CRM Rocks! EHTC CRM Team Blog.

Pierre Hulsebus Will Be Presenting at CRMUG Summit 2009

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!

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CRM Evolution Speaking Engagement

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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.

Microsoft Dynamics SL Project Series Integration With Dynamics CRM

Pierre Hulsebus — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:36:43 GMT

The Right Information in the Right Hands

Dynamics SL has won awards for its project management and accounting capabilities and industry experts continue to talk about why Dynamics CRM is becoming the industry leader for customer relationship management. They are valuable tools operating alone, but they really shine when they are working together. For a project-driven company, think of the possibilities if you could initiate a project in Dynamics SL when you complete a sale in Dynamics CRM. What if you could track all the communication activities related to a project, as they happen, in Dynamics CRM? And how much more efficient and effective could you be if you had visibility into the status of a project while the customer was on the phone asking about it? Image what it would be like if the right people had access to the right information at the right time. Infuse has been providing benefits like these to distribution-focused companies for nearly five years; now we are extending them to project-driven companies as well.

What we are doing is pulling the Project details from SL into a Custom CRM Object. We are exposing the key fields from the Project Maintenance Screen in SL:

Additionally we are bringing over the the Budget to Actual amounts – we think Account Managers would be interested in this summary information. Also, the CRM workflow engine could use these fields to help manage some CRM notifications when numbers go negative, or over budget.

SL Project Series customers are also using Business Portal combined with CRM’s iFrame technology which will allow us to drill into details on the SL project Tasks to get the transactional details right from the CRM Project Screen.

SL Project can be configured to set up a SharePoint site specifically for the Project. Our customization is built to also point to the project SharePoint Site. This allows the entire team to go to one place in CRM to view the Project status, and manage all of the related documents.

There is more to come on this integration. In Beta now we are working through the details to get project propagation to start in CRM, and also generate project Vouchers, or allow CRM service activities and Cases to post time against the SL project - that part is still in development.

I seriously think that this solution has a real potential to increase the adoption of SL and CRM in organizations that are considering Microsoft as an alternative to more legacy Project Accounting solutions that have an integrated CRM system like Deltek.

Speaking at The CRM Evolution 2009 Conference - Topic: Integration

Pierre Hulsebus — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:46:22 GMT

I have been confirmed to be a speaker at the CRM Evolution 2009 Conference, which is August 24-26, 2009 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.

I am scheduled to speak in the following session:

August 26, 2009

9:00 AM - 9:45 AM

A301a: Managing a Complex CRM/ERP Integration Team

Pierre Hulsebus

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.

The Link to see what the conference is all about => http://www.destinationcrm.com/conferences/2009/

It is sponsored by CRM Magazine and about 30 other CRM industry players. Stay tuned for details on what customer of ours will be named in this presentation, we have to get all the clearances still, lawyers run our lives.

Needless to say the Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Dynamics SL, Scribe folks will all be pleased with the content. Maybe I will get a free Microsoft pen.

Dynamics CRM 4.0 Accelerators Boost Your Competitiveness

Pierre Hulsebus — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:24:00 GMT

Dynamics CRM 4.0 Accelerators boost your competitiveness by delivering functionality that is not available out-of-the-box today with CRM version 4.0. The release of these Accelerators demonstrates Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to drive innovation in between major releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Use these Accelerators to shorten your sales cycle and further leverage your investment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The current release of Accelerators for Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes the following:

Analytics: Extends business intelligence for Microsoft Dynamics CRM by delivering sales, service and operations dashboards
Event Management: New functionality to plan, create, execute, and review events
E-Service Portal: A configurable self-service portal for enhanced customer service through Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Enterprise Search: Rapidly configure portal views of CRM data within SharePoint (MOSS) and expose this data to MOSS enterprise search
Extended Sales Forecasting: Enhanced sales forecasting mechanism for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
CRM Notifications: Newsfeeds (RSS) that allow users to subscribe to CRM “events” relevant to their job role
Business Productivity: A collection of time-saving productivity customizations for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
Sales Methodologies: Practical Guidance for adoption of third-party sales methodologies such as SPI Solution Selling, Target Account Selling (TAS) and Miller Heiman

Ready to put Accelerators to use for your business? Contact me (pierreh@ehtc.com) for a demonstration.

You can download the presentation here.

Upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 – Convergence Session Redux

Pierre Hulsebus — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:00:00 GMT

4/16/2009, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time – http://www.crmug.com

As you may know I am part of the team that provides technical expertise to the CRM User Group. This national organization meets online several times a month, provides session content during Convergence, and during our own conference in the fall. We have been redoing several sessions for members that did not get to Convergence. This session will focus on feature differences between 3.0 and 4.0, and upgrade best practices.

So if you haven't upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 yet... Wondering why you should? Need to build a better business case? Already upgraded and want to share your experience or resolve an issue? Every installation is different - so join us to discuss the upgrade process and what version 4.0 offers. Share approaches for testing, training, and go-live. Review the Outlook client setup. And discover resources to help your upgrade go smoother and quicker.

Did you miss Convergence? No need to miss any of the great CRMUG breakout sessions - so join us for an encore performance of this popular CRMUG breakout session from Convergence. This redux is an expanded version of the session that I did at Convergence. So if you missed it please see if you can attend.

If you haven’t considered joining the CRMUG please do so. You will find it to be a fantastic value.

5 Cool New Features in Scribe Insight 6.5

Pierre Hulsebus — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:08:25 GMT

Scribe just released a new edition. I have been running Scribe for about 6 years now, been doing this too long. Here are 5 new important features that will help reduce the time it take to build DTS's. Plus it gives them a chance to sport the new logo.

1) Added ability to rename target steps

Historically, the Scribe Workbench generated generic names for target steps created by the user. With Scribe Insight 6.5, you can now change the default name to something more meaningful to you. When you add an insert step you now have the option of naming the new step and adding a comment. Existing steps can also be renamed and the comments can be edited. To rename an existing step, in the Configure Target Adapter window, click on the step you want to edit, and click Rename Selected Step. This opens the Step Name dialog box where you can edit the step name and comments.

2) Enhanced step copy

Step copy now includes lookup and data link mappings from the original step as part of the copied step. I will be loving this as we have to tailor the DTS's to repeat the same steps for each price list. So it gets very busy to do it over and over and over. Here is why (http://blog.solomon2crm.com/2008/11/25/rgtsl-to-crm-multi-currency-part-1.aspx).

3) Added ability to refresh data without having to close and re-open the Workbench in the Scribe Workbench

A Refresh button in the Test dialog box lets you refresh your source data without having to close and re-open the Workbench.

4) Added ability to script values to use when updating source data upon integration completion

In the Configure Source dialog box, click Update Source. This opens the Update/Delete Source Rows dialog box. Click Insert Formula to open the Formula Editor where you can create and insert a formula. Formulas that you create and enter in this way are not checked or verified before being inserted, so please be careful.

Currently there is an update source functionality when connecting to the source. If the source is updatable and the source keys are set then you are also able to update any source fields, especially XML messages, with the error message returned by the target whenever there is an error recorded. This will keep the error description within the source file and be easily reported back to the source system instantly. Added functionality also gives the option to automatically update a date field in the source with the date the record is successfully integrated.

5) GetRowError( ) function added to Formula Editor

The GetRowError() function returns the error for the target row being processed if there is a problem or if there is an empty string after the row was processed successfully. GetRowError() can be used to update a field in the source with the error for the target row.

Salesforce.com Downgraded

Pierre Hulsebus — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:18:19 GMT

Barrons is reporting that Goldman is recommending selling off your Salesforce.com shares. It's trading and $32 but its target price should be $23 – that is a 30% drop. But since when is this news? Marc Benioff, CEO and Founder, has been selling 20,000 shares a day for quite some time. Their stock has tanked over the last year. It was trading north of $70 last year. People are concerned about the effect of the revenue impact of service based apps, also their development platform is not taking off as hoped.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/100465-salesforce-com-pricey-and-coming-down-fast

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2009/04/01/sell-salesforcecom-buy-vmware-goldman-advises/trackback/

Stop or Start All Scribe Services With 1 Click

Pierre Hulsebus — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:48:31 GMT

Scribe Insight Batch Files

Back in the day, we used batch files for tons of stuff, remember edlin? I also remember using Copycon Autoexec.bat to create all the driver loads for NICs and mouse drivers. Oh the memories, no editors - just the command line and an a teenager's imagination. Loading programs into your TRS-80 from a cassette tape; getting your first modem, 1200 bps 2400 bps if you were lucky, all to download Oregon Trail from the local BBS; and talk some smack with the other Star Trek geeks; all the while we listening to the Police and Van Halen.

Well, I have found a good use for them again... to recycle the Scribe Services. So here you go, 2 great batch files to have on your Desktop if you run Scribe Insight.

First to edit a batch file you need to right click on desktop and make a new text file.

Then copy this text into the window.

net Stop "Scribe Monitorserver"
net stop "Scribe MessageServer"
net stop "Scribe EventManager"
net stop "Scribe BridgeServer"
net Stop "scribe AdminServer"

Then save as

StopScribe.bat

Clicking on this file will stop all of the Scribe services on the box.

Now you want to start them up too.

Here is the syntax for that file.

net start "Scribe AdminServer"
net start "Scribe BridgeServer"
net start "Scribe EventManager"
net start "Scribe MessageServer"
net start "Scribe MonitorServer"

Save as

StartScribe.bat

Now you have 2 icons on your desktop that will allow you to stop or start the Scribe Services with 1 click.

Note that the order of the start up and shut down process are important. If you do it from the services control panel you start from the top down, and stop from the bottom up.

Just Out from Microsoft Today April 1st – Looks Promising

Pierre Hulsebus — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:45:25 GMT

Surface Computer Demos

Pierre Hulsebus — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:35:34 GMT

I read the Microsoft Surface Team product blog. It always has cool stuff.

Financial Services demo-

Physics Engine Demo -

DaVinci (Microsoft Surface Physics Illustrator) from Razorfish - Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

The best of all – The Parody Ad

Microsoft Operations Center Closed Due to Flooding

Pierre Hulsebus — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:32:54 GMT

From Microsoft Yesterday.

“Please be advised that the Americas Operations Center (AOC) for Microsoft Dynamics based in Fargo, North Dakota (USA) is currently experiencing extreme flooding and winter storm conditions that are expected to continue in the area over the next 6 days. Due to the gravity of this situation and for the safety of all AOC personnel, the physical business offices will be closing this afternoon and operating remotely with contingency staff off-site through tomorrow Friday March 27^th 2009 to enable employees to focus on flood efforts.”

Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends at Microsoft in Fargo.

Scribe Updates their Community Portal

Pierre Hulsebus — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:51:08 GMT

Directly from Scribe

“The Answerbook has been transitioned to the new Scribe Knowledge Base"

In speaking with our partners and customers over the past months the #1 request in support has been for us to offer more tools for you to help yourself. In response to this request one of the key changes we're making is to implement a new knowledge base as forums in OpenMind the week of 2/16/09. The key improvements to the new knowledge base are:

Cleaner and more relevant knowledgebase articles
Consolidated resources from multiple locations into one location: former Answerbook articles, technical workshop library, and the discussion forum
Better search capability, syntax help and meta tag clouds for quick reference
Scribe monitors will review submitted questions and answers, and once they have been verified the entry will be marked with a "Scribe Approved." This will ensure that readers can tell if content has been officially approved by Scribe, or if it is a helpful suggestion not yet verified by scribe.

All partners and customers can view the knowledge base in read-only mode without a login. Users with a login to OpenMind will be able to post questions and replies, get notified of additions to a chosen topic, and more. We have created a brief tutorial that describes how the new knowledge base works. View the tutorial now. Or visit OpenMind and the new knowledge base now.

Also In Scribe News: They just announced that they have hired Microsoft Dynamics channel veteran John Gravely to lead the company’s Marketing and Product Marketing efforts. In his role at Scribe, John will be responsible for understanding market needs and opportunities, ensuring Scribe products meet these needs and opportunities, and communicating Scribe’s value to prospects and customers. In 2001 John founded c360 solutions, a developer of add‐on products, industry solutions and development tools for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. In 2006, John engineered the acquisition of c360 by CDC Software, a division of CDC Corporation (NASDQ: CHINA). As CEO of c360 John grew the company from 2 people to a globally recognized brand with over 2,500 customers in 40+ countries, 800 resellers, products in 8 languages and receipt of the prestigious Microsoft Partner Choice ISV Award for 2005. Prior to starting c360 John was the Eastern Region Consulting Director for the Professional Services team of Onyx Software (currently Consona CRM), a mid‐market CRM provider.

Congrats to John on his new digs in “the Barn” in New Hampshire. The weather this time of year is a bit different from his old office at C360 in Atlanta. Also I want to find out if he was able to get any of that China.com IPO stock from 1999. If you recall CDC was one of the Dot Bomb IPO’s. It went from 20-180 in less than a year, the stock split several time in the first year of trading. It was highly anticipated as it was the first Chinese internet company to list on Nasdaq. The much hyped stock crashed just as fast. By Nov 2000 it had fallen back to 10 bucks. And continued to die a slow death. Friday CDC closed less than a dollar at $ 0.88. Sounds like John made a great move. I have met John at several events and he always engaging. He wrote one of the first Microsoft Dynamics CRM books “Using Microsoft CRM” with Laura Brown. It is sitting right here on my desk, maybe I’ll bring it to Convergence to see if I can get him to sign it.