CRM Rocks! EHTC CRM Team Blog.

Introducing Professional Sales Strategies Articles by Dan Holzgen

danh@ehtc.com (Dan Holzgen) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:29:09 GMT

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 posting articles on the technical and functional aspects of Customer Relationship Management.

Before diving into our first topic, I wanted to share a little background on myself. I am a Business Development Consultant and work at Echelbarger, Himebaugh, Tamm & Co. P.C., a mid-sized local Accounting and Technology firm in Grand Rapids, MI. Specifically, my role is to develop new relationships with companies that are interested in improving efficiencies within their sales, marketing, customer service and finance organizations.

I have 20 years of successful sales experience in the technology and financial consulting industry, and my customers have been as small as 2 people to as large as Fortune 500 companies.

My career in sales has been an evolution that started in 1990, working for AT&T, which at the time had one of the largest direct sales organizations in the U.S. AT&T was a divested organization that was facing true competition for the very first time. Having been a government-supported monopoly, the United States government broke up the company in 1984 and divested its assets into 8 separate public companies, to foster competition and innovation within the telecommunications industry. (more on the AT&T Divestiture story at: www.corp.att.com/history/history1.html )

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, the facsimile machine was making waves and the volume of voice and data traveling over the AT&T network was setting record volumes each month. Getting my first taste of sales and business in the new and emerging telecommunications marketplace was challenging, fast paced and ultimately exciting.

For customers, however, it was confusing. And thus, my first years of sales, were spent “holding on” to customers, building trust, emphasizing our brand while at the same time, introducing new and emerging technologies. At this time, the Internet revolution was just evolving and the telecommunications network was beginning to make its transition from primarily a voice network to a network that transmitted data around the world.

It was an interesting time at AT&T and the focus on retention and relationship-building had a significant impact on my career in sales and the skills I developed serve me well to this day. I came from an organization that was on the “defense,” if you will. AT&T was in a position where it wanted to retain its customers and bring them along for the technology ride ahead. AT&T realized that the best way to accomplish their retention and growth goals was to build one of the largest customer-facing organizations of its time, and it did just that.

And at the heart of this strategy, were thousands of people like me, The AT&T Account Executive, equipped with a laptop, a home office and a phone (not a cellular yet). My primary role was to take a list of accounts, get out and know their business, retain them as a customer and ultimately, be positioned to introduce and sell new technologies.

As a relatively new sales person and an even greener business person, I didn’t initially buy in to the strategy of knowing my customers’ business, I mean, what did this have to do with my sales objectives, outside of knowing how many calls came in and out of a business? What I didn’t understand in 1995 however, was that soon, I would be answering questions about “The Internet” and “Wireless.” And most importantly, I could not just sell features, I had to find ways to translate our solutions to business results, and thus, early on, I had to know business and find real value.

Fortunately for me, striving to learn about my customers’ business and building relationships with those customers, were the building blocks of my career. I learned early on the two most critical components of sales success, “bring value and build solid relationships.”

So it is now, 2010, twenty years after I picked up a phone for the first time to make my first sales call. So much has changed, and yet, much has really not changed. At the foundation of any sale, it is still the same, relationships do matter. Knowing your customers, being their trusted advisor, is the key to delivering consistent sales performance for any organization.

During the past 20 years, I have had the privilege to sell for some outstanding companies and have developed a focus on building trust and integrity, not just with my customers, but with everyone, internally and externally at the companies I’ve worked for, with the clients I’ve served, and with the people that serve me. This focus on relationship-building will be the topic of my blog for the coming months. The result of this focus, is revenue for you, individually, and as an organization.

My September article will discuss the importance of visualization, specifically in the process of setting up meetings and setting the stage for success.

#CRMUG National Conference Training Events Available

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:21:44 GMT

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% discount if you are a CRMUG member.

Monday, October 25, 2010
Class Name
Transitioning Your UI to CRM 2011
Course 80141A: Integrating Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Course 80003A: Workflow in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
Plug-in Development in CRM 2011
Leveraging the SDK and Javascript

Friday, October 29, 2010
Class Name
Forms Customization
Developing Plug-ins

Classes Soon to be Scheduled
Beginning Reporting & Analytics
Advanced Reporting & Analytics
Dashboards and Reporting with Tools You Own
UI Customization

Hope to see you all there in sunny Florida!

Adding a Lookup Field to an Object in Dynamics CRM 4.0

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:30:10 GMT

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.

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.
Pick Lists are not dynamic. That is imagine our scenario where we are tracking Sales People on campaigns. Well sales people leave some times that person should be removed from the list, correct? If we use a pick list again I have to evolve a CRM admin person, and I will loose the value from any objects that have that sales person associated, so there goes my history.

That is why I like to use a combination of a lookup and custom object to accomplish this task.

This is an example of how to add a Sales Person lookup to a Campaign

1) Create Custom Object – Sales Person

2) Save | Publish

3) Build 1:N Relationship with Target Object

4) Save and Close | Save | Action |Publish

5) Open target object form in Customization mode, in this case Campaign.

6) Add the New Object to the Target Form

7) Save and Publish

8) Add some values to the new object

9) Open up Target Form and Test - Objects will now show on form.

10) Finally, the Custom object needs to be added to the appropriate security roles for Reading, and Creating. Open Security Roles

11) Open Role | Custom Entities | Add Read, Append, and Append to rights to everyone needing access. Add Create, Delete rights to the roles who would manage the object.

Taking the Covers Off Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5 #MSFT

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:01:14 GMT

Microsoft Dynamics CRM v.next has been a big buzz for the past few months. EHTC Technology Solutions is part of this project and thus under NDA, that is until Microsoft talks about it. So here is a public demonstration of Dynamics CRM 5 or now Dynamics CRM 2011... here is video of a 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 CRM

18:00 – Outlook Crashes - “It is Beta Code” - Great recovery….

20:30 – Changes Outlook Views on the fly

21:00 – Add columns to CRM Grid in Outlook grids - Very Cool! Letting users manage their own experience.

22:30 – Jason Hunt interview. He is the ultimate Microsoft Dynamics CRM insider. His organization has been very successful by focusing on the deployment and customization aspect of CRM. Jason has been there from the beginning. Literally part of the first Microsoft CRM Product team at Microsoft. So he now is working on the largest and most complex projects that I have seen in Dynamics CRM. His advice…. focus on one platform.

29:27 – Back to CRM demo, this time in the Web UI.

32:00 – Customization Management using a customization bundling and versions process called “Solution”

33:59 – Ability to deploy Plug–in Assemblies in the cloud - Wow! That is major

36:32 – Workflow has a few new objects

37:49 – Total new function….. Workflow-driven Dialogue Box with branching that can be used to build objects on the fly. Basically the idea of Call Scripting managed in the Workflow engine. Wow! # 2 that is a major function.

40:18 – Custom activity types

44:06 – Field Level Security

45:00 – Kevin from Client Profiles CRM4Legal – Interview with an ISV that has been developing CRM for lawyers.

47:00 – Show dashboards from an attorney’s view point. Consolidating dashboards in the CRM app without having to use SRS.

50:30 – Relationships – having done some work with attorneys over the years I know how critical this is for them. It looks like they built this using Silverlight.

54:00 – Discussion about cloud in the context of Public and Private clouds.

57:00 – Announce the opening of Public Beta in September: http://crm.dynamics.com/crm2011beta

They did an excellent job on a technical demo. That is, they kept on the clock with each segment, and they were very focused on specifically what they wanted to show, so the demos went very smoothly. It is exciting for me to work on the most advanced business software platform in the market today. Great Job! We have exciting times ahead with this solution.

CRMUG – Summit 2010 – Agenda and Tracks

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:01:41 GMT

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 what is actually working in the field, what is happening with the product, and who are some others that have similar installation, configurations, and business issues as you do.

At Summit 2010, they have organized the break-out sessions into the following tracks, to help you make the most of your time onsite.

CRM Support – This track is for all “super-users” that provide a variety of support to your organization’s Dynamics CRM users. Sessions in this track are aimed at general super-users, light developers, those doing BI and reporting, and team members more involved with a CRM implementation.
Development – Sessions in this track are provided for those IT team members or heavy departmental users who are doing development in and around Dynamics CRM. If you use the SDK, are building xRM applications, or are developing reports and dashboards, you’ll be interested in this track.
Infrastructure – This track is targeted for those IT resources that have responsibility for integrating other systems with CRM, data migration, performance tuning, or system maintenance. If you’re dealing with questions around architecture, environment, or integration make sure to check out these sessions.
Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service – If you’re a functional user of Dynamics CRM and want to improve your understanding of this valuable resource, be sure to join the sessions in this track. Learn and share how to use Dynamics CRM to make you and your organization more efficient and productive.

Hope to see you there. Here is link to registration and agenda (MORE)

First Annual Scribe User Conference September 23-24 in New Hampshire!

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:40:57 GMT

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 of the historical sites around that area, shhh don’t tell her it is going to be a surprise.

Here are some of the planned sessions.

Content Sessions: The charter for the content sessions of the 2010 Scribe User Conference is to provide in-depth user-relevant material. Come prepared to drink from the fire hose of deep Scribe knowledge. Our presenters are tasked with creating relevant and challenging content to keep the most advanced users interested while giving newer users education, direction and ideas.
Designing and Optimizing Integrations for Performance and Scalability: Scribe’s top technical analyst will provide a detailed overview of the top integration design considerations for improving performance and scalability. This session will cover queue based integration, optimal DTS design and more.
Troubleshooting: This session will outline the proper paths to take when migrations and integrations are not working as expected. Learn how Scribe support diagnoses and fixes the most complex integration challenges.
Feature Highlights including underused features and multi-target: Our contact with customers and partners confirms that the average Scribe user taps into only a fraction of the current feature set of the Scribe workbench and console. And with new features in Insight 7, including the highly flexible multi-target capability, you will learn how to get the most out of Scribe.
Enterprise level integration: The enterprise version of Scribe Insight includes features that are relevant for mid-sized and larger organizations. This session will cover support for Failover and Disaster Recovery leveraging Microsoft Clustered Server technology, 64-bit, windows authentication and more.
Scribe Technology Roadmap: Where is Scribe taking the product, what about Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Integration-as-a-Service (IaaS). Join our product team as they give you all access to the future of Scribe.
Partner Case Studies: Three Scribe partners, three diverse and challenging integrations. See how your peers are using Scribe and compare notes with challenges you are solving.

Here is a link to the registration site. (MORE)

CRMUG Michigan Regional Chapter (Aug 2010)

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:27:47 GMT

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 are welcome to attend provided they are accompanied by a customer. Partners please bear in mind that the objective of Regional Chapters is to exchange knowledge and Dynamics CRM experience. Partner personnel should possess deep CRM expertise and refrain from sales activities.

About CRMUG Regional Chapters: Regional Chapters enhance your membership in CRMUG by offering face-to-face interaction and knowledge-sharing with other Microsoft Dynamics CRM users in your region. By having meetings centrally located within your region, users from all job roles and levels in your company can participate by only driving a short distance. All job roles are welcome: • Customer Service • Sales • Information Technology Join us so you can optimize the functionality, flexibility, performance and return on investment offered by CRM—and get better results from your CRM implementation back home.

Feel free to invite CRM colleagues and other users within the region.

Want to network between meetings? Join the CRMUG Michigan group on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=3120952&trk=anet_ug_hm.

To register please click here (More)

Fantastic CRM Online Offer for Dynamics GP Customers

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:07:41 GMT

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 can be integrated into your GP system?

The GP – CRM online integration is a great example of a low cost simple integration between ERP and CRM. Features of the current solution include, the software is available for free to GP 2010 users. We also have some other integration options if you are on older versions of GP.

Support for Distributed Discovery and Deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM servers

Additional Microsoft Dynamics GP Object Providers: Vendor, Applicant and Purchase Order

PickListSync Utility – The Ability to Choose Source and Destination Adapters and Source and Destination Sites

The CRM Online solution is terrifically simple to get started. We can set you up with a 30 Day trial. So let me know if we can be of any help.

NonProfit Solution for CRM Online

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:56:11 GMT

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 offline and work in a disconnected mode as well.

The price for this CRM NonProfits/NGOs is $9.99/user/month. Nice 5 minute demo of the details. http://crm.dynamics.com/ngo

Scribe 7 Web Service and Multi Connect Workbench #ScribeSoft #MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:23:49 GMT

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 WebServices and Insight for Data Enrichment from Bob Sturim on Vimeo.

Scribe 7.0 Highlights Part 1 – Installation #ScribeSoft

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:38:38 GMT

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 was the adapters. They too were upgraded at the same time and in the same session. A few small things that I appreciated were that I didn’t need to write down my serial number before the upgrade. In previous releases when it came to the conclusion of the install the registration screen would ask for your serial number. Well not this time, it remembered! That has stung me more than once in the past. Additionally, they have extended the registration back to their website to show you what your current version entitlements are, which will make for quick work during troubleshooting licensing issues. This allows the installer to verify that the installation entitlements are exactly what they expect them to be. And in the future, as connectors evolve, it will give us one place to go to make sure we are on the most current versions of connectors and service packs for a particular installation, a nice touch.

From start to finish, the install took about 7 minutes. Bittersweet because as a working consultant I used to make a pretty good rate to install the application. We typically budgeted 4-6 hours to install/configure. I think we can get the setup done in just a few hours, cutting that time in 1/2. One of the new features is to automatically configure Queues on the Servers. This feature will also cut down on the configuration time. So hats off to the Dev team on a well-executed install package.

In my next article I will show some of the new features, specifically – Multi Target capability.

Download whitepaper –Click Here

@InfuseMe The Top Tweeter On Microsoft CRM #MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:39:33 GMT

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 it 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 me bask in the sweet glow of being the king Tweep, mayor of Twitter Town for just few days, I am sure I will be kicked off soon by Larry, Phil, Ivan, Mohamed, or Anne. All of them are way smarter than me.

Actually it is all part of my my feeble attempt to score enough points with @JAAG and the other Microsoft CRM’ers to get that MVP nomination that I have been waiting for all these years. Sadly Twitter doesn’t count on the way to MVP’ville yet. So I will have to come up with some other way to actually get that MVP. Like write some great code, or develop a nifty XRM solution for some worthy charity, but sadly most NDA’s keep me from talking about all the cool stuff I get to do.

BTW: In case you were wondering where the "InfuseMe" name comes from, a product my team developed to Integrate Dynamics SL and Dynamics CRM is called Infuse. “It pumps data into CRM or SL” thus Infuse. I thought it was clever.

Pierre's CRM, Productivity and Personal Development Links, June 28th 2010

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:38:29 GMT

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 workflow and something I have suggest they fix months ago. Click here to review and vote for a fix:https://connect.microsoft.com/dynamicssuggestions/feedback/details/534195/pick-list-values-not-mappable-in-workflow
Cool XRM solution for Patient Relationship Management using CRM as a platform.
Recursive Workflow example. It is not difficult to imagine why we want a workflow to “Check Back” on a object days after starting. But getting the workflow enging to actually operate that way takes a bit of finesse. Richard Knudson does a great job of getting it done.
With Facebook becoming the # 1 web site, passing Google a few months ago, it was bound to impact the business software interface. So Salesforce.com released Chatter last week, Addressing the issues of “How do you foster a contextually rich and running dialog between relevant parties over company business in a dynamic and evolving setting. email didn’t work, portals had limited appeal and voice mail?” Beagle Research Group had a great synopsis. I have seen this app in action, I have some close friends that were in the beta of this product, it is a game changer. Microsoft needs to get it’s game face on. I have been critical of Benioff, SalesForce.com bombastic CEO, I do have to send a hearty thanks to Marc for his generous $1,000,000 donation to the UCSF’s children’s hospital. His actions will have a positive impact on the lives of thousands of families for years to come. What a week he had.
On a more surly note the “Art of War” battle continues between Microsoft and Salesforce.com as SFDC hires a David Boies, the former US government prosecutor in US vs. Microsoft regarding the Anti Trust case. SFDC is now suing Microsoft for patent infringement. So here are my quotes from Art of War that I feel most apply to this situation. Here are my tea leaves……
- All warfare is based on deception.
- The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities. It is best to win without fighting
- To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
Junk Chart of the week: http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/2010/06/oil-spills-bring-out-the-worst.html

Michigan Pic Of the Week

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.
~Martin Luther

Pierre’s CRM, Productivity, and Personal Development Links June 7, 2010

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:29:04 GMT

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 that I will be giving this week. Check it out. If you are putting in a Scribe solution this may be just the class for you. http://www.crmug.com/events/CRMUGAcademyScribe061110
While on Scribe good article on Project Scoping and Estimating data integration / migration projects. It is always harder than it looks http://bit.ly/aCxvL0
Microsoft CRM Rollup 11 was released: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f84f2bfb-393d-4b90-bf1b-300a82ec6083 If you, like me, run Office 2011 get this and the Outlook UI for CRM will get improved.
GTD 2 Minute Timer available for Download - http://gtd-timer.com
Ballmer: And Microsoft's main competitors are ... http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/208984.asp .. Looks like he has lost weight.

Michigan Picture of the Week:

Scribe ERP to Dynamics CRM Administration Class

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:35:13 GMT

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 the different integration options, web services, SQL, and Connectors
· What to expect during an integration project

Time: 4 Hour – 12 Pm – 4 PM EST

Resources: Online Virtual Server environment

Level: 300

Class Outline:

	Review Installation and Security
	Explore the Scribe Environment
	Review Integration Touch Points With ERP to CRM integration
	Discuss Data Publishing / Net Change Patterns
	Working with Scribe Workbench
	Working with Scribe console
	Error handling
	Internal Cross Reference tables
	Environmental Issues
	Scoping New Integrations

Registration Costs

Basic CRMUG Members: $199.00
Premium CRMUG Members: $149.00

Pierre's CRM, Productivity, and Personal Development Links - May 28, 2010

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Sat, 29 May 2010 23:36:20 GMT

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 and are hiring 2 more folks on our team this month.

Here are my links this week

Fortune Magazine does a great article on our home town, Grand Rapids, MI - http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/11/autos/michigan_success_story.fortune/index.htm points to the keys to our long term success: Planning, Perseverance, and Private Capitol.
Great Case Study on a CRM SL integration => Microsoft Case Studies: Lifeworks - Growing Charity Expands Services, Reduces Costs with Integrated CRM and ERP Solution I am always jealous at projects like this. Cool work, great results, but I didn’t get invited to the party ;-( But give credit where credit is due… Great job guys!
Found a great jscript management utility for CRM by a fellow Dynamics CRM consultant in France - http://mscrmtools.blogspot.com/ Thanks for the tool! He has a bunch of other CRM Developer tool tools. I love the developer and user community we have built. Some great guys and gals out there.
In the same vein I found a library of CRM dev and support tools for folks like me - http://vidmar.net/weblog/archive/2010/05/06/ultimate-dynamics-crm-tools-list.aspx
PowerPivot for Excel 2010 - Free add-on - If you do pivot tables this will help you build out some pretty fantastic sales reports. http://www.powerpivot.com/download.aspx
Ordered my Getting Things Implementation Guide – https://secure.davidco.com/store/catalog/GTD-IMPLEMENTATION-GUIDE-p-16636.php A list on how to build lists, kind of ironic, but looks worth it. I have slowly been moving towards GTD as an organization style and although it is a long journey. I have gotten my e-mail inbox down to zero. So that is a major accomplishment. Additionally I have organized One Note to work for GTD management. Cool stuff.
Egg Noodle Taxi Cab – As any proud Papa I wanted to give a shout out my son Jacob, on the trombone, for a job well done with his Jazz Combo earlier this month. This is what music should be all about pure bliss, what fun.

Picture of the Week – on the First unofficial summer weekend here in Michigan:

Power Objects (@JOECRM) Gives a Great Case Study On Integrating Dynamics CRM and Dynamics SL

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:31:18 GMT

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 & Associates also extended the solutions with custom functionality. With new efficiencies, a far lower cost of technology ownership, and the ability to extend the solutions with its own resources, Lifeworks has maintained low costs during a period of rapid growth in demand for its services.

Click Here to read details => Microsoft Case Studies: Lifeworks - Growing Charity Expands Services, Reduces Costs with Integrated CRM and ERP Solution

I am always jealous at projects like this. Cool work, great results, but I didn’t get invited to the party ;-( But give credit where credit is due… Great job guys!

Dynamics CRM Suggestion #553358 Workflow Editing Tool Not Changing Focus Correctly – #MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:43:21 GMT

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.

Click Here to Vote

Here is the problem in action (Sorry for Background Noise did this @ Biggbys in Grandville)

Inbox Zero - @GTD for Microsoft CRM Anyone…. Anyone….

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:59:55 GMT

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 Notes so the GTD space for CRM is wide open…. anyone who wants to write a GTD app for Microsoft CRM give me a jingle. I would love to help.

From Email:
(me@example.net)

Subject:

Comment:

Placeholder text

Member Exclusive: Outlook 2007 Categories
Published 2 hours ago

Member Exclusive: How Important Are The Tools You Use?
Published 15 hours ago

Member Exclusive: Spring Member Special Through May 31
Published 16 hours ago

How to Republish An Order In Dynamics CRM Using SQL Script

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 12:59:46 GMT

If you are using Dynamics 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 used 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 part number, etc. So the order needs to be fixed and resubmitted. However, CRM will not allow the workflow or any SDK call to change the order back into a format that you can correct. It has to be reentered. Grrrrrrr….

Here is the handy dandy SQL script that we made to update the State and Status code on the tables. This is technically unsupported so the normal caveats apply.

Update SalesOrderBase

Set StateCode='0'

Set StatusCode='1'

Where OrderNumber='ORD-55566-SM500Q'

Scribe Insight 7.0 Is On The Way #Scribesoft

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:10:29 GMT

As a Scribe MVP, I 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 set of products. But the main rule in this relationship is that I can’t say anything until they make a public release of information. So recently Scribe announced their release date and have begun to detail some of the features on their blog. So we have been looking at the next version on Scribe for the last several weeks and we have been impressed, primarily with these 2 features.

Connection Manager

Connection manager allows you to have a single dts that updates several destinations. This is fantastic for integrations because during the creation of data in one table you may want to also update other systems or call other SQL procs. This configuration will allow for that easily.

It is interesting to think of several scenarios that are now available when you mix in web services as a connector. So you will be able to hit a credit rating service as the data goes from CRM to the ERP system in 1 dts. Or call web services to do currency conversion in real time. Or run a SQL Proc to gen a customer number in the target DB, create address, customer, and billing address records in the ERP system, and write several cross-reference entries in the scribe internal DB all in 1 dts.

Scribe has addressed this in-depth on their blog. http://blog.scribesoft.com/2009/09/breaking-the-source--target-paradigm.html

Mystery Feature

The second feature we like is equally impressive. But I can’t tell you about it yet. You may get a hint if you see that they are going to support Windows 2008 R2, which is a 64 bit system. But that is all I will say at this point!

If you would like to see the new solution send an email over to productmanagment at scribesoft.com and Tom O'Brien will get you hooked up.

Update Rollup 10 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available.

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:34:10 GMT

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 Update Rollup 7 must be installed prior to installing UR10.

On the server, the previous update rollups are not required before installing UR10.

Although it’s desirable, the server and the clients do not have to be updated at the same time to the same UR.

* Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually *

Please note – CRM Update Rollup 10 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, like UR1-UR9 contains hotfixes and updates that you must enable or configure manually – both at the client and the server level.

It’s worth the time to take a few minutes and walk through the notes that describe the fixes that require manual configuration – usually just adding or modifying a registry key – it’s too easy to miss out on some fixes or functionality improvements available.

You can enable or configure these hotfixes and updates on the server that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 by following the instructions in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (K articles listed in the KB article.

* Auto-updating CRM Clients in a deployment *

Recent updates have removed the need to be running as a local administrator to install the CRM for Outlook Client Update Rollups. It’s now, more than ever, feasible to deploy the client updates via the CRM Client Auto Update feature. –

See this blog post for more information on how to set up / deploy the clients via AutoUpdate. http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2008/05/08/crm-client-autoupdate.aspx (The Keys needed for UR10 are listed in the section “Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook Auto Update IDs and Link IDs” of http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979347)

Product Suggestion #544240 Dynamics CRM Advanced find operator for time should include Current Quarter - #MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:33:39 GMT

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 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#

#MSCRM Dynamics CRM v.next Coming to a Partner Near You

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:24:35 GMT

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 and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific (APAC). The availability in international datacenters is in preparation for the global expansion of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service beyond the U.S. and Canada today and into EMEA, APAC and Latin America.

More than 400 select partners are engaged in the CTP3 program, and that number will be expanded in the coming months.

“We see Microsoft Dynamics CRM driving innovation and focus in the customer relationship management (CRM) marketplace. It continues to raise the bar on ease of use, and delivers real and measurable value to our customers,” said Aziz Virani, executive vice president of the Avanade Technology Solutions Group. “This next generation of the product provides us with more opportunities to create innovative solutions for our customers.”

“With this next version, Microsoft is continuing to drive new levels of user productivity and collaboration, giving customers deep core CRM capabilities, low total cost of ownership, and fast and easy deployment options for their CRM applications,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The next generation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM will support more than 40 languages, and will be offered as an online service, as on-premises software and via partner-hosted offerings. Availability of the new product will begin in the second half of 2010.

I am excited about what we are going to be able to discuss. Microsoft swears us all to Non Disclosure until they release the information publicly. So I can comment only on what they release. So all I can really say at this point. Cool stuff man.

Microsoft CRM Product Suggestion # 541039 Export to Excel Should Behave Consistently #MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:01:36 GMT

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.

My use case is if I go to the Account and look at cases, I would love to be able to build a pivot table or an adhoc export that allows me to send a quick Excel summary of all cases that have a specific set of fields that the customer would want to see when they ask "Where are we with all the open work orders?" To get this kind of report, I have to go to the all case view and build an advanced find and then perform the export from there. It would be much easier to look up the account and hit Export to Excel and select the columns I want.

In this system Cases have been relabeled “Work Orders” - Click here to Vote

Choice Hotels Hires Sonoma Partners for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Deployment - Great Win Guys! #MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:47:29 GMT

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 has selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a Customer Relationship Management software package developed by Microsoft.

Econo Lodge is an economy motel chain based in the United States.

Econo Lodge is the second largest brand in the Choice Hotels system. It is one of the best known names of its category and provides affordable rooms to budget travelers.

Customer relationship management of franchise customers has a low volume in terms of absolute numbers of customers, but a high investment value with many relationships enduring for decades. "Implementing a franchise management system that provides a 360-degree view of our franchisees will help enable streamlined processes, ultimately allowing us to service our franchisees better through coordinated services," said Carol Galonis, vice president of corporate information systems at Choice Hotels. "The extensibility of Microsoft Dynamics CRM makes it the ideal platform for this system." The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 solution will initially be integrated with Choice Hotels' existing SalesLogix system plus two proprietary applications until these can be phased out as deployment proceeds. Choice Hotels expects Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to generate multiple business benefits aligned with its core strategic priorities, including the following: -- Company growth and decision support.

Product Suggestion #534195 Pick Lists Not “Mappable” in Workflow -#MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:59:03 GMT

I have made several product suggestions to the Microsoft Dynamics 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 a new workflow that runs on create of the new child object that uses a nest if then statement to conditionally check the originating object and set pick list if value on parent value 1, else if = value 2, etc…

Link and add your comment on the Microsoft Connect web site. You will need a live ID.

https://connect.microsoft.com/dynamicssuggestions/feedback/details/534195/pick-list-values-not-mappable-in-workflow

Job Posting for #DynamicsCRM Business Development Consultant #MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:25:43 GMT

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 offer a fantastic opportunity to work with a nationally-recognized Gold Certified 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 and results in building sales systems and teams.
Strong ability to interface with sales people, all levels of management and experience working across multiple functional groups.
Critical thinking and decision making abilities that result in daily impact on sales and operational results.
Excellent organizational, leadership/decision making, and communication skills.
Ability to think ahead and plan over a 1-2 year time span.
An understanding how of Mobile, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Cloud Computing and Integration Technology is impacting the "business of selling."
Experience with CRM business applications and strategies.
Technically fluent in Microsoft Office.

Responsibilities

Execute and assist in developing marketing plans
Develop client relationships from lead to closed deals
Prepare quotes and proposals
Lead client meetings, presentations and facilitated strategy sessions
Meet sales goals and billable goals
Analyze front office processes (sales, marketing and customer service) to identify opportunities for improvement
Gather and understand client functional requirements
Coordinate proposals and presentations with technical, management, and partners
Train client personnel on the usage Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Develop high level project work plans
Article and case study writing
Complete a training program

The successful candidate will be a valuable member of the CRM Project delivery team. They will love a learning environment and value team work. They will be given an opportunity to work with leading edge sales technologies.

Travel ~10% Travel may include overnight or additional driving time to clients spread out over a geographic region. Company will reimburse for mileage and out-of-town expenses incurred while working on a client site according to stated policies.

Send your responses to pierreh@ehtc.com

Thanks

Pierre

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Version 5 Sneak Peak by Microsoft #MSCRM

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:10:03 GMT

Here is a sneak peak on Dynamics CRM 5.0 by Girish Raja, a Microsoft Employee, on an official Microsoft Website. 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.

Populate Contacts To A Marketing List From A Dynamics CRM Workflow

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:38:47 GMT

If you run CRM and use marketing lists 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 a contact, which has had a particular workflow job ran against their record, to a marketing list. How does one do that? Sit back and see how it is done using Advanced Find.

How To Perform A Multi Record Update On Dynamics CRM Products Using Scribe Workbench @Scribesoft

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:26:10 GMT

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 Advanced 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 have thousands of records to manage? Well, here is how to perform this operation using Scribe Workbench.

Here is a quick video that shows the specifics.

#AIMWEST Social Media Confab Recap - @pistachio

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:27:00 GMT

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. As Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIN and the general Blogosphere have grown over the last several years organizations are trying to get their arms around how to make money in this space, how to effectively listen, analyze, and interact with customers, prospects, and influentials. We were one of the session sponsors at this event. We set up our table and had a PPT running on the Social CRM addon for CRM.

The event actually started the night before by meeting with several of the speakers. I got to spend time with the featured speaker, Laura Fitton (@pistachio), social marketing guru, and the writer of Twitter for Dummies. She has great ideas, and had loved the Civiche, and Risotto we had for dinner. I also have to say that she really won my heart when she ordered the second Guinness.

Here are some Aha Moments for me:

70 million photos uploaded every day on Facebook -1/3 of all photos on Web
People only invite on average 10 brands on their FB page
The top 5% of my network gets notified when I become a fan of a brand on #facebook
Social Networking is being used successfully as a recruiting tool for Colleges
A LinkedIN Profile is much more powerful than a traditional resume
Removing information from the internet is like getting pee out of a pool
#Meijer is using Blogging as a way to share internal meeting notes
Lost of small ideas are often better than 1 big one
It is ok to Fail
Actions are more important than anything you tell a customer
Your methods define you, not the project work you do
We need to stay connected to the outside as too much self think will make you slow, irrelevant, and predictable.
The guy who started Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation, a wildly successful venture into social media, has left to work for Microsoft
Google tried 37 shades of blue and picked the best one using analytics on click thru numbers
Amway has about 5 full-time folks working on Social Media
51% Of the Social Brand Sentiment for Amway is negative
They have lowered it by 4% by engaging the social consumers in the last year
The more I was a little personal in my professional account, the more things took off for me
About 5-8% of the crowd is dedicated to Social Media in their Org
Poptarts are apparently the most popular food in the social media world... I've heard a lot about them today
Per WalMart > Two products people are most likely to buy in days leading up to hurricane? PopTarts and beer
Does it matter if platforms like Twitter die tomorrow? They're publishing RSS and being indexed by google - everything is portable.
Build a Culture first, then a biz around that.... good luck!! only top 1% can do that like Zappos
Does corporate culture need to change to accommodate Social Media?
80% of activity on Twitter is happening through its API

We showed the Microsoft CRM Social Media Accelerator at our table. More on that in a later post.

Remove Write In Products from Quotes and Orders

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:15:40 GMT

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 ins.

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.

http://www.askcrm.com/Default.aspx?tabid=866&EntryID=80

ITA Fall Collaborative

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:28:14 GMT

I have been given a rare honor... an invitation 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 and midsized businesses. ITA will be seen by others as a small, selective, vendor independent group of highly ethical people who are committed to sharing the skills and experiences that make them successful. ITA will also be known for its “first class” approach to everything that it does.

My Topic - CRM Opportunity

Several years ago, our Gartner friend pointed out that 2 big opportunities were headed into the SMB space – CRM and BI. While BI is still coming, CRM certainly arrived with a bang. Customers adopted it, tools, skills, and experience grew, and those who listened and prepared have benefited nicely. Now the question becomes... Has the wave passed? Is it too late to start or invest in an expanded CRM practice? Did I miss the Boat? Our panel of leading CRM practitioners will explain their views on those, and other questions. Attend this session to hear how they see the CRM opportunity today, and what are they doing to capitalize on it for tomorrow.

Time: Monday, December 7 3:00 PM -- 4:15 PM

Location: Westin Mission Hills, Palm Springs, CA

If you are interested in attending here are details: http://www.italliance.com/UpcomingEvents.aspx

Hope to see you there.

Dynamics® CRM and MultiPlexing

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:58:41 GMT

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)?

Answer: Yes.

This is an issues called Multiplexing. And was a major issue with Terminal Services, and Database-driven Web Sites. Now we are starting to see it creep up more and more as Dynamics CRM is being used by individuals that may not have a CRM Client application loaded.

What is multiplexing?

Some organizations develop network scenarios that use various forms of hardware or software to reduce the number of devices or users directly accessing or using the software on a particular server. This is often referred to as the "multiplexing" or "pooling" of hardware or software.

What impact does multiplexing have on CAL licensing?

Multiplexing does not change the number of Microsoft CALs required, no matter how many multiplexing devices are between the user or device and the server. Any user or device accessing the server, files, data, or content provided by the server through an automated process requires a CAL.

For example, in the case of Microsoft SQL Server® (when licensed per user), CALs are required for users who input data, query, or view data from a SQL Server database—whether they do it directly from the server or through a multiplexing device. This requirement includes users who view data through Web-based applications or enter information into a database through an intermediary product.

The exception is when information is delivered manually from person to person. For example, when Bob retrieves information from the server, he requires a CAL. But when Bob delivers that information to Janet through a manual process, such as e-mail or a hard-copy printout, Janet does not require a CAL

Do these rules apply to SQL Server only or to all products licensed under the server and CAL models?

All products licensed under the server operating system and CAL models follow the same rules for multiplexing.

What is the difference between a device licensed with a Device CAL and a multiplexing device?

A Device CAL allows one device, used by any user, to access instances of the server software on the licensed server. A multiplexing device pools connections from other devices, which may be licensed with a Device CAL.

Does having a chain of multiplexing devices change licensing requirements?

No. Multiplexing does not reduce the number of CALs required, regardless of the number of multiplexing devices between the user or device and the server.

Resources from Microsoft addressing this question:

http://www.microsoft.com/business/enterprise/ea/newsletter3.mspx

Microsoft CRM Adapter for Dynamics GP Released Review Pending #DyanmicsCRM #DynamicsGP

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:01:26 GMT

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"
"Every integration tool I have worked with requires you to be a developer on some level, this one does not and is amazingly simple to use"
"We took advantage of the wizard-based configuration tools to map all the required fields so that we could immediately start sharing information between Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM"

From the beginning the focus of this toolset was to provide an integration product that adhered to specific capabilities that are important to Dynamics customers. These include:

Robust ERP to CRM integration that “just works”
Easy install and deployment
Minimizing architectural overhead
A non-developer customization story
Transparency when things may go wrong

Some Data Points:

The Adapter is FREE!!! However, customers will need to have an active/current Microsoft Dynamics GP Enhancement/Support plan. In addition, the customer will also need an active/current Microsoft Dynamics CRM Software Assurance (SA) Support Plan.
The Adapter can be obtained by the partner organization placing the order for the customer through the standard Microsoft Dynamics GP ordering system.
The Adapter will not be compatible with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 or Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 or any other previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP or Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In order to utilize the Adapter, the customer is required to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 Service Pack 4 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Update Rollup #5. This is a completely new tool, redesigned from the ground up.
The main integration engines/services used for the Adapter are web services to eConnect (web services to web services)

We are planning on sitting through the demo and details with Microsoft today. I will report back on details. News of this was leaked out a few weeks ago. It will be interesting to see if they are really back in business. The last few stabs at this by Microsoft ended in disaster. We were all told at the CRMUG conference by MSFT execs that they were going to get back in the game, that this was not a lackluster solution. Since GP 10 uses a Web Services architecture now, it will be great to see what “engine” they will be using. We were told that it is not Biztalk-based. I will report back to you with the results of our meeting.

The Consultant’s Secret Stash

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:42:57 GMT

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.

My habit is to print them out to PDF, put them in a @reading folder (for all you GTD’ers) and take it with me to lunch to read.

Here is a list of reports from last week.

· Sales Automation:
Achieve Quota
Read Report Now

· Mobile Marketing:
Increase ROI
Read Report Now

· Talent Acquisition:
Filter Candidates for Competency
Read Report Now

· Mobile Field Workforce:
Agile Process Workflow
Read Report Now

· Online Merchandising:
Cut Inventory Carrying Costs
Read Report Now

Microsoft Courier Booklet

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:37:33 GMT

Courier User Interface from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Take OneNote, Multi-Touch UI, and an Outlook Client; mix'em all in a blender; bake for 3 hours and out will come one of these. I have serious tech envy…..

CRM Rocks! EHTC CRM Team Blog.

Introducing Professional Sales Strategies Articles by Dan Holzgen

#CRMUG National Conference Training Events Available

Monday, October 25, 2010

Friday, October 29, 2010

Classes Soon to be Scheduled

Adding a Lookup Field to an Object in Dynamics CRM 4.0

Taking the Covers Off Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5 #MSFT

CRMUG – Summit 2010 – Agenda and Tracks

First Annual Scribe User Conference September 23-24 in New Hampshire!

CRMUG Michigan Regional Chapter (Aug 2010)

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.

Fantastic CRM Online Offer for Dynamics GP Customers

NonProfit Solution for CRM Online

Scribe 7 Web Service and Multi Connect Workbench #ScribeSoft #MSCRM

Scribe 7.0 Highlights Part 1 – Installation #ScribeSoft

@InfuseMe The Top Tweeter On Microsoft CRM #MSCRM

Pierre's CRM, Productivity and Personal Development Links, June 28th 2010

Michigan Pic Of the Week

Pierre’s CRM, Productivity, and Personal Development Links June 7, 2010

Scribe ERP to Dynamics CRM Administration Class

Time: 4 Hour – 12 Pm – 4 PM EST

Resources: Online Virtual Server environment

Level: 300

Class Outline:

Registration Costs

Pierre's CRM, Productivity, and Personal Development Links - May 28, 2010

Here are my links this week

Picture of the Week – on the First unofficial summer weekend here in Michigan:

Power Objects (@JOECRM) Gives a Great Case Study On Integrating Dynamics CRM and Dynamics SL

Growing Charity Expands Services, Reduces Costs with Integrated CRM and ERP Solution

Dynamics CRM Suggestion #553358 Workflow Editing Tool Not Changing Focus Correctly – #MSCRM

Inbox Zero - @GTD for Microsoft CRM Anyone…. Anyone….

How to Republish An Order In Dynamics CRM Using SQL Script

Scribe Insight 7.0 Is On The Way #Scribesoft

Connection Manager

Mystery Feature

Update Rollup 10 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available.

Update Rollup 10 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available.

Product Suggestion #544240 Dynamics CRM Advanced find operator for time should include Current Quarter - #MSCRM

#MSCRM Dynamics CRM v.next Coming to a Partner Near You

Microsoft CRM Product Suggestion # 541039 Export to Excel Should Behave Consistently #MSCRM

Export To Excel should be consistent across all views and not behave differently on Accounts than it behaves on Advanced Find

Choice Hotels Hires Sonoma Partners for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Deployment - Great Win Guys! #MSCRM

Product Suggestion #534195 Pick Lists Not “Mappable” in Workflow -#MSCRM

Job Posting for #DynamicsCRM Business Development Consultant #MSCRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Version 5 Sneak Peak by Microsoft #MSCRM

Populate Contacts To A Marketing List From A Dynamics CRM Workflow

How To Perform A Multi Record Update On Dynamics CRM Products Using Scribe Workbench @Scribesoft

#AIMWEST Social Media Confab Recap - @pistachio

Remove Write In Products from Quotes and Orders

ITA Fall Collaborative

Dynamics® CRM and MultiPlexing

Question: Does the SharePoint user need a CRM cal (license)?

Answer: Yes.

What is multiplexing?

What impact does multiplexing have on CAL licensing?

Do these rules apply to SQL Server only or to all products licensed under the server and CAL models?

What is the difference between a device licensed with a Device CAL and a multiplexing device?

Does having a chain of multiplexing devices change licensing requirements?

Microsoft CRM Adapter for Dynamics GP Released Review Pending #DyanmicsCRM #DynamicsGP

The Consultant’s Secret Stash

Microsoft Courier Booklet