CRM Rocks! EHTC CRM Team Blog.

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…..

Contact For Follow Up

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:40:39 GMT

Contact Me

First Name *
Last Name *
E-mail *
Organization Name *
Address 1 *
Address 2
City *
State/Province *
ZIP/Postal Code *
Business Phone
Lead Source Type *
Information Requested
8+8=

#CRMUG 2009 Conference Recap

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:21:09 GMT

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 solution. This will be out in the next several months and will be “Priced to Move.” Watch this space… During the week I saw Jerry give about a million demos to Microsoft folks and the MVP’s in attendance. The consensus was that this app was one of the first real biz apps using Silverlight it is very impressive. Great work Jerry and Team.

Wed AM

Key Note-Dynamics CRM Senior Director - Christian Pedersens.

1) Excellent Presenter

2) Discussed the impact of Millennium Generation on the workspace.

3) Mashup of Work/Life balance means that folks are using tools for Work.

6) The impact of Selling/Marketing thru communities is yet to be fully realized.

7) New Zune HD can run CRM mobile express and Sony PSP - “Honey, I think I need a demo machine”

8) They are working on CRM 6 - Which implies that they have got scope around CRM 5.0 set at this point. Although no dates are ever promised in these types of settings. The general consensus is that we will see CRM 5.0 in the Spring of next year.

XRM Coolness – Challenge to defining what XRM means to everyone

Heard how Microsoft is Using CRM Internally. It came as no surprise that they are integrating the account records to SharePoint for automatic document libraries. Also learned that the xrm system architects and MSFT professional services team met last week in a kind of XRM summit. If you are aware there are some inherent challenges with making Microsoft CRM a development platform because there are many presumed ideas of Parent Child relationships that can be barriers to XRM development. So it clear that MSFT is “Getting It” when it comes to this issue and is looking to address them in the next few versions of CRM v5 and v6. The Zune, Xbox, and Windows support are all using CRM integrated with Customer Care Frame work.

Wed PM

Lunch with John Gravely – VP Sales and Marketing at Scribe. We crashed the NAV lunch, it seemed they had better food. John is an amazing guy, He wrote the first major book on Dynamics CRM, founded C360, sold that company and is now working at Scribe in NH. We talked about “Scribe Stuff” and am looking forward to participating in their MVP program, as I am now listed as a Scribe MVP.

Prepped for my afternoon presentation on CRM Excel Pivot Tables, the Internet connection was flakey and went up and down, which killed Plan A of using a VPC back in my office. Plan B – Using a hosted VPC from Missing Link. That system was broken so Excel wouldn’t work correctly, Plan C has me building content out on a CRM Online account, uploading data, and running the presentation on my local System. Which worked pretty well until we lost Internet during the demos.

That evening we spent back in Expo with Ryan Smith reviewing the App Strategy development and integration suite. Not only are they in Kalamazoo MiI about 60 miles from our office, they have a feature rich application that work in Windows Workflow Foundation to move and transform data, impressive.

Then had a Chicago Pizza run with Erik van Hof from CRW Mobility, CCH’s Nicole Crawley and a few other colleagues from CCH. Also joined by Katie Warner from Market Lab, a CRM client of ours. Conversation wandered between Gun Control, Health Care, kids, and Horses. Definitely an eclectic group. The pizza was fantastic. Went to Gino’s East.

Thursday AM

CRM – Presentation on CRM Roadmap – Reuben Krippner went thru what is supported and what is not. At this point, nothing seems too new to me. Notable points were that several of the accelerators are going to be part of the Core product, and the next version will include a charting object that will allow you to take any grid in CRM and turn it into a graph/Dashboard.

CRM – Conduit session - Met with the CRM UX (User Experience) team – They showed us very neat v.next version stuff but…. I can’t tell you any details just this. As we have been looking at v 5.0 stuff for the last since January this year so at this point they are getting close having something to go to market. I am constantly impressed with Microsoft and how they develop applications. During these sessions they are constantly asking and probing for what people expect the user experience to be. The questions and their conversations are done is such a way as not to influence or guide peoples responses; no leading questions or putting words in people's mouth. They are very skilled at the art of conversation and listening. As a consultant, I am constantly impressed with this team. It is no wonder they develop the most popular software in the world! It is sessions like this that help contribute to that process... and they are always looking and listening.

I set up an appointment with that team to get some of our customers using the Order Entry and Quoting functions to do a feature review and v.next review with this UX group.

CRM for Azure - Darin Liu and John Henderson gave a presentation on the Direction with Cloud Computing. Daren generated a Web Lead for and wrote an integration with CRM and the Custom Page and published the integration application all to the Azure Cloud. This was done is a few minutes and up and running in about 15 minutes.Very Impressive.

John Henderson from MSFT showed a Event Registration web app that integrates with Airline Reservation, Car rentals, etc, and CRM. After a registrant is done, all of the details show up in the CRM solution. With the entire integration running in the “Azure” Cloud.

CRM Accelerator Coolness – Bob Peskin from Infinity http://www.infinityinfo.com/ and Reuben Krippner reviewed the various CRM accelerators

Extended Sales Forecasting
CRM Notifications
Event Management
eService Portal
Analytics

News: These will be “rolled into” CRM v.5 and become part of the core product.

Spent some time with Paul Harris from sRelations who is a Social Relationship Manager consulting and helping the User Groups leverage social media. It is difficult to underestimate the impact of social media on the buying methods of the best customers, and how great organizations need to reach and interact with them.

The most interesting was relative to CRM Social Accelerator. Capturing Twitter Tweets and tracking and reporting on the trends, and allowing the organization to look for service and sales opportunities.

Thursday PM

Then a few hours speaking with some customers that were in attendance, and discussed ERP integrations with Missing Link technology from Austin TX. Then home to hotel to do some support work and follow up on all my e-mails for the day.

Friday AM

Customer Service Operations – Customer Care Framework (CCF) With Marc Ashbrok from Microsoft - this is a 3 year old application that is built on CRM, where the results of the calls, and customer interactions are kept in CRM, so workflow can see the data and take actions accordingly. The Customer Care Framework provides a core set of functions which can be used for customer support avenues including voice call via call center agents and Internet portals. This year the group has become part of the Dynamics Family. Agent Score Cards, Call Center Metrics, and Multi Channel customer interaction, are all part of this solution.

Microsoft has a team that is working to support and help deploy this solution to customers. This is a great example of how making the app simpler for the user adds complexity to the application and “Back end” systems. This solution is a super robust integration with mainframes, Phone Systems, and Instant messaging. Discussed the Call Provider interface that links the app to the CTI System.

Screen Pops - Several organizations are looking to do Screen Pops with Cisco http://bit.ly/15Yfg8 Cisco has a unified call connector solution that has just come down in price according to one of the attendees. There are some ways to build out integration with other apps via – Iframes and building buttons that pass data over to the iFramedapp. Msft professional services uses this method often in call center situations.

One Organization is using external call center – The external call center is provisioned with the CRM Remote Client that allows the call center contractors to have access to the customer data remotely. So by using CRM Internet Facing Deployment and security roles settings they are able to get the remote agents set up with zero client software.

Mobilizing your Dynamics CRM - CWR Mobility and Erik van Hoof - As I grew up in a Dutch Home, Grand Rapids has the largest Dutch Community in the USA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_American – built a great case for the need of remote field service, and sales teams to have access to data remotely. Mobility's Mobile CRM is the most advanced mobile solution for sales, service and xRM. By using the extended capabilities of a personal digital assistant (PDA) their customers are able to access CRM virtually anywhere. CRM information is now available wherever you are.

They have 6,500 users in 24 countries and 10 languages.

#CRMUG - @CWRMobility - fully integrated #DYNAMICS CRM on #Blackberry #iphone and #WindowsMobile

Supporting – CRM integration with iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Black Berry. They are the only platform offering PIM Integration on Windows Mobile – Means that the CRM app on the device can connect to phone functions, like logging calls, popping Outlook email client for CRM e-mails.

Because of the Metadata layer development methods they can support Multi Company, Multi Currency, and Multi tenant deployments. It also means they can provision any modifications from CRM to be pushed out to the CRM Mobile client without any “redeployment” or reinstall. This means that they can support any XRM application on the mobile phone.

Users observed that most of the current mobile apps in market are data collection and typically built from scratch. So using CRM w/CWRMobility will allow for quick dev and deploy for these apps. They provide an SDK to build custom screens and integration with other mobile PC functions, Barcode Scanning, Signature Capturing, Imaging, GPS are all in the SDK. Got very jealous with his demo as he was running HTC Touch with Windows Mobile 6.5.

CRM Town Hall -

Lunch with John O’Donald, Eric van Hof, Larry Lentz and Ryan Smith. This session focused on drilling Microsoft with a no holds barred questions and answer session.

Cindy Evans – Microsoft Dynamics Customer Reference Program. Customer Recruitment, Customer Fulfillment, Customer Evidence, AR/PR.

John Burchett – CRM US Product Manager

Chris Gehrig – Relationship Manager – Microsoft Customer Relations Team

John O’Donnell - Dynamics ISV Evangelist

Actually very little new information here. We did find out though some public comments on CRM v.5:

1) Global search across multiple entities is being considered in V5.0

2) Dynamics GP integration will be out in a few weeks and Microsoft is Recommitting to have an integration strategy.

3) There is no plan for a CRM v5 / Outlook Web Access solution at this point.

4) CRM Online will be on the Enterprise Price list

5) What happened to CRM for Small Business server? CRM Online is going to be the answer for this space. He hinted that the CRM 5.0 Release will have a pricing strategy that addresses the Small Business Server market. @CRMLARRY (Larry Lentz – MVP) is very connected in this space as he is an MVP for CRM and SBS. He didn’t seem to like this direction. As it doesn’t really address the core issue. We need to have something in this space because the SBS customers have made a commitment to having a server on premise. So a CRM Online play is a mixed message to these types of customers.

Social Media and CRM: Build and Track your Brand

Discussed the CRM accelerator for brand tracking.

“It all starts with a tweet.” Comcast Cares - Seeing Twitter is valued at 1 Billion dollars….. Most organizations need to consider how to manage their twitter presence.

As I have mentioned before it is hard to underestimate the impact that social networking is going to have on the CRM systems. We reviewed the specific Microsoft Social Networking accelerator.

Social Networking Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

If you are still thinking, “I don’t Get it. Why should I care about social networking?" Here are some fun facts:

ABC, NBC, and CBS had 10 Million unique visitors last month

My Space, YouTube, and FaceBook get a little under 250 Million unique visitors every month. By the way none of them existed 6 years ago.

More Video was uploaded to YouTube in the last 2 months than ABC, NBC, and CBS have aired since 1948.

Didn't I say it is huge and growing?! So CRM is working to figure out how to work with these systems. If you are sill unconvinced, watch this video.

Summary: At the end of the week I was very tired, not too excited about the 3 hour drive home. So the 3 hour drive ended up being over 6 hours as I had to contend with Friday Chicago traffic. I learned a lot about new solutions, met some great new friends, and ended up with a free pizza cutter.

Trip Statistics:

Miles Traveled – 480
Hours in the Car – 9
Microsoft SWAG – 2. A tee shirt, and a pizza cutter
Hours in the Reviewing New Products: 6
Nights in the Hotel : 4
Hours spent with customers: 5
After Hours Support billed : 10
Emails waiting upon return: 55
Twitter Tweets from Show: ~20
Things I can’t mention because of Non Disclosure Agreement – 12.5

Microsoft Dynamics CRM (#DynamicsCRM) Integration Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP (#DynamicsGP) Coming Soon to a Theater Near You.

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:10:15 GMT

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 preview. So our review will be happening as soon as it is released to the public.

Here are the details we have so far from the Statement of Direction.

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP is an integration solution for these two products. The primary emphasis of the solution is simplicity and ease of use while providing a highly reliable, bi-directional and fault tolerant business document integration between Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Update Rollup 5 and above) and Dynamics GP 10 (Service Pack 4 and above). The solution does not require any additional software such as Microsoft BizTalk server and is available at no cost to licensed customers who have a current Enhancement Plan for Microsoft Dynamics GP.

The system is based on a transformation engine and uses specific adapters to identify source and destination systems. The source adapter reads data and the destination adapter writes data. There is a pre-defined and configurable map which ships as part of the solution to define the specific data in each system which will be exchanged. This map serves as a starting point for a customer but can easily be modified to meet specific needs using a map authoring utility provided with the solution.

Fault tolerance is built into the solution; in the event of an integration failure, the solution will retry failed documents according to configurable rules.

CoWorking Coming to Grand Rapids

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:00:54 GMT

Several of my new tech friends in Grand Rapids: @MacFowler is starting up The Factory in town. It is a membership-based service that is somewhere between renting an office for a few thousand a month to working out of a coffee shop.

For independent contractors and Solo Entrepreneurs this is a great way to save expenses and network with other like-minded individuals. I know all my SV and MSFT folks are gonna say - “We have been doing it for years here in … (FIll in the Big City)”

Here is the location in Grand Rapids- http://workthefactory.com/

This is the Organization that runs the show http://www.elevatorup.com/coworking

Ron Sweeny discusses Coworking from Chris Chocko on Vimeo.

This is one they set up in Zeeland Michigan – Home of Herman Miller and Howard Miller

Here are Prices for the Garage in Zeeland. - http://elevatorup.com/garage

What the price includes:

High-speed internet access
Wireless (wifi) or wired networking
Whiteboards
Coffee/tea
Good music (well, that depends on who is in control)
An old converted clock manufacturing building with character
Comfy lounge area, large tables for collaboration and smaller individual working area
Within walking distance of a sandwich shop and pizza parlor
Short drive to coffee shops, restaurants, and major highways
Great company!

Acquaintance - $25/day

first visit is free

You don't need a stationary desk for more than a few days a month so monthly renting doesn't make sense. We like to be flexible people so feel free to drop-in anytime between the hours of 9am and 6pm Monday through Friday and we will have a desk waiting for you. Just drop us an email (info@elevatorup.com) to make sure a desk is available. We'll bill you twice throughout the month. Easy enough?

Friend - $225/month

Wanting something more permanent than just a few days a month, but don't need access to the office on nights and weekends? Become a Friend and you can come and go as you please between 9am and 6pm Monday through Friday. No need to email us or put down a deposit, just pick your spot and get to work. We'll bill you once a month.

If you are a Friend member and are bringing in a collaborator we will consider them an Acquaintance.

Family - $325/month + deposit

Feeling the need to plant your roots for a while or need a shorter commute? Become part of the Garage Family. You will get a designate desk just for you!! Feel free to bring in that spider plant you have been trying to keep alive in the back seat of your car and make your desk feel like home. We'll bill you once a month.

-------------

Tasty Track Of The Week

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:57:08 GMT

It doesn’t get better than this... Winton on one of the most technically challenging Hard Bop classics – Caravan. I did have the pleasure of seeing Winton Live in 1988. He played with this group in Kalamazoo at the State Theater. Marcus Roberts, yes he is blind, on the piano. I think he is about 18 years old in this video. That guy has chops too. I have several of his albums and As Serenity Approaches is one of my favorite Jazz Piano albums.

Music by Wynton Marsalis. Written by Marcus Roberts. From the album, Uptown Ruler - Soul Gestures in Southern Blue Vol. 2.

Wynton Marsalis Trumpet
Marcus Roberts Piano
Todd Williams Saxaphone
Reginald Veal Bass
Herlin Riley Drums

Video Shot in NOLA earlier this year. When I was in NOLA for Convergence, I did get to see Ellis Marsalis at the Snug Harbor. He also played Caravan as his opening number.

Good times…

Here Comes Happy Win 7 Commercials.

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:55:04 GMT

I love the message, the messenger, and the 80’s Hair Band, Europe’s, song “Final Countdown” Click Here to View, which is also the #Pistons intro music. If you recognize that song you are in the target zone.

Scribe MVP Award

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:17:43 GMT

Last week I was asked to be part of the inaugural class of Scribe MVPs.

"...The goal of our MVP program is to recognize excellence and develop more formal relationships between Scribe’s most experienced and active users and our internal product management, development and support teams..."

As you may be aware I am an avid fan of Scribe. It is an application that I work with daily. We have many installations around the country using their solution, it is the core engine we built the Infuse application around. We love Scribe, but more importantly we love working with their staff. Brandon, John, Lou, Peter, and Lynn have all been very helpful to our customers, and great supporters of our efforts.

You can find my listing and other MVP's at Scribe's website.

Shout out to all my Scribe Buddies:

David Fronk @ Dynamic Methods - http://dmcrm.blogspot.com/

Correna Sergent @ Tribridge - http://www.tribridge.com/

and

Scott Sewell @ Customer Effective - http://blog.customereffective.com/

Poem Of The Day

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:18:29 GMT

As the Ruin Falls

by CS Lewis

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.

I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

Has Your Version of Scribe Expired?

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:26:14 GMT

Surprisingly, If you installed Scribe BEFORE July of last year your Scribe support has either expired or will expire in the next few months. It is worth checking out. => Click here to review the most current version of this document.

Proud Day Indeed

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:17:52 GMT

I know that I am one of 154,000 others, but somehow I feel important today. Guy is an inspiration to me on a semi-regular basis.

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

Microsoft CRM Product Updates: Hot Off the Presses!

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:41:53 GMT

Update Rollup 6

Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (KB 970148)
Microsoft has released Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. The update includes bug fixes and performance enhancements packaged together for easy deployment.

Update Rollup 6 is available for all languages that are supported by Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
For more information about this release, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 970148: Update Rollup 6 is available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Important: This update is not necessary for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. All updates are installed automatically.

We recommend customers install the update rollup to keep your software performing at its best. Installing previous update rollups is not a requirement to installing the current rollup.

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a new feature that enables users to access Microsoft Dynamics CRM data from a mobile Web browser on a Web-enabled mobile device. This feature must be installed on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server, and can work over the Internet if Microsoft Dynamics CRM is set up for Internet-facing deployment, or within a company intranet. It is available as a free download for English versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Once installed, users can view and modify Microsoft Dynamics CRM data from a web browser on their device.

Agent Communications Panel

Agent Communications Panel for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
The Agent Communications Panel is an add-in that works with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2. It enables users to manage communications (make calls, receive calls, conference, and chat) from their Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

New White Paper That Describes Using an Authentication Gateway

Implementing an ADFS Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM by Using IAG

If you need to have external users who are not part of your Active Directory access Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, this white paper explains the required architecture that allows access with strong authentication and single sign-on, with a full audit trail.

Accelerators for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

CRM Accelerators on Codeplex
CRM Accelerators are a range of add-on solutions developed for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 customers and partners. These ready-made solutions include event management, sales forecasting, service, notifications, and analytics.

Each accelerator is available at no cost and showcases how the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 platform can be configured and extended to broaden marketing, sales, and service capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers and partners are encouraged to further extend these accelerators to meet their specific business needs.

Implementation Guide Update 4.4

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide
This update contains new topics about configuring for Internet-facing deployment, installing the E-mail Router on multiple computers, upgrading from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, performance counters, and planning e-mail integration, and also includes the entire Implementation Guide assembled into a searchable compiled Help file.

Video Resources for Training Users

Videos
A variety of short videos for helping new users get comfortable with Microsoft Dynamics CRM are available in the Resource Center. The most recent, "Create a Personal View", walks through defining criteria and columns, and saving the view for reuse.

CRM Customization ROI Calculator – Redux

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:40:01 GMT

Mitch Milam is a great Microsoft CRM MVP and he wrote a great article on CRM Customization ROI. I want to expand on his ideas with some of the additional issues we usually add to these kind of calculations.

First – teased out the processes into 2 separate calculations.

This is an example of comparing 2 Processes against one another. Here I have loaded up the operational cost of a 10 minute activity, that happens 10 times a day for a team of 15 folks. This is a good example that we see with Order integration between CRM and ERP. When an organization can stop double-entering orders into both a Quoting system and then having the CSR’s re-keypunching orders, that process can go from about 10 minutes to about 5 minutes. So here is how that breaks down.

Now compare that to Process 2 - In this case it is just the changing of the amount of time with the same staff. However, sometimes in customizations an organization may shift the process to different people, or change the number of people doing the process. Here it taking just 300 seconds to do an order when it took 600 seconds before.

So now the operational cost is $72K for cutting the order entry processing time in half for 15 people.

I like to look at technology investments over a 3-year period. I also want to calculate for the maintenance on that customization in second and third year. Then I added a totals section to consolidate all three years.

There was about a $50K investment in development effort to get this integration in place.

So the first year we netted about $22K in a monetary calculation. However, I am interested in the expressing the ROI in capacity added back to the organization, which in this case nets to 1.44 Full Time Employees. So in a 3-year calculation, the ROI on this is about 400%.

Worth it? My customers thought so.

Here is my version:

Social Media and Art Converge in Grand Rapids - @ArtPrize

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:20:28 GMT

Totally off the Topic of CRM, but related to the Social Media aspects of what we do... I am a musician and consider myself a bit of an artist. So this event is close to my heart. Grand Rapids has several pieces of art in the heart of Downtown.

Our City center has a Big Sculpture, and Calder painted the top of one of the City Buildings, which one can see plainly here from Bing =

Also a big sculpture park that has some huge pieces. This one was designed by Leonardo DaVinci

This is a recent article on the topic.

Grand Rapids, MI, home to the world-class Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, is making waves in the art world with ArtPrize, arguably the world’s largest art award competition. Aimed at bringing the works of international and national artists to Grand Rapids this fall, the competition will award $449,000 to 10 entrants. The winner receives $250,000 followed by $100,000 to second place and $50,000 to third. The remaining seven runners-up receive $7,000 each.

The chance to showcase their art and snag a remunerative prize attracted more than 700 artists from as far as Israel and Ecuador, New York and California by a July 31 deadline. Their works, which range from mixed media and sculpture to video and performance art, will spread across three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids, Sept. 23 through Oct. 10. Winners will be announced Oct. 8. Voting the first week of the event determines who makes it to the finals the second week.

Who decides? The viewers do. In this age of I-Phones and Blackberries, voting will be through text messaging and at a website. Voters must first register for an ID in person at the event to cast their choice.

To people who question whether the public instead of curators and art critics should have the final say, ArtPrize creator Rick DeVos, Grand Rapids, explained this competition is different. “The event is about conversation. I want to get people talking about art forms and make contact with the artists,” DeVos said. An appreciator of the visual and cultural expressions aired at Sundance and other noted film festivals, DeVos first considered film but concluded that venues would limit the entries and that the event might merely copy other festivals.

“I wanted to do something that is different and totally open, something that embraces all different types of expressions and venues,” he said. “Voting is a means to an end. That end is to get people out in the street, to come here and see places they’ve not seen before. I want people to react to it,” DeVos said.

What: ArtPrize
When: Sept. 23-Oct.10
Where: Downtown Grand Rapids, MI

Check It out….. www.artprize.org

Dynamics SL Integrated With Dynamics CRM Video

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:47:56 GMT

Integrating Customer Records between Dynamics SL (@MSDynamicsSL) and Dynamics CRM (@MSDynamicsCRM) demonstrated. Here is a short video (8 Minutes) that shows how the Customer / Account integration works.

Scribe Software is Releasing of Insight 6.5.2. #ScribeSoft

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:03:12 GMT

There were several performance issues that were effecting some users. So they rolled them into a hot fix. The major issue was The 6.5.0 implementation was a breaking change in that pre-6.5.0 Update Source only fired on success; and 6.5.0 fired Update Source always). 6.5.2 will revert this breaking change by allowing you to to toggle when and how you want Update Source to fire (with the default being the legacy pre-6.5.0 behavior).

Plus they added a new feature in response to user requests.

One of the new items for 6.5.2 will be to allow users to toggle behavior around Update Source. Prior to 6.5.0, Update Source only fired if the row succeeded. 6.5.0 changed this behavior to fire Update Source when an error occurs

Complete details can be found at: https://openmind.scribesoftware.com/download/ReleaseNotes652ScribeInsight

Dynamics SL Project Series Integrated Into Dynamics CRM Video

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:51:57 GMT

Here is a quick peek at the CRM project object in CRM. You will get a feel for how the SL Project Data shows up in CRM. It will give you a flavor of how one can use Project in CRM to attach activities in CRM. Click here for more information about EHTC's Dynamics LS Project Series integration with CRM: http://www.ehtc.com/ehtc/infuse.htm

If Microsoft Made A Toaster... Oh Wait They Did

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:39:16 GMT

If Microsoft made a toaster…….
Fill in your own joke here…..

What is xRM?

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:22:41 GMT

Bing and Twitter Combine for Something Very Cool.

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:00:45 GMT

Stumbled across this the other day. http://BingTweets.com

Very interesting!

Microsoft Virtual Server and VMware Compatibility with Microsoft Dynamics SL Question Answered

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:54:42 GMT

The official line from MSFT on this question...

From a recent support case:

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and VMware have not been tested for use with Microsoft Dynamics SL. We do not support Virtual Server 2005 or VMware for use with the following versions of Microsoft Dynamics SL:

•	Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0
•	Microsoft Dynamics SL 6.5
•	Microsoft Business Solutions - Solomon 6.0

We have customers that are running SL 6.5 in a virtualized environment without issue as well as have customers looking to setup this environment for SL7.

The expectation we set with our customers is to share what Microsoft states as their supported platforms. We explain using a unsupported environment (VMWARE) they open themselves to the possibility that Microsoft tech support will not help them. Ultimately, it’s a business decision and a risk analysis for our customers. Because technically speaking, Microsoft does not support the application on that platform.

Check out BingTweets about Dynamics SL VMware http://bit.ly/1ojpli - you may want to look before you leap.

View Dynamics SL @msdynamicssl to Dynamics CRM - @msdynamicscrm Sales Order Integration Video

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:34:41 GMT

Here is a quick demo of CRM to SL’s bi-directional integration. I am working on getting videos of all the major aspects of how the integration behaves. Short and sweet and to the point (~5 minutes)

You will see a few more of these in the next few weeks.

Customer Integration
Inventory Integration
Infuse Configuration Utility
Project Integration
How Scribe is set up

Love Channel 9 Videos

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:12:00 GMT

One of the sites I use to keep up to date on the evolution of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is Channel 9. This is a guerilla video blog taken by various MSFT staffers relative to every aspect of the the Microsoft world. From campus culture, to partners, to deep technical details of current work happening in Redmond.

If you are interested in seeing what I tune into while I am doing the dishes at home, this is it:

http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/CRM/

Pierre Hulsebus Will Be Presenting at CRMUG Summit 2009

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:52:51 GMT

@CRMUG I will be delivering a session on CRM Integration and Migration strategies and methods with help from Scribe and some of the other solutions. Additionally, we will be assisting with a few interactive sessions. More details to come. Please reserve this date. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet with Dynamics CRM experts, and customers from around the country. Very inexpensive considering the content.

The CRMUG Summit occurs September 14 - 18
near Chicago, Illinois.

Have you registered yet?

Early Bird Pricing Ends June 30th!
Take Advantage of this Significant Discount!

Excitement is building for CRMUG Summit 2009. Many of your peers have already taken advantage of the "Early Bird Special", saving them $100 off the cost of regular registration. Don't let this incredible savings opportunity pass you by! Register today!

CRMUG Summit is the best conference value by far, hands down!
Early bird registration includes all sessions and meals too! Hotel and airfare costs are reasonable. You get three days to interact with peers, discuss business trends, find solutions, talk to Microsoft executives, shop the new add-ons, and make valuable connections - all for under $1200!

CRMUG Summit is the only conference dedicated to USERS!
As the only user conference dedicated to Dynamics CRM, everyone you meet is a user, so everyone has someone to learn from and share with. This is your opportunity to join in the discussion with the thought leaders in your community, to address current topics, see the newest product developments, and share new insights toward solving your business challenges. That is what we call USER dedication!

Still need help convincing your colleagues that attending the CRMUG Summit is a "must have" for the continued growth, development and prosperity of your organization? Check out our Attendee Tools, including testimonials, suggested letters to your boss, and a top 10 list of the best reasons to attend, all developed to help persuade even the most frugal employers.

CRM Evolution Speaking Engagement

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:58:09 GMT

Hey folks I will be speaking at the CRM Evolution 2009 Conference, August 24-26, 2009 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. I am are scheduled to speak in the following session. I hope to see you there, looking forward to eating BBQ at Virgil’s.

The link to register is https://secure.infotoday.com/forms/default.aspx?form=crm2009speakers
The link for more information about CRM Evolution 2009 is: http://www.CRMevolution2009.com
Save up to $600 off your conference pass AND receive a FREE BlackBerry Smartphone or receive a FREE Expo pass.
Your special savings code is: SPEAK09

August 26, 2009

9:00 AM - 9:45 AM

A301a: Managing a Complex

CRM/ERP Integration Team

This session will go over the evolution of a complex CRM/ERP integration for a publicly traded midmarket organization. From choosing the correct platform to installations, data migration, and ongoing support, this session will address how the system is built and what it takes to keep it going and growing with the company's ever-changing customer expectations.

Hope to see you all there.

Adding Total Invoiced Data To Microsoft Dynamics CRM Account Record

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:38:20 GMT

This came up today during our Dynamics SL user group meeting. How can we simply build a marketing list based on total orders? This is a good question as the advanced find is unable to do any math functions. I can pick a specific set of customers based on what specifically they have ordered, but if I want to group or sort customers based on the total amount invoiced, that is going to be a problem.

A simple workflow and a single custom field can do the trick. Mitch Milam addressed this issue on the CRM team blog a year ago. Here is excerpts from the article that can be read at

http://community.dynamics.com/blogs/crmmitchmilam/comments/10601.aspx

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you haven't spent much time reviewing CRM 4.0 workflows, you should. You can perform some amazing things without ever writing code. Let's perform the exact same steps using CRM 4.0 workflow.

First, we create a workflow based on the Invoice Entity that has the following properties:

Step 1: Create a Check Condition using the following information:

Step 2: Add and Update Record step, on the Related Entity Customer (Account):

Step 3: Click the Set Properties button, then set the Total Invoiced Attribute to the following:

Note: Total Invoiced is a custom Money Field.

By using the Increment by Operator, we are able to increment any existing Total Invoiced amount by the amount found in the Invoice's Total Amount field.

Final Step:

Save and Publish this workflow.

Conclusion:

So, is there a difference between these techniques? Not really. Both accomplish the job in a very similar manner but the Workflow solution requires zero code maintenance and a normal user or administrator can create the workflow.

The biggest difference between the two techniques is in the timing of the actual update. Plugins can be executed either Synchronously or Asynchronously. Workflows function in an asynchronous manner.

The Synchronous operation will modify the data stream as it is being saved to the database, which can introduce a delay in the user's experience, but will provide results back to the user in a quicker fashion.

Asynchronous operations will happen shortly after the data has been saved which will not impact the user, but which may result in a slight delay between the time the user saved the record and when the value will be updated.

If you can live with the time delay, I feel that workflow is the way to go, in most cases. If you can't, then download the SDK and start working through their examples.

How to Create a CRM Quick Campaign With Embedded Images

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:03:39 GMT

Here is a quick 9 minute video on how to create an e-mail message in a CRM Quick campaign with an embedded image.

To use this method you will need to download Windows Live writer => http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?sa=976584514

Working on GTD Skills (GETTING THINGS DONE)

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:25:10 GMT

This is an uphill journey with many stops and starts. However I am determined to “Just Keep Swimming.”

I got to give a big thanks to #Tweekly and @GTDCoachKelly I sat thru her tweekly review #tweekly: http://tinyurl.com/pl8y7a A training class delivered over Twitter. Is this the shape of things to come?

Twitter is an amazing tool that I am getting to know even better. I just need to use it a bit more, get over all of the acronyms.

Great Article on Value of Integrated CRM and ERP Systems

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:09:00 GMT

Congrats to Jill Dyche (http://twitter.com/jilldyche) on the fantastic article on Destination CRM blog. => http://www.destinationcrmblog.com/2009/05/19/guest-blog-the-mdm-forum-tom-siebel-sends-his-regrets/.

Jill wrote the CRM handbook. She has laid out a consistent message of CRM as a data federation tool, pushing and pulling data into various systems. This is what I am passionate about -- integrating ERP systems into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, our work every day. Thanks Jill for the reminder that we are on the right track.

Also kudos to Josh Weinberger editor of CRM Magazine for reminding us why staying in the lead is so hard. Because according to Tom Seibel, Cloud Computing was a failed business model.

“CRM: Do you believe the hosting model for CRM like the one promoted by Salesforce.com is a threat to vendors like Siebel?

Siebel: They’re not in my consideration as a competitor. I believe I have never encountered them competitively in nine years. And I am absolutely satisfied that they do not have a viable business model. “

Scribe Tip # 24 – Managing Complex Formulas in the Workbench

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:58:00 GMT

Another method that I use is to save complex parts of the formula as user variables. So in this formula I am trying to figure out the default Ship VIA method on a customer. So my rule is going to be to look up the specific value in the pick list mapping table, and if you can’t find it there use a default value we have in another table .

Basically if A=Null use B, else use A.

I found that Scribe and the CRM API does not deal with a NULL value well. So I have used this model for all my picklist mappings. So If(IsError (A,B,A)) This will tell us A if the value is valid but if it returns a NULL then B will be used.

So here is how it looks: Complex Version:

If(Iserror(
DBLOOKUP2( S76,
"OrderShippingMethodCode.ShipViaID" , "I", "InfuseMappingCRMtoSolomon", "FromValue", "Entity", "ToValue" )),

Dblookup2("Solomon",
                   "ShipViaID","I","InfuseSettings","System","FieldName","FieldValue",
        DBLOOKUP2( S76,
                    "OrderShippingMethodCode.ShipViaID" , "I", "InfuseMappingCRMtoSolomon", "FromValue", "Entity", "ToValue" ))

Simple Version:

If(Iserror(CRM2SolShipViaID), DefaultShipViaID, CRM2SolShipViaID)

Each DBlookup is made into a Variable, and then this becomes a much simpler formula to work with, and modify.

Scribe Tip of the Day

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:56:45 GMT

From the Scribe Idea Forum:

Likely the steepest learning curve with Scribe is in using formulas and most development work and troubleshooting is often focused around formulas as well. If the UI for the formula entry could be enhanced to make the structure of the formula more transparent, it would greatly help in these areas.

Even introducing support for Carriage Return and Tab in the formula text that would allow you to build the formula text split into lines and tabbed to reflect the structure of the logical operators would help quite a bit.

Answer:

One helpful capability along this line is that you can use <CTRL><ENTER> to add a carriage return to a data formula. Here is an example of how we are using this to construct complex formulas in the workbench.

Next post will be on Managing Complex Formulas Using User Variables.

Thanks Michael B for the reminder.

Dumbest Microsoft Message Of The Day - Wait about a Week to allow the file to be downloaded

pierreh@ehtc.com (Pierre Hulsebus) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:07:36 GMT

I am trying to fix my personal copy of CRM and Microsoft Office 2007. I was missing the tool bar so I reinstalled. Bad move... now it doesn’t work at all. So support directed me, after other attempts, to run the Microsoft Office Diagnostics - a very nifty tool that checks and repairs most common Office issues. One thing it did though was try to connect to my other MSO apps and it had some issues. It was Unable to Access a Required File.

So I got this message:

Wait a Week? I have never seen that. “Wait about a Week to allow the file to be downloaded.” I guess I now have to wait ABOUT a week, till someone in Redmond finishes up the file, then posts it, and then I’ll check back in to see if it works then, weird.