus, who will continue ...

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  One day prior to the CRMUG Summit we will be giving several training classes.   I will be teaching the Workflow Class. So come a day early and get an opportunity to learn all about the CRM workflow engine.   Not only will we spend time in the Hands On Lab going thru how to work with CRM 4.0.   I will also be able to review and discuss some of the very exciting new features in the CRM 2011 release as they relate to the workflow experience.   So get registered soon.  There is a 25% if ...<< MORE >>

A trick that we use quite a bit is adding Lookup Fields to a CRM form instead of using the Pick List model.   There are several issues with Pick Lists in any CRM system. 1) You have to be a CRM admin or Customizer to add new ones.  In most enterprises this role is reserved for a select few.  So a change request has to be sent in to the help desk to add a simple pick list value.   2) Pick Lists are not dynamic.  That is imagine our scenario where we are tracking ...<< MORE >>

Microsoft Dynamics v.next has been a big buzz for the past few months.  We are part of this project and thus under NDA, that is until Microsoft talks about it. So here is a public demonstration of Dynamics 5 or now Dynamics CRM 2011  - Here is video of demo from earlier this week - http://digitalwpc.com/Videos/AllVideos/Permalink/f9625bd7-7009-4bed-ab7a-c3fbb548d6ac .   9:00 is when the demo begins. Converts e-mail to opportunity in just a few clicks.  14:00 – Attaches KB article, sales lit, or temple from Outlook reply -   Major time saver. 15:20 – Dashboards in Outlook folder from ...<< MORE >>

We are excited to continue our support of the CRMUG.  We will be providing some training and helping with one of the tracks.   This event is like a mini convergence, just focused on CRM info.   There are break out sessions that have presentations, and roundtable discussions that are lead by users.   So it is not a big sales pitch for CRM.   I would estimate there will be about 200 attendees from around the country.   If you are not a member of the CRMUG you will find that it is an invaluable resource for training, and infomration on ...<< MORE >>

Well I have firmed up my plans for the user conference.   This will be a great opportunity to meet with folks that are passionate about integration.   I have been asked to help present in one of the sessions.   I have been to the Scribe Office several times and it is in a very cool 250 year old barn.  They are planning to hold it in the fall in New Hampshire.   Hopefully, like Michigan, the fall colors will start to show.   I am actually planning on taking a few days of vacation to take my daughter to visit Boston and some ...<< MORE >>

EHTC is sponsoring the next CRMUG Michigan Regional Chapter. It will be a fantastic opportunity to network and learn more about CRM.   This is an Open CRMUG event. Meeting Date & Time: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 from 4:00 - 6:00 ET Agenda: 4:00 - 4:15 Welcome and Introductions 4:15 - 4:45 Customer Showcases: Lifestyle Lift, Detroit CVB, Hitec Services, and Mando Marketing 4:45 - 5:45 CRM 5.0 Demo (TENTATIVE) 5:45 - 6:00 Wrap-up and Planning Audience: All Dynamics CRM users are welcome to attend, regardless of whether they have joined CRMUG. Partners ...<< MORE >>

Eligible Microsoft Dynamics GP customers can receive Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online at a subscription rate of only $19 per user, per month.   “Wait a second Pierre, did you say $19 a month? That is amazing why competitive products like salesforce.com start at $75 per month”  Yes you heard me correctly, $19 bucks that is all.   Where else could you get a complete sales, service and marketing suite within a native Microsoft Office Outlook experiences, supported with robust functionality like mobile access, offline data usage, powerful workflow, 5 GB of storage, a 99% financially-backed service level agreement (SLA) that ...<< MORE >>

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM team made a NonProfit Solution for CRM Online available today. The functionality included in the Solution is fairly robust and will allow a NonProfit/NGO to get up and running with a cloud based solution in a few minutes.

The solution comes with functionality for:

• Donation and pledge management
• Member and constituent management
• Campaign management
• Case management
• Event management
• Tailored dashboards and reports

NGOs can manage constituent and donor engagements from within the browser or from within Outlook and have the ability to take data ...

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Bob @ Scribe just did a video that shows specifically how having a mulit connect DTS will allow us to Build DTS' that do refresh the source with data from the update.Additionally, he shows how to use a web service.This is very exciting for us as we are looking forward to building the Integration with SL using more web services as they get released.

This is going to make the integration quicker, and more accurate.Take a peek:

Using ...

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This week Scribe released an update to Scribe Insight, their integration engine.This tool is the de-facto standard for integrating CRM platforms with external applications and data. It is used as a data migration tool and an ongoing data integration system. It is at the core of many of my clients' integration solution.I have run setup.exe on that application hundreds of times now.So my first impression was how easy the installation went.Last time a major release came one had to uninstall the application completely and then install from scratch. This time the installation flawlessly upgraded the current installation.Next surprise ...

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I have been listed as the Top Tweeter on the Topic of Microsoft CRM (#MSCRM), shhh.. don’t tell my boss. Because some think Twitter is a big waste of time.  So this means either I have way too much time on my hands or I have developed an ingenious system to post to twitter, and remain a productive consultant at the same time.  I just had my annual review and I didn’t come up so I guess I am safe for now, or Bob doesn’t follow me, either way let’s keep it on the down low.  Let ...<< MORE >>

First congrats are in order for Customer Effective, and CRW for their excellent work and recognition by Microsoft.   CE is nominated as Dynamics Partner of the Year, and CWR has been awarded Dynamics ISV product of the year.   While on the topic with Customer Effective.  They have been doing a great job with CRM Workflow Challenges blog articles.  Nothing I haven’t seen before.   But it is good to see others have seen some of the issues with complex workflow, specifically the Updating of a Picklist from a workflow.    This is a frustrating shortcoming of CRM ...<< MORE >>

Coming off Memorial Day weekend we had a shortened work week, as Monday was a day to remember the men and women who serve in our military and have sacrificed for this great nation.So I say thank you for your service to this country.

I have really begun to see traction with my GTD project @ home.

• First link is for Microsoft Tech Ed. http://www.msteched.com/  I am not able to attend but I am following on twitter. #TechEd
• I prepared for a CRM / Scribe training class ...

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Scribe ERP to Dynamics CRM Administration Many companies are running a Scribe Insight as their integration tool of choice. In this class you will learn the main working elements of Scribe and how they operate. And how and integration between a SQL based ERP application and Dynamics CRM is set up. In this class you will: · Learn how to support and maintain the integration on a daily basis · Become familiar with how to troubleshoot and resolve errors in the main points of the integration · Learn ...<< MORE >>

Last week I worked on 3 different installations. Plus we just got a new customer in Chicago! I love Chicago it is about the same distance to there as it is to Detroit, about 3 hours. So we love to work there if we get a chance. We also found out that we are going to make the Microsoft President's Club this year. Which is a pretty major accomplishments seeing we are sitting right in the middle of one of the areas with the highest unemployment in the country. However, we choose not to participate in the recession this year ...<< MORE >>

Growing Charity Expands Services, Reduces Costs with Integrated CRM and ERP Solution A growing nonprofit organization with a mission to serve people with disabilities and their families, Lifeworks wants to minimize administrative costs and act on any opportunity to enhance the quality and scope of its services. Older technology was not keeping up with the organization’s complex requirements and had become expensive to operate. Lifeworks worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partners PowerObjects and Boyer & Associates to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM, upgrade Microsoft Dynamics SL, and integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft Dynamics SL. PowerObjects and Boyer & ...<< MORE >>

During the editing of a workflow, when clicking on a child step to edit it,  the focus does not change. So it appears to the user that they are working on a previous step.

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I have been a fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done.   It has been a real God send over the past year.  I still have a year to go to fully adopt all of the practices and making it my own.   But I have found the GTD addin for Outlook is fantastic.   I have looked at Outlook 2010 and the Quick action features are awesome.   If you are overwhelmed with 80% of your day being unplanned activities, then you may benefit from looking into it.      Also for the record David Allen uses Lotus ...<< MORE >>

If you are using Microsoft CRM with Scribe you have most likely set up CRM in the Integration Mode.  This mode changes the CRM application Order Behavior to be a bit different.   Once turned on the CRM order now has a Submit Order button where the Convert to Invoice Button use to be. (CLIP PIC) Once the order is submitted Scribe generates an XML document of the Order for insertion into the ERP application.   One problem is that the order may get rejected by the ERP app for many reasons.   Credit hold, bad ...<< MORE >>

As a Scribe MVP we get early access to new applications.   It is kind of like getting a puppy for a Christmas present.    At first it is exciting and fun, but come the next morning you wake up and discover that he has eaten your new shoes and peed on your mom’s coat.  Plus you can’t tell anyone that you have him.  No really, we are honored to be in Beta programs with both Scribe and Microsoft.   We love working with the product management teams to help them with trying to figure out what should be in the next products.   ...<< MORE >>

Update Rollup 10 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available. Update Rollup 10 is a cumulative update rollup that includes all the fixes for the issues that are documented in Update Rollups 1 through 9. The Build number for CRM 4.0 UR10 is 04.00.7333.2741 The updates for both Client and all Server Apps can be downloaded here: Download For Full details about what is included in Update Rollup 10, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979347 * Prerequisites for installing UR10 * For the both the CRM Outlook Client and the CRM Data Migration Manager, at a minimum, CRM ...<< MORE >>

during the set up of some customizations an entity may read the Fiscal periods. If a FY period is used there is no easy way to build a view that says, "Show me all opportunities that close in the current Quarter."    So you need to add a qualifier or filter by that includes the fiscal  periods of the System. A good example of this is when the CRM advanced forecasting accelerator is installed. It sets goals by quarter. But there is no way to build a query that looks at the quarter. https://connect.microsoft.com/dynamicssuggestions/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=544240&wa=wsignin1.0# ...<< MORE >>

Microsoft Corp. today announced the Community Technical Preview 3 (CTP3) for the next generation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, code-named “CRM5.” This CTP is primarily aimed at software developers within the broad partner base of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, including independent software vendors (ISVs), global system integrators (GSIs), hosting partners and value-added resellers (VARs), giving them an opportunity to start early development and testing of their solutions for this new release. The CTP software is available as on-premises software, as well as through pre-release versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online running in datacenters in North America; Europe, the Middle East ...<< MORE >>

Export To Excel should be consistent across all views and not behave differently on Accounts than it behaves on Advanced Find. On an account, when one looks at the grid view of related objects and clicks "Export to Excel" only a static export is allowed. I would like to export to a pivot table or at least choose other fields from the associated object...<< MORE >>

This came across my desk today.   So a shout out and a hearty “Great Job”  to our friends at Sonoma Partners in Chicago for this high profile win.   ——————————————————————————————— Full article link @ http://www.educationbanks.com/crm/microsoft-dynamics-crm-choice-of-hotel-group.html      Microsoft Corp. has announced that Choice Hotels International Inc., one of the world's largest hotel franchisors and the company behind such trusted names in lodging as Comfort Inn and Econo Lodge Econo Lodge is an economy motel chain based in the United States. Econo Lodge is the second largest brand in the Choice ...<< MORE >>

I have made several product suggestions to Microsoft CRM team.  I will be listing them for you as they are made.  If you have any comments on these items please link through and add your comments. During the creation of a child object pick list values are not mapped. For example if I had a work flow that created a quote from an account record I would not be able to map Terms, and Ship Via. During the relationship entity mapping the pick lists are mappable but not during a workflow.  The workaround is to create ...<< MORE >>

Dynamics CRM Business Development Consultant - The Dynamics CRM business growth was estimated at 70% last year, and we are looking to take advantage of that momentum.  We have a fantastic opportunity to work with a nationally recognized Gold Microsoft CRM business practice based in West Michigan.  We are looking for someone with the unique skills to fluently speak to Sales, Marketing, and Technology decision makers. Experience: Expert at the Process of Selling and coaching and molding sales plans 5 years of sales management with increasing responsibility and demonstrated experience ...<< MORE >>

Here is a sneak peak on Dynamics CRM 5.0 by Girish Raja, A Microsoft Employee, on an official Microsoft Web site.  So I am sure that it is OK to point it out to you.  I am not able to discuss anything specifically because of legal restrictions.  So all I can say is this.    WOW! Look at 10:05 ...<< MORE >>

If you run CRM and use marketing list as a critical function for contact list management in your organization you are aware that one is unable to add a contact to a marketing list via the workflow process.  A request I had this week was to show folks how to add contact to a marketing list that have had a particular workflow job ran against their record.   How does one do that.   Sit back and see how it is done using advanced find. ...<< MORE >>

A question came in this week on how to perform an update from a Single Row against multiple rows in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  “Pierre we have a set of Products that all have the Same Vendor, all that begin with a specific text string.  Can we build a DTS to perform a Mass record update on these records?” Yes I know that one could go into advance find and use the “begins with”  operator and do a group edit on the resultant set.   Which is fine if you only have 250 records.  But what if you had ...<< MORE >>

Grand Rapids AIMWEST( http://www.aimwest.org ) hosted an all day get together with the Marketing and Sales technology elites yesterday. This event drew about 250 of Sales and Marketing Geeks from around the West Michigan community<< MORE >>

On Quotes, Orders, and Invoices you may want to remove the ability for users to interact with Write In Products.   In our integration with SL we are unable to deal with these because Dynamics SL Order Management does not support write in’s.     So here is the On Load jscript to remove it from the wonder bar;   function leftNavRemove(lNav) { var lNavItem = document.getElementById(lNav); if (lNavItem != null) { lNavItem.parentNode.style.display ='none'; } } leftNavRemove('navWriteInProducts'); Shout out to – Customer Connect for the Blog Pointer.  ...<< MORE >>

  I have been given a rare honor.   To speak at the Fall ITA conference.   I will be speaking as an industry expert to other IT professionals about why the CRM space is growing and full of opportunity.  These are ERP, and Infrastructure Organizations that meet annually to discuss best practices, and industry trends in all aspects of the IT service industry.   The Vision of ITA is to be a preeminent and highly regarded membership based organization of owners and senior leaders of businesses that provide IT solutions (products and services) to small ...<< MORE >>

A client has a CRM installation with about 12 users in admin and marketing who keep all of the contact records up to date and clean for mailings and marketing. This client has a an application that they want to use that reads data from CRM and places specific records on a SharePoint Site. So if they hit the SharePoint site for customer 1, this application will go out and connect to the accounting application and get all the open and closed invoices. It also goes to the time entry application to find all time posted against the customers invoices and it access the document store internally to show all the documents that relate to the customer. And this application also goes to the CRM database and reads the contact records into the SharePoint site. The user never logs into CRM as this application does all of this work for them. Question: Does the SharePoint user need a CRM cal (license)? << MORE >>

Monday is the General Availability (GA) release date of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0. The 12+ month development effort received tremendous praise from Beta customers and is the first of many Out of Box integrations Microsoft will provide amongst the Dynamics family (roadmap in place for CRM integrations to AX, NAV, and SL). Some representative feedback from our Beta customers include: "I was pleasantly surprised to see how intuitive the user interface is" << MORE >>

Here is one method that I use all the time to keep up on some great new ides. Aberdeen's latest benchmark reports are a great tool to keep up with research and effectiveness relative to various company ROI on CRM technologies such as Field Sales Automation, Mobile Phones, Work Flow Management, etc. << MORE >>

Courier User Interface from Gizmodo on Vimeo.   Take OneNote, Multi-Touch UI, and an Outlook Client. Mix in blender, bake for 3 hours and out will come one of these. I have serious tech envy….. ...<< MORE >>

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This year was the second CRMUG conference. Tuesday - Taught Class for Data Migration/ Integration - Here is Presentation Deck - Tuesday PM - Expo - Spent about an hour reviewing CRM Innovation - http://www.crminnovation.com/ Met with Jerry Weinstock - @crminnovation . They have 2 killer products - 1) CRM Tool Tips - This thing rocks. Able to get Tool tips into CRM without any Jscripst, or other Developer oriented methods. — http://www.crminnovation.com/crm_documentation.asp  2) Data Migration tool - I got a look at their new release of the this Cloud Based, and Silverlight ...<< MORE >>

From my sources at MSFT... This adapter will be out in 3 weeks. It is code complete, and has passesd QC. I was able to corner some Microsoft execs last week and they promised that they were “Back in the Game” on this. As you may recall, MSFT didn’t release an update to the GP integration for CRM 4.0.  So, the customers who had gotten the “Free” integration before were forced to pull that out and install a new solution. Most went to Scribe from what I understand. I am still dubious on this integration as we have not been given a community ...<< MORE >>