CRM Outlook Client - Best Practice for Add-In and SQL Server

We had an challenge at a client that I wanted to share so that this challenge, which could have been difficult to resolve, does not happen during a future rollout.  The client spent a substantial amount of time creating scripts that would automatically install and configure the Outlook client on user’s machines. Since most users in their domain do not have sufficient rights to do the installation, this was found to be the most secure and consistent way to roll out the software.  After significant testing, the processed was ironed out and the rollout was begun. 

For the most part, things went as planned but on a couple dozen new computers, the installation would appear to go fine but when the user tried to Go Offline with the Outlook client, an error would appear as it tried to set up the offline database. 

The short answer to how this was resolved is that we had to uninstall the Add-In, uninstall SQL Server Express and reinstall both products.  The issue arose because when the SQL Server Express Addition was originally installed, the computer had one name (i.e. ComputerA) and then after the installation, was renamed (i.e. WorkstationA).  It would be enough to say that it is critical that after the installation of the Add-In with offline mode enabled, the computer name cannot be changed without causing connectivity issues but I thought it important to give you the “Why” behind the “What”.

A little bit about SQL Server

SQL server, regardless of which edition, is always installed into 1 or more instances.  If you choose the default installation, a Default Instance (unnamed) will be created that can be found by simply using the computer name in the connection string.  You can also choose to install multiple named instances so that from one SQL server computer you can have multiple instances of SQL server, each with its own security and operating parameters. This is roughly synonymous to having multiple organization in an installation of Dynamics CRM.

When an instance of SQL server is installed, there is an entry in the sys.servers table. This is one of a number of tables that are used for the internal workings of MS SQL Server and in this case contains metadata about the instances that are a part of this server.  If we create a SQL server computer called SQL1 and then two named instances called instance1 and instance2, the sys.servers table will contain records relating to SQL1\Instance1 and SQL1\Instance2. 

These values are used when a client tries to connect to the named instances as a lookup for the internal connection parameters needed to access data in the given instance.  If I change the name of the computer from SQL1 to SQL2, then when a client subsequently access this table to get to Instance1, the path of the server will still be SQL1\Instance1 in this metadata and the client will not be able to connect to the database.

Back to the Dynamics CRM Add-In

The offline mode of the CRM Add-In creates an instance called CRM in SQL Server Express that is installed when the Add-In is originally installed. This instance is entered in the sys.servers table as [machine-name-at-the-time-of-install]\CRM.  As pointed out above, this data would no longer be accurate if we were to change the name of the computer.

Microsoft has published a work around for fixing this metadata for a full SQL server install and it could be implemented in the Express edition though changing this offline database is not supported.  I have included the link here but think the best course of action is the following.

 

• Make it clear that after installing the Add-In, any changes to the naming of the computer will have adverse effects.
• If a computer is renamed, the Add-In and SQL Express Edition should be removed and reinstalled under the new computer name.

If you must, you can connect up to the MSCRM_MSDE.mdf file (Location in windows 7: Drive: \users\<Username>\local\Microsoft\MSCRM\data\) using a data connection in Visual Studio and enter the queries discussed in the link but I would only do this if there was data in the offline files that had to be synced back to CRM (i.e. the client went into offline mode, changed the computer name, and is now unable to sync those changes back to CRM) and I would make sure I had a current back-up of CRM.

How To See Your CRM Performance Metrics in Outlook Before You Even Open Your Inbox

The other day I received a question from an Executive Sponsor on one of my CRM projects. We recently had been reviewing and modeling the capabilities of Dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. He was obviously impressed and so excited to use them that he asked me if it was possible to see CRM Dashboards immediately upon opening Microsoft Outlook as opposed to first seeing his Inbox. After researching this, I found out you can do this by changing your Outlook settings. I have shared the necessary instructions below for Outlook 2010.

1. While in Outlook, click File in the Upper left and then click Options.

2. Click Advanced and then click Browse.

3. Scroll down and open the folder for your CRM Outlook Client (ours is called “CEIPROD”), open Workplace, open My Work, select Dashboards, and hit OK.

4. Confirm Dashboards appears in the “Start Outlook in this folder” field and hit OK.

5. Close out of Outlook, open it back up and Dashboards should be the first thing you see.  You can always change the default Dashboard for Users based on their unique role in the firm.

6. If you change your mind and want to change back to having your Inbox appear first when you start Outlook, just follow the above and select “Inbox” for Step 3.

To sum up, rather than coming into the office every morning and going through the monotony of seeing how many emails you have to clean up, sort through, and respond to, why not instead be greeted by a much more exciting performance tracking Dashboard, such as the one below?

After all, knowing how your individual, team, office, territory, and overall firm performance stacks up will dictate how you reply and manage your email communications and daily tasks going forward. Essentially, by checking out the Dashboards first thing in your Outlook, you will be more informed and in control of helping yourself, your peers, and your organization get better every day. The personalized quick snapshots will highlight where you need to focus your time and efforts so you can adjust on the fly to get things done faster and more effectively.

For more consultative CRM and strategic voice of the customer tips and tricks for your industry vertical, please visit www.customereffective.com. Lastly, to see and hear firsthand how Microsoft Dynamics CRM working directly within your familiar Outlook application can increase your productivity and performance, please contact info@customereffective.com.

Which Fields Synch from CRM to Outlook Contacts?

CRM to Outlook Contact Synching is one of the most used features of the application, but there are some surprises when you get into the details of the contact synchronization process.

If an organization works to consolidate their contacts into CRM, occasionally multiple users will wind up synching the same contact locally. It’s important to keep this list of fields in mind as you roll out to users since it can cause unexpected data sharing between users, especially if the users are accustomed to using the Outlook “Notes” area for private comments about their relationship with that contact.  If the user enters ‘Notes’ in the outlook contact, those notes will synch to CRM – and will then synch to any other user who is synching that contact locally. – There’s no way to override that behavior with the current version of CRM.

 

The most obvious question is “What Contact fields Synch from CRM to Outlook?”  The following table should be a helpful reference of the fields that synch from CRM to Outlook and vice-versa.

Options for Accessing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (via PC and beyond)

Current access to CRM 2011 (before Update Rollup 9 a.k.a. Release 8)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Client – The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Client is only supported using Internet Explorer (version 7 or higher). You have full access to the application. Supported platforms are Windows XP SP3 or higher. For mail merge and Export to Excel feature support, you will need Microsoft Office (version 2003 SP3 or later, 2007 SP2 or later, or any Office 2010).

Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook Client – CRM for Outlook gives the user full access to CRM through the Outlook interface. The Outlook client has some features unique to it which are different from the browser. Most notably are how views function differently in the Outlook client. Internet Explorer only (version 7 or higher) is a requirement for the CRM for Outlook Client. Supported platforms are Windows XP SP3 or higher. For mail merge and Export to Excel feature support, you will need Microsoft Office (version 2003 SP3 or later, 2007 SP2 or later, or any Office 2010).

A Wizard to Help Troubleshoot Microsoft Dynamics CRM Outlook Client Issues

If you’ve ever helped troubleshoot a balky CRM-Outlook configuration, you know that there are a number of reasons why it might be misbehaving – the ‘cure’ could be locally with the configuration, with Outlook, within a CRM configuration or security.

Our friends in Redmond have released a new tool to help guide customers with Outlook issues to the right instructions to resolve the most common issues.

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/2011/en-us/online/5.0/outlook-troubleshooting.aspx

Outlook 2010: Synchronization logs in Unread Messages folder Microsoft Dynamics CRM

If you use CRM in Outlook 2010, you may see messages like this show up in your “Unread Messages” folder:

First, don’t be alarmed—this is not an error—this is a change in how Outlook 2010 handles logging. However, if you are the kind of user that likes to manage e-mails in the unread messages folder, all of these synchronization log messages can get annoying. Here is how you can filter them out of the Unread Messages folder:

Synching Phonecall Phone Numbers to Outlook in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

If you schedule phone calls in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you will notice that they synchronize to Microsoft Outlook as tasks.  This is great, as you will see them from Outlook, and they will remind you when they are due.

However, you may notice that the phone call task does not include the phone number for the phone call—if it is an outgoing call, if you want to see what number to call, you need to view the phone call in CRM to see the phone number.

Auto-Creating Contacts and Duplicate Detection in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

As we have mentioned in previous posts, one of the new features in CRM 2011 for Outlook is the ability to automatically create new contact records if you track an e-mail with an address that does not exist in CRM.

This feature is turned on by default, and is located toward the bottom of the “E-mail” tab of user settings in CRM for Outlook.

As you plan your roll-out of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you should be aware of the default options and how they may interact with other application features.

One example that I’ve seen with this new feature, is that when you track an e-mail and the system creates a new contact, if duplicate detection is enabled, and the contact being created matches another contact in the system, the duplicate detection process will prevent the contact from being created, and also prevent the e-mail from being tracked.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 – Pre-Populated Emails (Alternative Approach)

Recently, we came across the need for a single-click email feature on the ribbon of a custom entity.  The idea was to be able to share CRM data as quickly and easily as possible.  Another interesting caveat was the client wanted to have the email come directly from Outlook.

For those of you old enough to have used the internet before the iPad, you may recall that fancy-dancy “mailto” feature.  (Granted I’m only 29 but my Omron body age says I’m 50 ).

Back to the point at hand though, CRM already has a few built in email features.  Our situation calls for something a little different.

 

What’s Installed By Default

CRM already has the feature of sending a link to the CRM entity you’re working with.

 

CRM also has a really nice Email Template feature.

 

Which can automatically mail-merge information pertaining to the entity to eliminate any of that “automated” feel.

What We Need

Our situation is somewhat unique, but really we want both features combined.  We want to open a new message like the link feature: inside outlook and with one click.  However, we need more than just the link.  We want to have a brief summary of the call report with a  link to it. 

Here’s an example email of what we’d like to send:

 

Adding the Button

The first thing we need to do is add the button to the ribbon like so:

If you are unfamiliar with the ribbon, Microsoft offers some really nice walkthroughs.  I’d start with http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg334341.aspx.

For our situation, the XML that matters is our Action

<Actions>
   <JavaScriptFunction Library="$webresource:cei_example.js"
                       FunctionName="emailContact" />

</Actions>

 

Adding our JavaScript

At this point, the button should be on the form.  From here, we need to add the JavaScript to open our populated email message.

To do this, add to the Form OnLoad events the following function:

emailContact = function() {
   if (Xrm.Page.data.entity.getId() != null) {
      var sRptID = Xrm.Page.data.entity.getId().replace('{', '').replace('}', '');
      var sLink =  "http://paul.customereffective.com/userdefined/edit.aspx?id=" + sRptID + "&etc=10011";

      var sSubject = 'Contact - ' + Xrm.Page.getAttribute("firstname").getValue() + ' ' + Xrm.Page.getAttribute("lastname").getValue();
      var sCustomer = '';
      if (Xrm.Page.getAttribute("parentcustomerid").getValue().length > 0){
         sCustomer = Xrm.Page.getAttribute("parentcustomerid").getValue()[0].name;
      }
      var sBody = '---\n\nCustomer:\t' + sCustomer + '\n\n' + sLink + '\n\n---';
        
      var sMailTo = 'mailto:?subject=' + escape(sSubject) +
         '&body=' + escape(sBody);

      parent.location=sMailTo;

   } else {  
      alert('You must save the contact before emailing.');
   }
}

 

 

Note: If you change the name of the function, make sure it matches the name inside your Ribbon XML.

 

What about Window.Open

If you use Window.Open to trigger the email (or OpenStdWin), the user will get a blank IE page inside of Outlook. By using the parent.location for your mailto, you’ll have a consistent user experience across IE and Outlook.

 

Seeing the Final Results

Now whenever a user wants to share a call report, they can easily hit the “Email Call Report” button.  Add any of the fields you want. 

For our needs I ended up with the following; however, this technique can add whatever field you’d like.

 

Well this isn’t a tool in the toolbox I’d use daily, it can be valuable when the situation calls for it.  I hope you enjoy!

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.

“Cannot authenticate your credentials” error when configuring Microsoft CRM 2011 for Outlook

A user recently reported that when she was trying to configure Microsoft CRM for Outlook to her CRM Online environment, she would get the following error:

I’ve seen the “Cannot connect to server” error before, but this one was a little bit different because it said it “cannot authenticate credentials.”  She could log on to the web client without issue, so we knew that her credentials were ok.

With the help of Microsoft support, we were able to resolve this error using the following steps:

1.  Log on to Microsoft CRM in a web browser

2.  Copy the full URL from your browser window

3.  Run the CRM configuration wizard (start—>all programs—>Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011)

4.  instead of changing the Server URL to “CRM Online,” just paste the full url to your CRM Online environment to the “Server URL” field, then click “Test Connection” and enter your CRM Online credentials.

Using this approach we were able to configure the client to CRM Online. 

del.icio.us Tags: CRM Online,Configuration,Credentials

CRM 2011 Client Install Issue and .Net Framework 4

In my opinion, Microsoft has done a great job regarding the stability of the CRM 2011 client installation. We have successfully uninstalled CRM 4 client and installed the CRM 2011 client on 1000’s of client workstations with very few issues. On a recent new deployment of CRM 2011, we had one client out of seventy-five that would not install the client at all. 

The client install wizard appeared to be installing the client as expected bit at the end of the installation it would just fail (See part of error log below)

|   Info| Installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook
16:35:37|   Info| Launching external process:
16:35:37|   Info|      CmdLine:  <msiexec /i "C:\Users\JVOORH~1\AppData\Local\Temp\MSCRM_{6EB7FE7E-8866-4581-8910-80AED84ECD94}\Client.msi" /q INSTALLLEVEL="3" INSTALLTYPE="INSTALL" SOURCEFOLDER="C:\Users\JVOORH~1\AppData\Local\Temp\MSCRM_{6EB7FE7E-8866-4581-8910-80AED84ECD94}" TARGETDIR="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics CRM" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics CRM" /l+ "C:\Users\jvoorhees\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSCRM\Logs\crm50clientmsi.log" LOGFILE="C:\Users\jvoorhees\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSCRM\Logs\crm50clientmsi.log"    ALLOWRUN="1" REBOOT=ReallySuppress NOSELECTION=1>
16:35:37|   Info|   WorkingDir: <C:\Users\JVOORH~1\AppData\Local\Temp\MSCRM_{6EB7FE7E-8866-4581-8910-80AED84ECD94}>
16:35:39|   Info| Installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook failed. Exit code: 1603. Result: Fatal error during installation. 
16:35:39|   Info| Uninitializing COM.
16:35:39|   Info| Uninitialized COM.
16:35:39|   Info| Uninitializing COM.
16:35:39|   Info| Uninitialized COM.
16:35:39|   Info| === Setup bootstrap logging started 11/8/2011 4:35:39 PM ===
16:35:39|   Info| Bootstrap version: 5.0.9688.1533.
16:35:39|   Info| User: jvoorhees.
16:35:39|  Error| Installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook failed.

There was not a lot of detail to work with from the log. After trial and error, we discovered that repairing/re-installing the .Net Framework 4 client fixed the issue. Open up control panel, go to add/remove programs, highlight .Net Framework 4 pieces and click on uninstall/change.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Using Marketing Lists to Control Contact Synchronization

One of the great features of CRM 2011 (and earlier versions too) is the ability to bring down contacts from CRM into your Outlook contacts folder. In CRM 2011 this is accomplished by managing Outlook Filters, where you can set up rules with which to bring down contacts using Advanced Find-esque tools. But as our own Jason Farmer wrote in this blog, “using local data groups to define which contacts sync to Outlook isn't necessarily for everyone”. (As an aside, Jason’s blog covers another way to tackle this as well). So, the trick is to create a local data group that users can then leverage without a lot of effort to manage CRM contacts in and out of Outlook. The answer comes in an unexpected place: Marketing Lists.

Marketing Lists are typically used in Campaigns or Quick Campaigns to control, for example, who gets an email or a phone call. But who says they can only be used for that? Its very easy to add or remove Contacts to or from a Marketing List, especially with the fancy ribbon in CRM 2011. See this screenshot, where I’ve highlighted a CRM contact I want to bring down into my Outlook Contacts folder. I highlight the record, and am about to click Add to Marketing List.

I happen to have a marketing list set up for the specific purpose of Outlook synchronization:

So we’ll add this contact to my Marketing List:

How easy was that? But what about removing someone from a marketing list? What if I change my mind about that Mr. Wingard?

I’ll open my Marketing List like so (filtered to just that record to protect the names of the innocent) and click Remove from Marketing List:

Presto! One less contact in the Marketing List.

But the question remains, how does this help to manage Contacts that come down to Outlook. Outlook Filters tie it all together. Access Filters from CRM like so:

I’ve added this Outlook Filter:

Which leverages my marketing list:

The key is to look for contacts that are part of the marketing list. So now the CRM synchronization process takes over and contacts jump in and out at your whim. If you have any questions about this process, please drop us a line at info@customereffective.com.

Outlook Reminders Stopped Working / Missing / Gone. Help!!

A few of us at Customer Effective recently realized our Outlook calendar reminders were missing. Regretfully for me, I realized the hard way by missing a phone call or two. I hadn’t realized how much I depended on the reminders. So to hopefully prevent some of you from missing an upcoming call or meeting I’ll outline the fix (and what I understand to be the cause) for this issue.

A few blogs and forum posts indicate the issue may occur when you have Office 2010 with SP1 and the CRM Outlook Client. I underline the SP1 point because I do not have SP1 installed, yet I experienced the issue. The good news is the hotfix mentioned in some of the blogs and forum posts did indeed fix the issue for me.

The fix is as simple as installing the hotfix – provided you download the correct one. The important piece that I missed in my first download (and subsequent ‘no go’ with the install) was the version downloaded. When I browse to the hotfix page it appears to recognize that I am running a 64bit version of IE and thus shows the 64bit version of the hotfix. However I am running a 32bit version of Office. Easy enough to get around…

Step 1 – Browse to the MSft support site for the hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2584053

Step 2 – Click the link to View and request hotfix download

Step 3 – Select the appropriate hotfix version (the hotfix is based on your version of Office). If the site does not detect the appropriate Office version, click the beside the second #1 – Show hotfixes for all platforms and languages

Step 4 – Provide email address and confirm the (surprisingly hard to read) letters and numbers and click the Request hotfix button

Step 5 – The link for downloading the hotfix will be emailed to you

Step 6 – Download and unzip the file

Step 7 – Close Outlook (this isn’t part of the hotfix instructions but seems like a good idea to me)

Step 8 – Run the install

 

That should do it. Good luck with it and enjoy those chimes and reminders. Now you can get back to clicking the ‘Snooze’ button on those pesky reminders we can’t seem to live without.

Running Microsoft CRM for Outlook in Multiple Windows

Many CRM users who have CRM for Outlook installed on their PC’s also open the CRM web client to browse CRM.  When asked why they do this, they often reply “because I don’t like to leave my inbox.”  They will use CRM for Outlook for tracking e-mails and appointments, and then open the web client if they want to open an account or view their pipeline.

The concern about leaving your e-mail can be a valid concern, if you have to flip out of CRM when you get notified that new messages have arrived.  Also, more people are using multiple monitors, and want to be able to run Outlook and CRM side-by-side.

However, as we have posted here earlier, CRM 2011 for Outlook is the premier user experience for Microsoft CRM.  By not using CRM for Outlook to navigate Microsoft Dynamics CRM, there are some fantastic functionality enhancements that you are not able to use, like flagging records, tabbed views, advanced filtering, grouping, or conditional formatting.

So if you need to run CRM in Outlook and also see your inbox, what should you do?

One option of which many users are unaware is you can actually run two instances of Outlook side-by-side.

1.  Open Outlook and navigate to the CRM solution.

2.  After Outlook launches, click the icon for Outlook in your start menu.  This will launch a second Outlook window defaulting to your inbox.

You will now have two Outlook windows open, one showing your inbox and the other showing CRM folders.  You can now see your inbox and use the full CRM functionality.

Based on my tests, running Outlook in this manner uses only slightly more system resources than running just one instance.

del.icio.us Tags: Microsoft Dynamics CRM,CRM 2011,multiple monitors

CRM 2011 for Private Equity: Fundraising, Deal Making, and Microsoft Outlook

Relationships count in every business, but for a private equity firm the ability to see the extent of relationships can be the difference between a good firm and a great firm.    Its uncommon in other industries to see the web of connections  that are seen in private equity.  A company that a private equity firm works with  could be the debt provider in one deal, a co-investor in another, and could be the company that brings the next big deal to its doorstep.  And that same company could also be part of a bidding group that is that is the competition in another deal.  Try keeping track of this in one CRM, even one system, and do it all through a tool that everyone uses everyday like, perhaps Microsoft Outlook.   And to make matters even more complicated your system has to be able to turn on a dime in order to respond to one of the most transitory regulatory environments since the New Deal.  These problems are right in the wheelhouse of CRM 2011.

First, CRM 2011 is inherently designed to work with Microsoft Outlook.  Other CRM essentially try and force a synchronization.  I will routinely get the question of “Am I in Outlook or CRM?” in working with new users.  My answer is “Yes”: especially with 2011 , the difference is blurred.  This is no small concern when thinking about how users are going to interact with the system.  For one thing, users don’t have to go to sign in to X other systems each potentially with its own password and, even more importantly, its own learning curve.  Instead, CRM 2011 is “just” another set of folders in Outlook, and that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Outlook integration.  But think about this feature in concrete terms: what if users had a Deals or Fundraising folder right in Outlook?  What if you could tie Outlook appointments to a particular Deal, or even to a potential lender on that deal in 2 clicks?  And of course, what if you wanted to see all this in a dashboard that shows your Deal pipeline for the year in Outlook?  CRM 2011 has its own user-friendly charting tools to provide dashboards that are the three R’s: rich, relevant, and role-based.  And of course, these dashboards are Outlook accessible. (See screen shot below as an example of the Outlook experience).

 

But even if you take Outlook off the table,  CRM 2011 is powerful in its ability to surface relationships and do it rapidly.     Being able to show how a given financial services company may interact with a private equity firm in the aforementioned ways is an easy feat for CRM 2011.  In a world where a financial services company is always acting in many different capacities and their roles change depending on the deal, this is not by any stretch a hypothetical example. And of course, this is the kind of thing we see again and again in our work in private equity. But let’s talk about “rapidly”.  Imagine being in a room with a compliance team, and they bring up a new requirement that the CRM must follow.  And of course, this requirement must be followed presently.  And then imagine that you prototype that change in the meeting.  If only all meetings could be like that?  This example is not hypothetical but very relevant. One question to ask in terms of a CRM is quite simply: can I change it if I need to? 

This segues into what I think is the most compelling feature of CRM 2011 in that it allows for a private equity based CRM solution to be brought into a firm, without being locked into that solution.  The regulatory environment brought about by Dodd-Frank is still being interpreted, and will most likely continue to be so for years.  The takeaway here is that firms need to be able to react quickly, but have a solid foundation.  That is CRM 2011.

This will be the first in a series of articles discussing the challenges faces by financial services firms and how CRM 2011 meets that challenge. If you’d like to hear more about our insights and experience in the private equity arena, and how we use CRM 2011 to solve problems like the ones discussed here, please contact us at info@customereffective.com.

Microsoft CRM 2011 Tops With Analysts: Nucleus, Gartner, Forrester

 
Three independent research analysts recently gave strong validation that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is setting itself apart from the competition in the CRM space.  As you read the reviews of these very different and independent analyses, you will see a common thread of productivity.  Productivity is what happens when users have familiar tools (like Outlook and Office), high adoption rates, and actionable intelligence.  Productivity is what ultimately leads to high ROI. 
 
Forrester:  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 gives a 243% Return on Investment


A recent in-depth review by Forrester Research focused on nine companies that have installed Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.  They reviewed the productivity gains of sales and customer service, as well as the efficiency gains in marketing dollars spent.  The study concluded that the composite organization achieved a three-year NPV of U.S. $665,086, and that the payback period was just four months.  It is a large report and can be downloaded here.  Forrester's summary of benefits:

• Increased sales productivity of 5 percent with the ease of use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM software and integration with Outlook leading to higher adoption, improved opportunity and lead tracking and routing, and a more accurate picture of its sales pipeline.
• Customer service productivity savings from a better UI and documented processes.
• Streamlined processes and operations leading to lower cost of sales as Microsoft Dynamics CRM enabled the composite organization’s technical consultants to shorten time spent on the proposal process by 10 percent.
• Acceleration of sales conversion cycle by 50 percent and corresponding revenue gain as teams worked better together across different business systems, processes, and geographies.
• Marketing cost savings of more than $200,000 (risk-adjusted over three years) due to more real-time insights and improved campaign management from better analytics.
• Productivity savings of 16 man-hours per month due to the better reporting tools in Microsoft Dynamics CRM with data consolidation, reporting automation, and richer dashboard capabilities.
• Improved customer service delivery with quicker response times, dialog boxes, and segmented levels of customer service through insights from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• Improved cross-sell collaboration within sales and customer service teams by providing access to reporting tools and other collaboration software such as Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.
• Lower costs and effort to customize the solution to unique requirements, including extended CRM
  scenarios.
• Ease of integration with other business technology systems, improving process efficiencies.

Nucleus: Microsoft CRM 2011 is "easier to use" than Salesforce and half the cost!
Nucleus Research recently rolled out its "Technology Value Matrix 1H11: CRM".  The report focused on international CRM software that was deployed both on-premises and in the cloud.  It focused on core CRM (sales, service, and marketing) and not xRM applications.   The 'Value Matrix' is based on "functionality and usability, the two core measures that Nucleus has found indicate an application's ability to deliver initial ROI and, ultimately, maximum value. "
 

 
Not surprising to those who work with Microsoft CRM every day, Microsoft was one of only two upper quadrant leaders in usability and functionality.  MSCRM rated highly in usability because of:

• Office integration
• Outlook integration
• Role-based views
• Personalizable interfaces

Nucleus also took note of Microsoft's aggressive pricing strategy, which Nucleus found "in many cases is less than half the average per-user price of Salesforce.com". 
After highlighting the leadership positions at the top, Nucleus noted that other CRM Offerings "do not have compelling positions".
 
 
 
Gartner:  Microsoft CRM 2011 is leader in Customer Service Contact Centers
Gartner recently produced a report that looked at CRM in the customer service contact center.  Specifically, it looked at CRM business applications, contact infrastructures (CTI, chat, email, alerts, etc.), workforce optimization tools, feedback management and analytic tools. Gartner recognized Microsoft CRM 2011 a leader in this space and noted their xRM expertise. "There are many scenarios across industries such as government, healthcare, higher education, real estate, and retailing where the flexibility of the system to support a range of interactions makes it a good shortlist product."

The Gartner report reiterated the Office integration and productivity theme of the other analysts. "The Microsoft Outlook look and feel, together with the integration with SharePoint and Microsoft Office, are commonly mentioned pluses of the system for customers."

Leadership in the Customer Service space reinforces Microsoft's commitment to deliver a comprehensive customer service solution.  Microsoft recently introduced a new version of its Customer Care Accelerator (CCA) for 2011.  This is available for download on the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace. 

The CCA helps customer care and contact center organizations provide a comprehensive and consistent customer service experience by combining data elements from disparate applications, such as mainframes, databases or websites, for display in a single-user interface.  These disparate data sources are surfaced in the CCA and tracked CRM to complete the 360 view of a customer to a Customer Service Agent.

Optimize Address Book Performance in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Outlook

One, sometimes overlooked, part of the CRM for Outlook integration is the address book integration—the functionality that allows you to search for CRM contacts from the “To” field of your email, or to find a CRM contact’s email or phone number from the “Find Contacts” box in Outlook.

Some users confuse the address book integration with the CRM Contacts synchronization, and while they are related, they are two distinct parts of the integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Outlook.

The unique thing about the address book synchronization is that it allows you to not only see contacts, but also accounts and leads from within Outlook, and makes it as easy to select someone from CRM as a recipient for your emails or an attendee for an appointment as it is to select someone from your company address book—just search for them, like you would someone in your company or personal address book.

To get the most out of the Address Book synchronization, there are a few settings that you should check:

1.  Select which records are synchronized

By default, only contacts synchronized with Outlook or records like accounts that are owned by the user are synchronized to their address book.  This works great if you are in an organization where you own all of the contact records that you ever want to email; however, if your organization has users who access and interact with contacts and companies owned by another user, you will want to adjust the address book settings in CRM for Outlook.

Open the CRM Outlook settings and go to the Address book tab. 

If you want all contacts to be available from the address book in Outlook, change the settings to “Match all contacts in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.”  If you want other types of records owned by other users to synchronize with the address book, change the other record types setting to “Match all items in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.”

2.  Select which entities are synchronized

Besides contacts, the CRM 2011 address book also matches against queues, accounts, leads, users, and facilities/equipment.  If you find that your address book search is slow, returns types of records you don’t want returned, or you have many records in your database, reducing the entities that are matched will improve your address book search performance. 

In the CRM client Address Book settings, double click on the “Change the record types synchronized” field and select the entities that you want to synchronize with the address book.  In my case, I’ve only selected account and user.  Remember that this is the entities OTHER THAN contacts that will be synchronized.

3.  Optimize the search order

You may notice that searching for CRM records from the address book may take longer than searching for internal contacts.  This is because, by default, Outlook searches the global address book first, then other address books (including the CRM address book).

To modify the search order, click the Address Book link in the upper right hand corner of Outlook.

Then from the Address Book window, click "Tools” then “Options

If you send most e-mails to internal recipients, the default setting is probably best; however, if you frequently email external contacts in CRM, you can change the search order so that addresses are resolved against the CRM address books first, before the global address list.

From the Addressing options window, select “Custom,” then you can arrange your address book in the order in which you want the address books to be searched.

In this example, I’ve changed my address book search order to first look for users and accounts in CRM, then contacts, and then the global address book.

The Death of Email Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

You can hear the drumbeats now - email is dead because social media and text messaging have effectively killed it. Kids don't email (only 'old fogies' do) said the New York Times. Mark Zuckerberg recently predicted that email would die because "it's too formal" and "adds a lot of friction and cognitive load". Tech analysts have been predicting its demise for a few years now. I couldn't disagree more.

First, take a look at the numbers. Facebook has an impressive 640 million users. Twitter has 175 millionusers. The Big 3 Cloud Based email providers (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!) combine for 362 million users. And according to Radicati Group, there are 1.9 billion email users worldwide. Radicati also predicts that number will increase to 2.5 billion by 2014.

Clearly, email is still the leader. A recent survey by MarketTools, found that 96% of students and professionals said they expect their workplace email communication to increaseor stay the same over the next five years. The same survey found that email was the most effective method of communication with colleagues (even beating face-to-face and IM).

Secondly, disruptive technologies don't kill their predecesors; they just change them. TV didn't kill radio, but it did change how it we used it. The same can be said with planes and trains. We still need trains because they do some things more efficiently that planes can (move crops, raw materials, etc.). And so does email. It moves documents and sensitive conversations about as good as any other option. There is a 'paper trail' and that will continue to be important, especially in our business life.

Integration with Email will make Email your communication hub. As our lines of communication expand, there will be a need for information consumers to have a 360-degree view of what is going on in their world. Yes, we will all expand our use of IM's, social media and mobile messaging, but it is doubtful we will abandon email. Even Mark Zuckerberg and Mark Beneioff, who have been beating the 'email is dead' drum the loudest, recognize that email is important to any communication strategy. Central to Facebook's new messaging service is an @facebook.com email address.

Email is becoming the hub of this multi-spoked beast. For years, my Outlook client allowed me to track emails, tasks, and appointments. Today, my Outlook client is fully integrated into my enterprise and my social life. Integration to Microsoft CRM 2011 gives me a view into enterprise customer records, third party data sources, and an internal knowledge base. SharePoint integration allows me work collaboratively on documents and projects. The Outlook Social Connector allows me to follow my contacts on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. I can send a text, an IM, check social statuses and make a phone call - all from Outlook.

Easy Ways to Add Outlook Contacts to Dynamics CRM

This post is an adjunct to a great post written by a colleague of mine titled, “Extracting Data from Outlook for Dynamics CRM Data Migration”.  In it, he explains 5 methods for getting data from Outlook into Dynamics CRM.  Some of them involve multiple applications that can seem daunting to regular Outlook users who may not be technically savvy.

I’m going to show you 2 simple methods for getting your Outlook contacts into CRM.  I’ve found these options useful to customers who will rely on their salespeople to enter contacts from their Outlook files, which is typical in many organizations. I’ll let you decide which one best fits your needs. 

It’s important to note that you need to have the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Microsoft Office Outlook installed in order to use these.

1. ‘Track in CRM’

a.  With Outlook open, click on the ‘View’ menu item, select ‘Change View’ and select ‘List’.  Select the contacts you want to add and choose ‘Track in CRM’. You can either click the button from the ribbon or right-click and choose it from the pop-up menu.

b.  If you have existing accounts in CRM to which you want the associate these contacts, then use the ‘Set Parent’ to associate them to an existing account in CRM. You can either click the button from the ribbon or right-click and choose it from the pop-up menu.  The account name you choose in CRM will become the company name for your contact in Outlook.

Note: If you have multiple contacts you want to associate to an account in CRM, you can select multiple contacts in your list by using the CTRL or SHIFT keys.

2. The ‘Add Contacts from Outlook’ Wizard

Prepare your Outlook contacts for import

If you have accounts already in CRM and you want to associate your contacts to those accounts, you will have to do steps 1 – 3 to prepare your contacts. This part will require the most time to complete, especially if you have many contacts.

1. Open your Outlook contacts. If you like, you can choose to sort your contacts by company to make this process easier.

2. Get a list of account (company) names from CRM.

3. Match the company names where possible and update the company name in Outlook with the exact name that exists in CRM. (I recommend copying and pasting the name to insure a match).

Add your contacts to CRM

4. Go to the CRM section in your Outlook left navigation pane and click on 'Contacts' (located under ‘Customers’ or ‘Sales’).

5. On the 'Get Started' pane above the grid, click on 'Add Contacts from Outlook'.

a. If you don't see the 'Get Started' pane, click the little "down arrow" in the center of the screen above the 'Search for records' text box.

b. If you don’t see the arrow, click on ‘File’ in the Outlook menu bar, choose ‘CRM’, then ‘Options’ and on the ‘General’ tab check the box to ‘Show Get Started panes on all lists’.

6. You will be presented with the following window (depending on your version of Outlook, the window might look different). Click ‘Next’.

7. You should then see the following screen. Click ‘Next’.

8. You may get prompted about how to select contacts. If so, choose to select contacts based on the 'Company' field. Also, if prompted, choose to associate the new CRM records with existing CRM account records.

9. Next, you will you the screen below. DO NOT CLICK ‘Next’!!! It contains all of the company names in Outlook. The number next to it is the number of contacts in that company.

a. If it is not already set, click the dropdown arrow to view by 'Company Name'. The other options are ‘Email Domain’ or ‘Categories’.

b. Make sure the checkbox for ‘Use Company Name to be the Account’ is checked.

c. If you click the ‘Advanced’ link get the option to ‘Include Communications’ and ‘Set the Account’.

d. Uncheck the checkbox next to ‘Number of Contacts’. This will remove the checkbox from all the checkboxes below it. Check only the company names containing the contacts you want brought in to CRM. If you’re like me, you have some personal contacts in Outlook that you don’t want imported into CRM so leave those unchecked.

Note: If you've attempted to import contacts through this method or another, you may see some companies whose “number of contacts” are highlighted in green, red or yellow. Green signifies contacts already existing in CRM, red signifies contacts that aren't in CRM yet and yellow signifies that some contacts are in CRM already and some are not.

10. Next, click in the checkbox next to each company that you want to import into CRM. Then click ‘Next’.

a. In this example, we selected AKRO-PLASTIC for import, which shows as having 3 contacts. (Feel free to test the process by choosing 1 or 2 companies as a test and then you can re-run this import process again on the rest of your contacts.)

11. You will then see the following screen. Depending on how many records you selected for import, this may take a few minutes.

12. When the import completes, you will see the following screen. It shows that 3 contacts imported yet no accounts because the account already exists in CRM. Click ‘Close’.

13. Now when you go into CRM, you will see the contacts you imported.

Once you’ve completed the import, the contacts you imported into CRM will be synchronized with Outlook so any changes you make in either system will update the record in the other system.

Note: CRM synchronizes with Outlook at a set time interval. This can be as little as every 15 minutes so it could take up to 15 minutes to update contacts in Outlook with changes made to those contacts CRM.

Achieve Best-in-Class Performance with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011’s Tight Email Integration

Recently, the Aberdeen Group published results from a November to December 2010 survey of sales management executives from a wide array of industries. The intent of Aberdeen’s study was to identify best practice methods and technologies utilized by the sales organizations of Best-in-Class firms, which are defined as the top 20% of all respondents in terms of aggregate performance. Key findings from Aberdeen’s report, which is entitled “Streamlining the Top of the Funnel: How Inside Sales Teams Source, Qualify, and Close Business,” include the following:

	Best-in-Class (Top 20%)	Laggards (Bottom 30%)
Achievement of Annual Sales Goals by Inside Sales Reps	84%	21%
Year over Year Increase in Lead Conversion Rates	11.5%	-5.2%
Year over Year Increase in Corporate Profit Margin	11.4%	-0.8%

Aberdeen’s research shows that Best-in-Class sales divisions attain the aforementioned successful results because they share many defining characteristics, such as the following related to technology:

• 82% provide their inside sales producers with a CRM platform that integrates with email
• 73% track their performance with BI reporting and analytics
• 66% track their web visitors in real-time (key players in this space that integrate with CRM include CoreMotives and ClickDimensions)

One of the overriding themes throughout the report is that a properly-deployed CRM system is an essential enabler of strong performance, not just for inside sales reps, but also the whole sales team, and really the entire enterprise:

“Email-integrated CRM is the leading current Best-in-Class enabler, with more than four out of five top performers supporting it, while barely half of Laggards do so. By blending email with the most common of sales-oriented applications, inside sales reps are able to launch messaging directly from their CRM interface, and relevant stakeholders can quickly track the conversational history of each prospect and customer within the selling technology portal.”

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 certainly addresses a firm’s need for email-integrated CRM. As you can see in the screenshot below, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is embedded within Outlook.

Since users are already familiar and extremely comfortable with the look and feel of the native Outlook application, they will experience a significant reduction in the number of ALT-TAB clicks and have to switch less between systems. As a result, sales reps will increase their productivity and be better positioned to improve their sales effectiveness, and ultimately grow revenues.

To learn more about how CRM 2011’s new functionality and tight integration with Outlook can empower your sales team, optimize your sales efforts, and help achieve or maintain Best-in-Class status, you can click on this great post previously written on the Customer Effective blog.

Adding CRM 2011 Entities to Favorites in the Outlook Client

Outlook integration is one of the key features of CRM 2011.  If you use CRM 2011 with Outlook 2010, you may run into an issue regarding adding CRM 2011 entities to your Outlook favorite folders.  This is caused by the Solutions Module service in Outlook 2010 and it can be disabled in a few easy steps.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient.
3. Right-click MSCRMClient, point to New, and then select DWORD (32-bit) Value.
4. Enter DisableSolutionsModule as the name.
5. Right-click the DisableSolutionsModule REG_DWORD subkey, select Modify, and then set the value to 1

 
I'll also repeat the standard Microsoft regedit warning:  Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require you to reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be resolved. Change the registry at your own risk.

Conditional Formatting in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 in Outlook 2010

Previously on the CRM blog, we discussed how you can use the conditional formatting in Outlook 2010 to add context to your CRM views.  From any view in the Outlook client, right click on the view header and select “View Settings.”

Then select “Conditional Formatting”

From the Conditional Formatting dialog, click “Add” to add a conditional formatting rule to the view. Click “Font” and select how you want records that meet the condition to be formatted. Click “Condition” to select the condition for that will trigger the custom formatting. 

From the filter screen, go to the “Advanced” tab.  Click on the “Fields” button and select “user defined fields.”

You will then see all of the CRM fields on the record.  Select a field to include it in the filter rule for conditional formatting.

Once the field is selected, you can then select the condition and enter a value.  In this case, I selected Estimated Revenue is more than $30,000.

Now my view conditionally formats the Opportunities where the estimated revenue is greater than $30,000.

The condition options will vary based on the type of field selected.  If you tried this during the beta process, you may have noticed that some fields, like estimated revenue did not work as expected.  If you selected estimated revenue, the conditions would act like a text field—conditions like contains data, does not contain data, and not number conditions, such as greater than, less than.

You will notice when you try this on the RTM (non-beta), you will see for each number or money field there are 2-3 versions of the field that you can select—for example, for Freight Amount, you will see “Freight Amount” and “Freight Amount (Base),” and also “Freight Amount (number)” and “Freight Amount (Base) (Number).”

If you select one of the fields that does not include (number), the field will function as a text field in the conditional rule.  If you select one of the fields with (number) at the end, it will function as a number field in the conditional rule.  The (Base) fields are the value in the environment’s base currency, the fields without (Base) are the value in the user’s currency.  If you are not using multiple currencies, the (Base) and non-base fields will return the same value.

del.icio.us Tags: Microsoft CRM 2011,Outlook 2010,conditional formatting

Outlook 2010: 32 or 64 Bit for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Outlook?

With the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, there is now, for the first time, both a 32-bit and 64-bit version of CRM for Outlook.  This corresponds to the version of Microsoft Office 2010 that is installed on your computer--if you are running the 32-bit version of Outlook, you will need to install CRM for Outlook 32-bit, if you are running 64-bit Outlook 2010, you will need to install the 64-bit version of CRM.

So, if you have a computer running the 64-bit version of Windows 7, what version of Outlook should you run?  At first glance, it appears obvious that you should install the 64-bit version of Outlook; however, there are a couple of other things to consider.

Both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Outlook can be installed on 64-bit Windows.  The CRM Outlook client will work exactly the same with 32-bit or 64-bit Outlook.  Performance will not be any faster with the 64-bit version of Outlook or CRM for Outlook.  The CRM functionality will be identical.

The major consideration to be made is that when using 64-bit Outlook and the 64-bit Outlook client, web forms are launched in the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer.

64-bit IE does not support many of the add-one supported by the 32-bit version of IE, such as Silverlight.  If you are running the 64-bit version of Outlook, you may potentially limit the level of custom enhancements and add-ons you may be able to access via CRM for Outlook.

This is the main reason we recommend that for now, even if you have 64 bit Windows, you continue to use the 32-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010 (or Office 2007, which is 32 bit).  I can speak from personal experience that the 32-bit version of Outlook 2010 works great on a computer with 64-bit Windows.

Extracting Data from Outlook for Dynamics CRM Data Migration

So you are moving to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, but you don’t want to lose all of your legacy data surrounding contacts, accounts, sales leads, or other business data.  If you are replacing another system with a relational database, migrating data can be fairly straightforward—use an integration tool like Scribe Insight to import data from the legacy system, extract  data to flat files and import with the CRM Data Migration Manager, or use the SDK to import directly through the CRM web services.

But what if your data is not in a relational database?  Many small to mid-sized companies find that they have data stored in multiple spreadsheets or Outlook PST files.  These cases present extra challenges because unlike migrating data from one source, migrating data from multiple little sources is not a straightforward process. 

Some of the challenges include accessibility of data, data quality, and duplication. 

For example, Acme company has a bunch of legacy data stored in Outlook PST files.  They want to bring the data in to Microsoft CRM.  What are their options?

You could just track them in CRM. Given that Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook integrates CRM with Outlook, one option is to just have users track their old emails/appointments/contacts in CRM; however, in most cases, this is usually not the best option.  Only a subset of contact fields synchronize from Outlook to CRM.  If any fields like category or any custom fields are used in Outlook, these values will not be tracked to CRM.  If you have a large number of users, most likely some of them will include the same contacts in their Outlook Contacts.  If all users track all of their contacts, contacts will be duplicated in CRM, and potentially the more recent e-mail or phone number may get overwritten by an older version.

In most situations, it is preferable to extract all Outlook data, clean/de-duplicate it in Excel or SQL Server, then import the scrubbed data in to CRM. This is sometimes easier said than done.  There are several ways to do it:

1.  Outlook import/export wizard

Outlook includes a standard Import/export wizard, which enables exporting of data to flat files.  In Outlook 2010, it is somewhat hidden—go to the File tab of the ribbon, then under the “Open” ribbon you will find an “Import” option.  This also does exports.

 

From the import/export wizard, you can export Outlook data to csv, txt or other formats.  The major limitation of the export wizard is that it will not export custom fields.   If your data is only using standard fields, it works great, but if your data in Outlook uses any custom (user-defined) fields, it will not be sufficient.

2.  Scribe

If you read the CEI blog, you will see that we strongly recommend Scribe for CRM integrations and migrations.  It has a fantastic CRM adapter and works with just about any data source for very painless integrations and migrations, and Scribe has an Outlook/Exchange adapter that can extract data from PST files.

However, the Scribe adapter for Outlook requires Microsoft Collaboration Data Objects to connect to Outlook and Exchange.  CDO was a standard component of Microsoft Outlook through Outlook 2003.  Starting with Outlook 2007, they took it out of the product but still made it available as a download.  With Outlook 2010 CDO is no longer supported.  The installer for CDO will not run if you have Outlook 2010 installed.  So the Scribe option is good if you have Outlook 2007, but is not an option if you are on 2010.  Scribe is still probably the best option for bringing in the data to CRM once you have it extracted from Outlook, but in this case, not the best option for the data extraction.

3.  Copy and paste to Excel

If you are looking at your Outlook data in a tabular view, you can select multiple records and copy then paste in to Excel.  This can be a good option for small data sets, especially contacts, where most fields contain just one line of data.  When you paste it in Excel, it typically will paste neatly.

The limitations of this approach are that it can be very tedious if you have large data sets in Outlook.  If someone has 200,000 contacts, you won’t be able to easily copy and paste all of them in one step.  Also, if you are copying data, like the email body field, that have multiple rows of data, when you paste to Excel, the multiple rows will not neatly paste into the spreadsheet columns.

4.  Microsoft Access

This falls in to the category of something I used to know.  Not having worked with Access for years, I forgot that Access is the only Microsoft Office application that can import data directly from Outlook PST files.  In Access 2010, go to the “External Data” tab and select More—>Outlook Folders.

You can then select any folder from Outlook and import as a table in an Access database, from which you can clean your data prior to importing to Dynamics CRM.  I’ve found that this option works great in most cases, but may have some issues with exceptionally large pst files or accessing pst files that are not stores on the local pc.

5.  CodeTwo Outlook Export

This is a fantastic free application that makes exporting Outlook PST data very easy.  It can extract all types of data, including custom fields to CSV files, and gives full control of what columns get extracted. 

I found that the options for exporting email party and date fields especially useful

Date fields are available as date/time, date only, or time only.  Email parties, such as From, To, CC offer both the address or the display name.  This granularity can help to pre-parse the data in a format that will be more convenient to import to CRM.

So the answer to the question “How do we get our legacy data from Outlook?” is “It depends . . . “  If your data is simple data in small quantities, 1-3 may work, but if you have custom fields or large PST files, you will want to try option 4 or 5. 

del.icio.us Tags: Microsoft CRM,Microsoft Outlook,Dynamics CRM,data migrations,PST files

Top Ten Reasons CRM for Outlook is the Premier User Experience for CRM 2011

On Tuesday I lead a session for the XRM Virtual User Group covering the top new functionality in CRM 2011 for Outlook.  In case you missed it, you can view the recording here.

There are many new features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.  Some of the most exciting enhancements to me are in the Outlook client, as these are the changes that most directly touch end users.  The new version of the Outlook Client introduces a new MAPI interface for CRM that more tightly integrates CRM in to Outlook, and lets users use native Outlook functionality on CRM records. 

The following is my “Top Ten” list.  These capabilities are unique to the Outlook client, and add up to make CRM for Outlook the ultimate user experience for CRM 2011:

1.  Reading Pane

The reading pane is to CRM records what the Preview is to E-mail in Outlook—it’s a full screen read-only preview of the record.  This allows users with one click to view the data in a record without having to double click and open it up.  It can also be personalized—users can drag and drop sections, so the data that they use most can be visible to them.

The reading pane reflects the new role based forms capabilities, so whatever form their role defaults to will determine what shows up on the preview pane.

Considerations:

• The reading pane does not reflect jscript (it’s an Outlook form, not a web form), so if you have form jscript that conditionally hides or reveals fields/sections, you should hide the affected fields by default if users will be viewing these records via the preview pane.

• The preview pane can be disabled from the entity level, if desired.  This option is good if your form includes a lot of complex script action that does not translate well to the preview pane.

2.  Multiple Organizations

With CRM 4.0, you could only configure your CRM Outlook client to one CRM organization.  With 2011, the configuration wizard now supports adding multiple organizations.  This means that you can switch between multiple organizations without restarting or reconfiguring Outlook.  This will be especially useful for multiple organization deployments, such as large enterprise deployments or for users who manage multiple environments for dev/qa/uat/prod environments.  In these scenarios, Outlook is the ideal UI for Dynamics CRM 2011 administration—if using the web client, the user would be required to log in, log out, log in, log out multiple times to administer multiple organization.  Now, using CRM for Outlook, the user can be logged in one time and switch quickly between organizations.

Considerations:

• Only one organization can be enabled as your “Synchronizing Organization,” the org with which you synchronize contacts, appointments, tasks and e-mails.

3.  Auto-Create Contacts

If you are in an organization that frequently sends e-mails to contacts that are new to you, such as people who send inquiries to your website, it can be challenging to ensure that all contacts are being captured in CRM.  With CRM 4, you would have to manually create a contact, either by creating and tracking the contact record, or by tracking the e-mail, then viewing the e-mail in CRM and initiating the contact record creation.

CRM 2011 for Outlook introduces the capability to automatically create contact or lead records when an email is tracked in CRM, if the contact’s e-mail does not already exist in CRM.  While this is not something that every organization will want to use, for those in high-quantity email industries, this can go a long way for making contact capture more automated. 

4.  Tighter Outlook Integration

The most amazing experience for long time CRM for Outlook users, is the moment that they realize that just about anything that they can do with traditional Outlook records, they can now do with CRM records in Outlook.  For example—if you are like me, and you receive an e-mail that you need to work on before 5:00 PM, you probably flag it for follow up, or you categorize it, so it will be colored red and stand out in the list.

You can now do all of that with any CRM record as well.  Say I have a case that I want to check in on in two days.  I can now right click on the record, flag it for follow up, and it will show up in my to-do list along with my other personal flags and tasks.  This is a huge improvement, and will simplify the learning curve for new users, as the user experience with CRM for Outlook will be the same as the user experience for the rest of Outlook, and this adds a tremendous amount of usability beyond the standard CRM capabilities in the web interface.

Considerations:

• The Outlook flagging and categorization are Outlook capabilities, and do not create tasks or other shared records in CRM.
• You will want to have best practices for users to know when they should flag vs. when they should create activities, like tasks related to records.  If the follow up is relevant to the business relationship with the record or it involves other users or related parties, you will still want to create an activity against the record.  If the follow up is strictly for personal use, such as personally categorizing records, flagging favorites, or personal reminders to follow a record, use of the Outlook flags and categories are great personalization options that can reduce redundant or meaningless activities in the system.  If I just want a pop-up reminder to remind me to view a record tomorrow, there is really no need to have a tracked activity.  In this case, a follow-up flag in my Outlook is sufficient.

5.  Tabbed Views

In CRM 2011 web interface, users now have the ability to set their own default views.  CRM for Outlook takes this and makes it even better.  In Outlook, a user can have multiple views visible for an entity.  These views are tabbed, and the order can be rearranged by the user.  By clicking the push pin on the view tab, a user can lock a tab so the tab layout will stick when they log in again.

This is very powerful for users who frequently work with multiple views of the same data.  For example, consider a sales manager with five reps that report to him.  This now gives him the ability to have a saved view of each sales rep’s pipeline open, and quickly switch between these views in the order in which he reviews them on a weekly basis.

6.  Filtering and Grouping

Filters

CRM 2011 greatly enhances the sorting and filtering capabilities in CRM.  In previous versions, your choices were quick search, which searched multiple columns for a string of text, and advanced find, which while powerful, can be intimidating or cumbersome for simple filtering needs.

The CRM 2011 web interface adds a filter button that allows you to filter by any field displayed in your view, and can also include multiple filter criteria.  CRM for Outlook goes a level deeper by allowing users to filter not only by the fields in their view, but also by any other fields in the entity, including those not displayed in the view.  Filters can be saved as new personal views, and as a result many users will be able to build their views without having to crack open advanced find. 

Advanced find is still there, and quite useful when you want to change field layouts or perform more complex filtering (such as filters involving multiple related entities), but it’s great to have an easy-to-use filter tool that is in that sweet spot between quick search and advanced find.  And the Outlook CRM filter capabilities work just like filters for other Outlook records, such as e-mail, so user adoption should be very easy for users who already use Outlook.

Grouping

Views are great, but sometimes you “can’t see the forest for the trees.”  When you have a big list of data, it can be nice to see that data grouped by common fields, such as city, state, revenue, date, etc.

In CRM 2011 for Outlook, you can right click on the view column header, and either select a column by which to group, or open a group area above the view, into which you can drag an drop columns.  The result will be your view, grouped by the selected columns.  Say you want to view a list of quotes or contacts and group them by their parent company.  This is a fantastic way to add visual context to your data, without having to go to a report.

Considerations:

• Groups are personal data stored in Outlook, and are not sharable with other users.
• Filters can be shared with other users, by saving the filter as a personal view and sharing that view with other users.

7.  CRM fields on Outlook activities

The number one reason why companies use CRM for Outlook is the integration with Outlook activities like e-mail and appointments.  Since users live in Outlook and write their e-mails, set their appointments, and create their to-do tasks in Outlook, the ability to click a button and have that activity tracked in Outlook is a great boost to system usability, since users don’t have to go somewhere else to “do CRM,” like they do with other CRM systems.

It’s very common, once a company adopts activity tracking through CRM for Outlook, for there to be a desire to record additional values related to the tracked activity.  Some real-world examples:

• Adding a category to tracked email messages to “tag” or enhance activity organization within CRM.
• Enhancing appointment records with additional fields, such as appointment type, follow-up items, or other attributes commonly recorded post appointment on a trip report.  Recording these values in structured fields rather than the large description text block makes data more reportable.
• Providing fields for sensitive meeting comments so that “internal” notes don’t get relayed to external parties invited to the meeting when the appointment record is updated.

The challenge up to this point has been that while you could add custom fields to activity records in CRM, these fields were not accessible from the Outlook activity forms.  So populating these fields required the user to click through to the CRM activity form, taking the user away from their normal workflow.  As a result, custom activity field usability was limited.

Also, the standard activity records include some very useful standard fields, such as the e-mail category and sub-category.  The problem was that after you track an e-mail in CRM, the crm record is read-only to prevent users from altering e-mail history, so these fields were rendered useless for Outlook tracked e-mails.

CRM 2011 for Outlook adds a button to the Outlook ribbon which allows users to toggle  to the crm fields not included in the standard Outlook activity form.  In the above screenshot, you will see that the CRM e-mail category and sub-category fields are visible from a tracked Outlook e-mail form, without having to open another window.  Now without leaving my e-mail or appointment, I can populate the additional standard or custom fields on the activity record. 

8.  Action Pane

The new action pane gives a complete history of the CRM history of an Outlook activity.  Now when I view a sent or received e-mail, I see if the record has been tracked, the record against which it was tracked, and related parties.  This saves many clicks—to reconstruct the tracking status and history in previous versions, you had to open the record, click the view regarding button, and view the related CRM record.

On the action pane I can click through to the related records, and also right click on them for additional actions.  For example, if the contact to whom I sent the email does not currently exist in CRM, I can right click on the contact link under “related records” in the pane and create a contact or lead record for the related party.  This is a manual alternative to the automatic contact creation I mentioned in number 3.

9.  Conditional Formatting

Of my ten favorite things about CRM 2011 for Outlook, this is the only one that requires Outlook 2010.  All of the other new enhancements that I mentioned will work fine with 2007.  This is a great example of how by more tightly integrating CRM to Outlook and by introducing the MAPI user interface, native Outlook functionality works with CRM records and views.  Outlook 2010 conditional formatting is no exception.

From any view, you can click the “View” ribbon tab or right click on the view header and select the view configuration.  In Outlook 2010, one of the view configuration choices is conditional formatting.  Conditional formatting allows the user to set one or more conditional criteria, and format the rows that meet the criteria with special fonts, sizes and colors.

In the screenshot above, I’ve set the view to conditionally format any opportunities with a probability above 75% with a 24 pt green font.  While this is  probably more extreme than what you might do, it is a good visual illustration of the conditional formatting capabilities.

Considerations:

• The conditional criteria options are different based on the data type of the selected field.  For example, if you select a date field, such as estimated close date, you can select operators like “this week” and “this month.”  If you select a numeric field, you will get operators like “equals,” “is greater than,” or “is less than.”
• Money fields, such as estimated revenue, appear to function as text fields for conditional formatting purposes.  In the current beta build, you cannot select “Is greater than” for criteria involving money fields.

10.  Recurring Appointments

Recurring appointment tracking has long been a requested functionality in Microsoft CRM.  In previous versions you could track a recurring appointment, but only the first occurrence of the activity would be tracked.

CRM 2011 takes a major step forward by introducing recurring appointment functionality—and they do it right.  If you think about it, recurring appointments are very complex—they frequently have indefinite future occurrences and the series can be cancelled at any time.  The challenge is you want to accurately track the future occurrences and allow the series to be cancelled without impacting the history of prior occurrences. 

CRM 2011 handles recurring appointment tracking in a very intelligent manner. 

1. When you create recurring appointments, only up to the first 15 appointment instances are synched.  This prevents the system from creating hundreds of future activities prematurely.  Remaining instances(up to next 12 months) are crated via the CRM Async service. CRM expands appointment instances on weekly basis for future instances.

2. When you track an Outlook created recurring appointment, its definition and all exceptions gets created in CRM.  Outlook stores complete recurring appointment information as a Rule, while CRM expands instances in the CRM database.

3. You can delete a series from either CRM or from Outlook, and the remaining future occurrences will be removed from both systems. Recurring appointments support full bi-directional synchronization between Outlook and CRM.

While recurring appointment functionality does not require Outlook, the use of recurring appointments is greatly enhanced with the Outlook integration.  Users can create recurring appointments in Outlook where they work, and track the recurring series of appointments in CRM as easily as they track other appointments.

Considerations:

• Recurring functionality is limited to standard appointments.  Tasks and service appointments do not support recurrence at this time.

It’s all about the users

All of these items come down to one thing;  the users.  Your CRM system can be great, but if users don’t use it, it’s not going to do anybody any good.  By more closely integrating to Outlook, reducing clicks, and making the user experience of CRM for Outlook consistent with the rest of Outlook, CRM for Outlook has now become the premier user experience for Dynamics CRM 2011.  if you use CRM but don’t currently use the Outlook client, I would encourage you to give it a second look.  If you currently use CRM for Outlook for tracking activities, but then switch over to the web interface for other CRM functionality, you will want to consider making Outlook your full-time CRM interface.  The usability enhancements unique to the Outlook client will make you more productive, and the common user interface with the rest of Outlook will simplify training new CRM users who are already familiar with Outlook.

del.icio.us Tags: CRM for Outlook,CRM 2011

A Look at the Outlook Social Connector

The Outlook Social Connector (OSC) provides a communication hub for personal and professional communications.  By selecting a an Outlook item such as an email, you can see in the People Pane the activities, photos, status updates and connections of the person (or people) you are communicating with.  This is a great way to 'put a name with a face' for colleagues  and clients you may have worked extensively with, but never actually met in person.  This could create a real competitive advantage where you can relate better to clients because you keep up with their interests.

 
The picture used in the People Pane is synched with any of the available social networks.  If there is no picture available, then a silhouette based on Bill Gates mug shot is featured.

In addition to the purely social information, OSC scans your Outlook file to present communication history, future and past scheduled meetings, attachments related to that person.  All of those communications with that person are visible in the People Pane.  Even without the social connectivity, this feature makes this a worthy addition to Outlook.

Emerging and Proprietary Social Networks
Currently, popular social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Windows Live are offering providers for the OSC.  However, any emerging or proprietary social network can develop provider for the OSC to synchronize and surface network updates in Outlook.  A public SDK allows anyone to build a connection to business of consumer social networks.  MSDN documentation on getting started with OSC development is here.

Download here (2003, 2007, 2010 available)

Managing Employee Contact Information Part 2

Author note 8/16/2010—when this post was written, there was a potential conflict with having contacts and users with the same email address—this conflict has been resolved in update rollup 12.

On Friday I posted an approach to managing contact information for employees in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  This approach was to use the user record for both users and non-user employees, and expose read access to this entity to all users.   This approach works well for users who work in front of a computer; however, there is another scenario to consider.

One of the reasons that many companies use Microsoft CRM is the synchronization with Microsoft Outlook for contact information.  This is especially valuable for users who are mobile and need to have business contacts in their Outlook contacts on their smartphones.  When I’m on the road and one of my clients calls me, it’s great to be able to see their name and company name pop up on my smart phone, or be able to look someone up by name when I need to call someone.

This is also valuable for internal contacts.  Sure, you can access the global address book from a Blackberry, Windows Phone, Iphone, etc; however, since the global address book is frequently not updated or only contains partial information, many people maintain internal contacts in the Outlook Contacts, and this leads to problems, such as bad or outdated information, and missing contacts, especially from new hires.

CRM is a great solution for this.  As discussed on Friday, it is more accessible than the global address book, someone other than the Exchange admin can update it, and it can also synchronize Contact information with Outlook; however, it does not synchronize User record data to Outlook Contacts.  If synchronization of User data to Outlook contacts is required, you will want to use the Contact entity in CRM for User contact information.  The User Contacts can be easily separated from the external contacts by making use of the relationship type picklist.  I recommend adding a value for “Internal contact” and then setting up views to segment internal and external contacts.

Before you do this, there are some considerations

User Contact Record Considerations

Before setting up contact records for users, consider how the CRM synchronization for emails and appointments works.  When an email is tracked, CRM matches the email using the email addresses of the sender and recipients to resolve it to CRM account, contact, user, or lead records.  For this tracking to work effectively, an email address can only exist on one of these records.  If there are multiple records that have the same email address, it can cause issues.  In some cases this can cause CRM to not know which record to track the email or appointment against, and in other cases, it can cause the activity to track against a different record than the one that the user intended. 

The most extreme side effect we see from time to time where the same email address exists on both a user and a contact record is sometimes it will make appointments that the user tracks resolve to the user’s contact record, removing the appointment from his calendar.

So keep in mind that it’s not a problem to have a contact record and a user record for an employee, but it is a problem to have the same email address on a user and a contact record.

Also, any users who send tracked emails in CRM need to have an email address on their user record.

With that in mind, I recommend using the following approach to have user contact record play nicely with user records:

1. Set up a company record for your company and have that company parent all of the employee contact records.
2. Monitor Contact and User records to insure that duplicate email addresses don’t exist.  You can’t create CRM duplicate detection rules between the contact and user records; however, you can find duplicate email addresses with a SQL query.
3. Set up secondary email aliases for the user contact records.  In Exchange, a user can have multiple email address aliases—such as joel.lindstrom and jlindstrom.  By setting up alternate email aliases for your user contact records, you avoid the confilct mentioned above, and your user records and contact records will play nicely with each other.  If an email is sent to either email address, it will all arrive in the users inbox, and since all activities created by the user will be under their primary email address, you won’t have the disappearing appointment phenomenon.
4. Automate the process—consider using a workflow or plug-in to automate the creation of user contact records when a user is added to CRM, mapping the name and phone information to the contact.  This will simplify the new hire setup process.

Following this process you will now have users available in CRM contacts, and can set your contact synchronization rules to include internal contacts.

del.icio.us Tags: User contact information,Microsoft Dynamics CRM,CRM Outlook

Managing Employee Contact Information in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Part 1

Author note 8/16/2010—when this post was written, there was a potential conflict with having contacts and users with the same email address—this conflict has been resolved in update rollup 12.

Many people use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to manage contact information for people outside of their company and provide a central address book of business critical external contacts; however, what about internal contacts?

CRM can also be a very useful tool for internal contact management.  Like with external contacts, there is huge benefit to having a central shared address book of internal contacts with up-to-date contact information.  Sure you have the Exchange Global Address Book; however, this typically is not updated frequently and does not always contain complete information, such as telephone numbers.

There are a couple of main approaches for managing internal contacts in CRM, and the one that you choose should be based on your requirements. 

User Records

If your company uses CRM, you already have a start on user contact record management—the User record.  This record is used to control access to the system, but it also serves the purpose of recording employee contact information.  Like contacts, users can be included as recipients or attendees on appointments.

But, as much as we wish they would, not all employees use CRM, and most companies don’t want to buy user licenses for employees who don’t use the application.  How do you manage contact information for non-user employee contacts?

Administrative Users

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, there are several type classifications for users:

• Full
  User will have full access to any part of Microsoft Dynamics CRM that he or she has the security roles ( Defined sets of privileges. The security role assigned to a user determines which tasks the user can perform and which parts of the user interface the user can view. All users must be assigned at least one security role in order to access the system. ) to access.
• Read-Only
  User will have read-only access of Microsoft Dynamics CRM that he or she has the security roles ( Defined sets of privileges. The security role assigned to a user determines which tasks the user can perform and which parts of the user interface the user can view. All users must be assigned at least one security role in order to access the system. ) to access.
• Administrative
  User will not have access to Sales, Marketing, and Service areas. This access mode allows your organization to create an account for a member of the IT department for administering and customizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM without using up a seat from your Microsoft Dynamics CRM license.

With that in mind, the following approach will allow you to include your non-user employees in the User entity without giving them access to CRM or adding to the cost of your licensing:

1. Add the non-user employees as users in CRM
2. in the Access Mode picklist select “Administrative”
3. Save the user record, but do not give them a security role

Now non-user employees will be in the user entity, and can be selected as activity parties, but won’t have a license fee or be able to log in to the system.  The nice thing about this approach is that all internal contacts will now be in one place.  I like to add a link to the user entity from the workplace and give it the title “Employees.”  This makes logical sense to most users, as they know to look in Contacts for external contacts and Employees for Internal contacts.

On Monday I’ll post about an alternative approach for scenarios where you want to have internal contacts synchronize with Outlook.

del.icio.us Tags: Microsoft Dynamics CRM,Microsoft CRM,Contact Management

CRM with Outlook 2010/UR11 + Workaround for Missing ISV Menu items

If you’ve been digging Office 2010 since the beta like me, but you’ve been disappointed in the way CRM’s tools shows up under an “Add-In” menu..

You’ll be very happy to know that CRM UR11 greatly improves the UI experience. – Highly recommended since it adds the CRM functions into the ribbon as you’d expect:

You can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f84f2bfb-393d-4b90-bf1b-300a82ec6083#filelist 

* Latest Information as of June 12th, 2010 regarding bug in display of ISV items *

However, if you’re reliant on any ISV add-ins (such as Hoovers’, ExactTarget, Report Builder etc.) you’ll notice that there is no ISV menu for these add-ins in the UR11 version of the menu – this is now a confirmed bug – and a fix will be forthcoming. – However in the meantime, if you’ll add the following key to your registry on the client, the ‘old’ style ‘add-in’ menu will re-appear and give you access to the ISV add-ins. -

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient]

Add the following DWORD key: "InitToolbarForO14" and set the value to "1"

After adding the registry setting you’ll have both the old and the new style menus. Microsoft will be posting a blog entry + a forthcoming fix – will update this posting with new information as it becomes available.