Workflow Process "Save As" functionality in Dynamics CRM 2011

Often there is a need to create a complex Process (workflow) and then shortly thereafter, recreate it with slightly different parameters. Dynamics CRM does not come with a "Save as" mechanism for workflows like it does for advanced finds and Views so it would seem you would have to go in and recreate the new workflow to match the one that already exists. There is a better (read 'easier') way!

 

Recently a customer had a need for the creation of multiple views (27 to be exact) and accompanying
workflows that could be run on demand to affect just the records in these views. The views were fairly easy to recreate as only one piece of data in the grid was changed and after creating one and doing a "Save As" for the other 26, the process was straight forward.

 

The workflows were not quite that easy to create but very simple to duplicate. Each workflow did
essentially the same thing (set a completion date on an entity after some validity checking) but each view represented a different date field on that entity. What we did was create a workflow for the first view and instead of saving with the ‘Activate As” value of "Process”, we saved it as a "Process Template”. We published this and as we created the other workflows, we simply chose to base them on this template.

 

All that needed to be done with this new workflow was to change the values being looked at in the
steps that determined if an update was required and also change the field that was being updated. After the 26 “copies” were made, we unpublished the original "template" workflow, set the “Active As” to “Process" resaved it and we had all 27 workflows done in a very short time.

 

As an additional benefit, all of the commenting of the workflow was identical so the end result was in a consistent form.

Processes at the Center of the Microsoft CRM December 2012 Service Update

Microsoft announced details of the new December 2012 Service Update, and processes, not lists and forms, are at the center of the new design.  The release, formerly called ‘Polaris’, is the first in a series of upcoming releases in planning and development. Microsoft CRM Product Marketing Director David Pennington, through the Microsoft CRM Product blog, noted that this release:

….reimagines the way sales and customer service professionals work with CRM. We're moving away from the traditional data-centric lists and forms approach, this service update will add new user experiences that simply and visually guide users through their business processes.

Safeguarding Access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online

• What if your CRM account was suddenly locked out without a way to re-set it?
• What if someone sold your customer list to a competitor– or to a spammer? How would that affect your relationship with those customers?
• What if someone started changing prices on quotes orders or invoices?  What if it looked like you were the person making these malicious changes?

Almost weekly we hear stories of data security breaches and the growing number of parties (amateur, criminal, and state-sponsored) interested in accessing as much information as possible. It is critical to take a few steps to ensure your own (and your users’) security within all your online accounts, especially Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is built on a strong and secure platform and there are extensive safeguards in place to ensure your data security. However, the best security is only as good as its weakest link – and not surprisingly, as users, we are the weakest link.

There are, fortunately, some relatively simple behaviors every CRM user should follow to ensure they aren’t the weakest link.

CRM Online Account Recovery Protection

Customer Effective Can Build You a Highly Tailored Trial of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Since the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, Microsoft has encouraged users to a 30-day free trial of CRM.  And this has been successful in demonstrating key features like Outlook integration, sales productivity, analytics, service productivity, and basic marketing automation.  But extended features, like data mart and communication platform integration, have not been readily available in trial demos.  Thanks to Microsoft’s recent release of Demo Builder, these features and other, are available by running a ClickOnce application. 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM: By the Numbers

The 16th version of Microsoft Dynamics Convergence has come and gone and below are some numbers I have collected from various sources and speakers this week. Taken as a whole, these speak to the remarkable momentum Microsoft CRM (as well as Microsoft and Dynamics in general) is experiencing right now.

9,000,000,000: Amount of dollars that Microsoft invests in R&D annually. That is $3 billion more than its closest competitor in technology, and ranks Microsoft as the number 1 or 2 for any company in any industry in the world .

2,250,000: Microsoft CRM users worldwide.

CRM 2011 - iFrames & Saving

After spending time on several of the CRM forums, I noticed a few people having trouble with iFrames and saving data inside of the iFrame. While a forum post is a little difficult to write a full response, I wanted to share some insight on capturing the form save event to then trigger a save event inside of your iFrame.

From a business case, this is a fantastic way to tie multiple systems together. If all you are doing is syncing data, then look first at a plugin or scribe. However, if you are looking for the user to interact with multiple systems simultaneously, then an iFrame is a wonderful way to integrated with an existing system. A good example might be where CRM is only storing the summary information and the iFrame contains the details. The user may update the details which should save both the CRM record and the details of the web site.

Jscript Pop-up in Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Internet Explorer vs. Outlook

Occasionally when developing custom solutions in CRM, there will be a need to open a new window from Jscript. Typically the window.open function is used to accomplish this, but this is not always ideal in CRM.

Consider developing a custom solution in CRM where you need to open another CRM record in a new window. In the web interface of CRM the window.open function works fine, but what about the Outlook integration functionality? Well, in On-Premise this doesn’t pose a big issue because Internet Explorer will typically use your logged in account to authenticate with CRM. But what if you are not using On-Premise, or what if you have another set of logins specifically for CRM in your Active Directory environment (not sure why you would, but it could happen).

Outlook allows a user to cache their credentials to allow communication with the CRM environment without having to log in every time. However, if you open a new window using the standard Jscript window.open function, it will open your window in Internet Explorer not Outlook. In situations where you have to log in to reach CRM (i.e. not using On-Premise with your standard Active Directory account), this will require the user to enter their credentials before opening the correct page. This really disrupts the flow of any process, and is annoying and confusing to end users.

Luckily, Microsoft provided a function to handle this situation (although it is undocumented). There is an openStdWin function that is a part of the CRM Jscript implementation that will check to determine if the user is using Outlook or Internet Explorer, and open the new window in the appropriate format. The following code displays the way this functions:

function openNewWindow(url) {
var name = "newWindow";
var width = 800;
var height = 600;
var newWindowFeatures = "status=1";
var oldWindowFeatures = "width=800,height=600,status=1";
// Regular Jscript function to open a new window
//window.open(url, name, oldWindowFeatures);

// CRM function to open a new window
openStdWin(url, name, width, height, newWindowFeatures);
// CRM function to open a new window
// with default CRM parameters
//openStdWin(url, name);
}

One point to note, if you simply pass the url and name to the openStdWin function and leave off the width, height, and windowFeatures, the window will be opened with the same parameters that regular CRM windows are opened with. (i.e. same width and height as a standard CRM pop-up with no address bar, but with the status bar and resizable)

Now you don’t have to worry if the user is in Outlook or Internet Explorer, your pop-up window will open correctly. Enjoy!

Notice: openStdWin is an internal function of CRM and may change at any given point without notice.

Activating a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online Trial

Setting up a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online trial is easy enough to do (which is very nice) and it happens fairly quickly (usually within 15 minutes).  The focus of this blog is what to do when you wantto activate the trial subscription.  It will also cover steps needed to change the billing administrator and billing delegates for the CRM Online instance.

You must be the billing administrator for your CRM Online instance to be able to activate your online trial.  Whoever setup the trial initially is designated as the billing administrator.  See the Additional Notes area below for more details about the billing administrator and how to change it.  Billing delegates can be setup and can manage the billing preferences after initial setup.

There are a couple of ways to activate your subscription.  If you haven’t closed the message bar and it still appears in the CRM application window, you can simply click “Activate Now” in the gold message bar.

I have found that most people close the gold notification bar so I will explain where you can find Activation in the user interface.  Click on “Settings” in the wunderbar, then click “Administration” in the left navigation, and then click “Subscription Management” on the right.  The links are highlighted in the screen shot below.

At the bottom of the Subscription Management information is a button named “View Offers” In the Offer Management section.

After clicking the “View Offers” button, you will be presented with the screen below.

Click “OK” and you will be redirected to the Windows Live login page.  The reason for this is you are now logging into another system for the billing information.  You will be directed to the following screen which is Step 1 of the activation process.



Please read and the Subscription Terms information and check the “I accept …” check box.  When complete, click the “I Accept” button.  You will be brought to Step 2.

Enter your contact information and click Next.  You will be brought to Step 3.

Fill in your credit card information and verify the billing address information for the credit card.  Then click “Next”.

Step 4 is the confirmation page and you will have successfully activated your CRM 2011 Online subscription.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
There are a couple of important notes you should be aware of concerning your CRM 2011 online subscription and the billing administrator setup for your account.

Billing Administrator:
There can be only one billing administrator for a CRM 2011 Online instance but there can be multiple billing delegates which can be setup later.  If you are in the habit of setting up environments for your customers, this means you are the default billing administrator. 
The billing administrator must be a user in CRM so please make sure that person is setup as a user before calling Microsoft to change the billing administrator for your CRM instance.  Changes made to the billing administrator should take effect about 15 minutes after it is made by Microsoft.  You can contact Microsoft using the phone number below.

I hope this clears some things up.

Support U.S./Canada Toll-Free
877-CRM-CHOICE
(877-276-2464)

http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/contact-us

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Security

So you are evaluating Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, and determining whether you should make the investment in servers and install on premises, or go to the cloud with CRM Online.

One of the top questions in your mind may be security—if we don’t install on premises, what will happen to my data?

Microsoft recently published a 15 page white paper that details the security features of CRM Online.  It includes an overview of application security, but also details about the security of Microsoft’s hosted offering:

• Security for Hosted Products
• Hardening process
• Accountability
• Back-end infrastructure and network features
• Back-up
• SLA

It’s great to see Microsoft provide some transparency into what they do to help give their customers piece of mind, and that with CRM Online, your data may actually be more secure than it would be on premises.

Download the whitepaper here.

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