Microsoft Dynamics CRM Update Rollup 7

Today, along with releasing Windows 7, Microsoft has also released Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 Update Rollup 7.  Besides including updates fixes for the server and other components, UR 7 also includes a new improved Outlook client.  Like Windows 7 is to Vista, Update Rollup 7 is to CRM for Outlook—it does the same thing but does it better, faster, and with less annoyance to users.  I’m especially excited about the fast Outlook startup and support for delegated Exchange accounts, so an Assistant can manage appointments for other users.  Also, auto update functionality will be usable by a wider number of companies, since updates will no longer require local admin permissions.  I’m also excited that it now works with Outlook 2010, so I can start using the Outlook 2010 beta.

Here is a full list of improvements to CRM for Outlook, from our friends at the Microsoft CRM Team blog.

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook now loads in the background. This enables users to read e-mail messages before Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook is fully loaded.
• E-mail tagging now runs in the background. This improves Outlook performance, especially for users who have a large number of tracked e-mail messages in their inbox.
• CRM Address Book Provider (ABP) run-time storage of in-memory ABP XML has been moved to a Microsoft SQL Server CE in-memory representation. This helps manage CRM address book data more efficiently.
• State management logic has been improved. This enables Microsoft Dynamics CRM to handle network, authentication, sleep, and hibernation transitions more efficiently without requiring users to restart Outlook for each transition. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Laptop Client now automatically transitions to offline mode when a remote Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server cannot be contacted (as long as user has gone offline at least once in past). It automatically switches back to online mode when the connection is restored.
• Outlook synchronization now runs in the background and has significant performance improvements in terms of numbers of records synchronized per minute.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook now supports Outlook delegates.  If an Outlook user is a delegate for another Outlook user, the delegate can mark items for tracking in the primary user's inbox. The Exchange Server stores the tracking information until the primary user starts Outlook. At that time, Microsoft Dynamics CRM verifies the data and then synchronizes with Outlook.
• Manually synchronizing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM produces item-level failure details. The synchronization code now handles row-level failures in a way that does not cause the entire synchronization process to fail. Also, the synchronization progress dialog box now displays the list of specific record-level failures.
• The synchronization process is now optimized to help prevent synchronization failures from damaging the offline database.
• The synchronization process has been improved to ensure that changes made to CRM tracked records inside Outlook are propagated to CRM server even when CRM addin is not active (e.g. – via OWA or when addin is in disabled state).

Setup and configuration

• Background Intelligence Transfer Service (BITS) has been implemented to improve component download performance.
• Configuration Wizard now starts automatically when the user restarts Outlook after Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook is installed. An ability to auto-configure CRM for Outlook has been added via use of config.xml file.
• The number of Configuration Wizard screens has been reduced and the overall configuration process is simpler.
• After Update Rollup 7 is installed, updates will no longer require the user to have Administrator privileges on the client computer.
• A download button has been added for CRM Outlook client in application web UI to help users discover the right client for their deployment type. Additional flexibility has been enabled for organizations to modify the download package in a manner that enables them to package CRM configuration information specific to their organization (Please refer to KB 2004601 that will be published shortly)
• Silent unattended installations of CRM via SMS has been enabled by adding support for MIF files and removing the need for end users to be logged into the machine during laptop client deployment.

This will be the new baseline for the CRM client—all future updates will require this release, and there will be a new version of the client installer released with this build, so you don’t have to install Rollup on new installs.

del.icio.us Tags: CRM for Outlook

Comments

[Jason Garrett]

Applied Rollup 7, and so far, everything is working really well. Outlook experience has improved greatly, with a number of issues resolved. Recommend this rollup to everyone!