Health Plan Marketing in the Era of the Affordable Care Act with Dynamics CRM

Health Plan providers are working hard, not only to change the products they offer but the way they go to market.  Because of Healthcare Reform, they will now have increased exposure to an entirely new market of consumers that previously didn’t exist. What is going to motivate and retain customers? Products? Price? Wellness Benefits? Coverage of Pre-Existing Conditions?  Disease Management Programs?

Everybody has bad data: ensuring good data quality when moving to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

I am often asked as we are beginning a project, “What are some of the most common pitfalls in implementing CRM?”  Or, “What do people typically underestimate in a large CRM deployment?”  A number of possible answers may come to mind, but in my experience, the effort to cleanse and connect to enterprise data wins every time.  Everyone has bad data.  It’s the dirty little secret of enterprise systems.  The one that IT guys are embarrassed to explain to upper management. Systems store data in different ways, laid out in deferent architectures.  Some are legacy systems that have been around for years.  Some for 20 or more years.  Others are more current architectures, maybe with web services interfaces.  But the underlying problem is the same in each.  People key data with the constraints placed on them by the user interfaces and systems they interact with.  And when people interact with systems, data is not clean.

Planes, Trains and CRM implementation philosphy

Four feet 8.5 inches. Not exactly a number that rolls off the tongue but a significant one none the less. It represents the distance between two railroad tracks on modern railways across the USA. The story goes that its width was handed down from the original makers of trams that were pulled by horses around England. It’s only real significance was that when a buggy was pulled down the tracks, the rails needed to be far enough apart that the team of two horses that was charged with this task could do so without catching a hoof on one of the tracks. To determine the optimal distance, the inventor of the tram lined up the two largest horses, measure the distance between there outer hooves and voila… four feet eight and half inches! Today, The US railroad industry includes about 560 railroads with combined annual revenue of about $60 billion and over a quarter million miles of track and, dare I say, all because of the largest horse’s rear end the inventor could find!

Now you might be asking what this has to do with your implementation of Dynamics CRM. There is an important lesson to be learned about what we can do when looking to change how effective or efficient our organization can become if we are able to change what we do by looking at why we do what we do currently without the constraints of “this is the way we have always done it”. In the world of railroads, changing the width of track could have huge benefits. Perhaps we could employ smaller locomotives as modern technology has been able to create machines that are far more powerful than their predecessors at a reduced size, smaller gauge would mean less metal required and iron is certainly not cheap. Tunnels and bridges could be built with less material as could the ties used to bind the tracks together. Of course doing so would be very expensive so changing the size is not feasible but fortunately, the “tracks” that many businesses run on are far less extensive and expensive to replace.

I have been in a number of requirements gathering meetings where the list of systems and processes for how a business is currently run is listed and discussed and it is ubiquitous how few people know the real “why” behind the “what” that they do. Often they have processes to create records in a database solely to generate a report that is no longer read or data is captured that is no longer relevant.

Our job as consultants is to take a long look at how a business currently runs and to not only replicate that process in a new technology, but to refine it to let that new technology drive the business in ways that have yet to been discovered. We come in to see things “outside of the box” and add perspective as well as to help implement a software product. I like to think that a consultant is striving to leave a company with a better knowledge of the clients business than many of the people that work there!

This endeavor is most successful when client works hand in hand in this effort to really look at not only how to replicate what they have now but also to enhance it in ways that were not possible in the past.  Keep the following in mind as you decide who to partner with be it implementing CRM or any other enterprise wide software. Are you being asked the “why” behind the “what”? Is the process getting the same amount of emphasis as the product? Are you being challenged to defend the status
quo?

Let any implementation, and especially your CRM implementation be your opportunity to check the gauge of your tracks. Make sure that the decisions made in the past are still valid in today.  Allow every assumption to be questioned and take a deep look to make sure you are not investing in a software system that merely duplicates what you do today without examining how it can be improved.

The Wonderful Unintended Uses of Dynamics CRM

Many people know the story behind the Post-It Note. In short, a chemist at 3M inadvertently invented a low tack adhesive in his quest to create a super strong adhesive.  After five years of trying to promote his adhesive within 3M, a colleague thought it might be perfect for holding his bookmark in his hymnal. Fast forward to today and we see that this little idea, temporarily sticking a piece of paper to another object, has turned into one of the most prevalent office supplies in business today.    This use of a product beyond its initial intention drives so many of the products we see today and can also be found in an implementation of Dynamics CRM. 

By far, the greatest initial pull to implement CRM revolves around the efficient tracking of both the sales cycle and the marketing of products to customers.  In that space, it can bring both of those facets of a business into focus and can truly drive both increased sales and market penetration. But wait, what if we took a lesson from the Post-It note and applied it to our CRM system?

I was talking to a client one day about the arduous task they had of onboarding new employees. Many hours were spent with all of the required paperwork, office assignment and the numerous other tasks it took to just get someone in a position to actually do work.

Onboarding employees involves many different departments and people.

• IT/IS will be involved in procuring the appropriate technology and services
• Facilities has to find a place for them to sit
• HR has responsibility for seeing that corporate expectations are set (where to park, what to wear, etc.) and shat benefit elections are defined
• Training will want to make sure they are proficient in the technologies or products of the company
• Finance needs to have all of the required tax and deposit information
• Legal may need NDAs or non-compete documents

And likely others have to have some input before the new employee can “get down to business”.

Not only are there a lot of tasks that need to be performed but many are order-dependent.  After all,it doesn’t do much good to have a computer and monitor waiting for a new employee if he has yet to be assigned a place to sit!

Dynamics CRM excels at streamlining just his kind of process. With its extensive list of activities, the ability to customize them or create your own, and a workflow engine that can manage the appropriate distribution and timing of the required events, onboarding should be able to be managed like a well- oiled machine. The tasks could be started prior to the new hires first day with an email sent to IT to get their computer ordered and ready.  Facilities would be contacted to procure the work space.

HR and legal would be alerted to have the required documents prepared and ready to go and so on.  After each step is completed, the system would be updated and the HR person could log into CRM and see exactly where the person was in the onboarding process.  After the new hire started, training would be assigned they could update their status as they progress through the program. This would not only show where they are, but also better prepare the next department for their part. You could even have CRM create appointments on the calendar of the supervisor for their quarterly or bi-annual reviews.

The process would provide consistency and metrics to determine what could be changed to increase efficiency and to measure the effectiveness of the efforts put into this all too important function inherent in all organizations.  The options are limitless when you really start to look at it!

There are other “unintended uses” of the investment you have made in Dynamics CRM and this is but a taste of what’s out there when you put aside the “CRM is for sales and marketing” mentality and really grasp the power that you have to transform how your business operates. 

They sky really is the limit.

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.

Using LEGOs to help explain xRM and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Platform

Microsoft provides the rich foundation, the various interconnecting blocks, and the many special pieces to easily extend Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a platform and extending CRM to meet new and different business needs is often referred to as xRM.I always enjoyed playing with LEGO® sets when I was a kid.  I guess I still do, just look at my handy work for the images in this blog post.  Maybe that explains why many enjoy working with Microsoft CRM.  The two are similar in that you can build and create completely new and different things from the common set of building blocks. 

Let’s take this analogy further.  You could say that Microsoft provides three pre-built “Lego sets” with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  These sets include Sales, Service, and Marketing for a compelling Customer Relationship Management solution.  You can use the features in Sales and even build on top of it if you wanted like adding your own custom fields.  To perform specific tasks, you could use the special pieces that Microsoft provides such as workflow or charts for example.  These special pieces fit nicely with the existing blocks.  You could even dismantle Sales down to the core blocks and rebuild it your way.  As a matter of fact, you could dismantle all three sets and build something completely new and different that had nothing to do with Sales, Service, or Marketing. 

Using Legos to explain xRM
Building a solution using CRM that is completely new and has little or nothing to do with traditional Customer Relationship Management (sales, service, marketing) is sometimes a challenging concept to grasp.  Hence, the Lego analogy.  What occasionally throws people off is the name of the solution, CRM.  Microsoft really can’t change the name of CRM at this point.  I think that is why the term xRM is so popular and used so widely.  xRM is not a product but rather a strategy for innovation using CRM. This makes CRM unique - using CRM as a platform to create solutions.  Since this idea is similar to the use of Microsoft Access, I have sometimes heard CRM called “Access on steroids” but that is not a fair description.  Not because CRM uses a more powerful Microsoft SQL Server database but that there is so much more in CRM as well as its well documented Software Development Kit (SDK). 

Snap it all together with CRM
Microsoft has different offerings for businesses and people such as Outlook, Office, Skype, Lync, SharePoint, and Yammer to name a few.  Microsoft CRM helps unify your experiences and connect these solutions together.  By “together”, I mean data and a central point for solutions.  Companies need one source (one database) to go to for the truth - the complete truth of a customer.  Companies desire a true 360 degree view of customer activities, transactions, communications, social interactions - all the layers of customer information.  Companies looking to deploy CRM often have customer data, product data, inventory data, financial data, events data, accounts receivable data, you name it, stored all over the place in separate databases and Excel files.  Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help integrate to or replace those systems entirely. Just like adding the right Lego blocks, CRM can be extended to bring the data AND the business process of the retired solution directly into CRM. This makes Microsoft CRM a pivotal and key component to consolidating systems, operations, and experiences across a diverse set of screens. 

Before you start putting blocks together
As easy as playing with Legos may sound, most companies seek experienced assistance to properly implement and strategically extend CRM.  Before you start putting blocks together in CRM, it is recommended that you form a roadmap and plan that is specific to your CRM goals and business drivers.  Start strategically by asking the critical “why” questions such as why are we doing this?  As you seek help, look for partners that not only have many bright and shiny CRM blocks (some of which may already be put together for you giving you a head start), but more importantly a partner that has the discipline to know when to set those blocks aside to focus on developing your plan for measurable business improvement. Otherwise, without a plan for your CRM, you may end up with a bunch of pretty and flashy blocks snapped together that few wish to use.

CRM is like using Legos
The blocks all fit together – particularly the many unique special pieces – to consolidate business systems and data, connect applications, make it easy to use, and unify experiences.

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The use of the word “Lego” and “Legos” is a registered trademark under the LEGO® brand. 

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.

Best Practice - Plan for Microsoft Dynamics CRM (on-premises deployment) server redundancy before you need it

It could have made for a very long Weekend.  A production CRM platform server without redundancy starts to show signs of a drive failure at the busiest time of the year for a global company that has grown to depend on their CRM system for their business.  This happened recently to one of our clients and due to some rather fortunate planning and sharp execution, the problem was averted and the system was down for only the time it took to reboot a machine.

Some 5 years ago, the company had implemented CRM to house subscription data that was constantly being updated by a portal application exposed to the web.  In order to increase performance, the Application and the Back Office Roles of CRM had been segmented onto two different servers. The Back Office server was a repurposed SQL server that, after those years of service, began to log errors in the event log of the impending failure of the secondary drive.

After analyzing the drives contents and realizing there were no obvious dependencies, our first thought was to just disable the drive.  The problem was that we did not know that if we were we to disable or remove the drive and find that there was a dependency, we could ever get it to mount back up.

We then thought about creating a new server as a replacement. This was going to be a tedious job as the Platform Server was internet facing (SSL and certificates would need to be configured) and the integration with the portal server as well as other back office integrations were dependent on this server.  The integrations were using Scribe and it is licensed for the machine so getting that quickly installed with the proper licensing was also a challenge.  

Enter fortune.   The client had recently decided to replace the machines and move to virtual environment for the CRM servers as well as others in their IT infrastructure.  This failing machine was one that was slated to be migrated so here was the plan.

Using their backup software’s ability to restore a machine backup to a virtual, the server with the failing hard drive was backed up then restored as a virtual without the D-drive image.  Because the virtual image was an exact duplicate of the original machine, all of the active directory GUIDs, IP address, and computer name remained the same.  This computer was then loaded in an isolated environment to make sure it would boot properly (since it was an exact copy, it had to be isolated so as not to conflict with the existing production server). 

We then scheduled time on a weekend where the traffic would be the lightest to pull of the switch.  At that time, we simply shut down the physical production server and booted the new virtual production server.  We knew that if anything went awry, we could always restart the old server as nothing on it had changed. It was nice to have a solid fall back should things not go as planned.

The switch went as desired and the new, virtual server came up and was able to operated just as it had when it was a physical box (without the drive errors, of course). There were a couple of issues when it was all said and done but they were minor and did not impact the operation of their business as these were hashed out.

The takeaways from the ordeal are this.

Though building a redundant system can take more time and money up-front, it will save you from relying on fortune when the hardware does fail.  It is a good idea now to plan for the what-if scenarios that you could be confronted with so that you are prepared to jump proactively into action and lastly, it is a great idea to have extra “virtual” space to create a replacement machine on short notice. 

 Here’s hoping you do not find yourself in a similar situation but if you do, you can be prepared!

4 Steps to Improve Data Consolidation Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM

We often hear from business executives about their concerns with duplicate systems and duplicate data sets. We also hear the desire to create or improve “a grand all-encompassing data warehouse” so executives can better understand customer trends as well as all sorts of business informatics. Mostly, there is a desire for one easy to use consolidated database – the one single database of truth for all customers, contacts, and related information AND accessible across all devices - phone, tablet, laptop.

Here are four steps to improve data consolidation and get to that one database of truth using Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

1. Understand why data consolidation is important
2. Recognize reasons why data silos occur
3. Catalog all the data sets
4. Form a strategic plan on how CRM will be leveraged

 

STEP 1 - Understand Why Data Consolidation is Important

The first step is to understand the value of good customer data. Many executives would already agree that consolidating customer data is critical in business today but there are some that are hesitant to invest in the endeavor or they are unsure where to start. There are many valuable advantages to data consolidation, but in a nut shell, businesses are more effective, more competitive, and have greater insight when they can see one shared customer record that has a deep 360 degree view. This view could include all customer activities, purchases, visits to your website and where they went, accounting information from the ERP, real time data from data aggregators, customer complaints and their resolutions, and yes, the customer’s correct email. That is at the record level. Good data then rolls up for quality analytics. Reporting on your key performance indicators and customer buying trends and even predictive buying just got a whole lot easier now that everything is in one place. Keep in mind, in your current state, you probably have most of this data already, but it is just spread out in too many duplicate databases and Excel files to be usable.

 

STEP 2 - Recognize the Reasons Why Users Create Data Silos

The next step is to try to stop data silo creation. There is usually a central system in place but then users remove the data they want to an Excel file and continue to update that Excel file outside the central system. Why? Why are users compelled to create Access databases and Excel files? There can be many reasons but usually it is because the central system is hard to use and it is just easier using Excel or their own Outlook. So how do you stop users from creating their own data sets?  Improve the user interface is one way and that is where Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help. Although Microsoft CRM uses a powerful Microsoft SQL Server database to handle Big Data, it is the user Interface of Microsoft CRM that will often help reduce data silo creation. Microsoft CRM has the potential to be designed putting the user first – meaning the interface is clean and purpose driven. It also helps that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be accessed from within the very tools that frequently drive silo creation to begin with – in this case Excel and Outlook. All of CRM can be accessed from Outlook and there is one click in CRM to bring data to Excel.

 

STEP 3 - Identify and Catalog all the Data Sets

Next, start to identify all your data. Data you have and even the data you don’t have. Catalog all the In-house data like main central systems, the many rogue Access databases and Excel files, as well as website databases and SharePoint Lists and so on. Just focus on the data that is being managed and updated away from a central database. Think also about the data you may not have now but could get from an online subscription to a data aggregator such as InsideView to sync real time business and social data or Trillium to validate and clean your data for total data quality.

 

STEP 4 - Form a Strategic Plan for Data Consolidation and How Best to Leverage CRM

The last and most important step is to form a long term strategy plan. This is where some companies may need assistance. Without going into too much detail, the plan should attempt to include what data will be migrated and what will be integrated.

· Migration: With data migration, this is the data that will be completely moved permanently to live in CRM. These aren’t just the rogue Excel files; this could potentially be retiring some completely separate business applications – meaning move the data along with the functionality and business process to CRM using the innovative xRM approach to duplicate functionality where logical.

· Integration: What data then gets integrated in and out of CRM? Is the integration one way (asynchronous) or two way (synchronous)? What are the outside data sources and services that will be utilized? What data integration tools such as Scribe may be needed?

The strategic plan may also include new reporting needs, how data will be displayed across devices, and what users get to access and not access based on their security. As you can see, having a well thought out plan divided into logical phases will provide the long term blue print and framework for continued data success.

If you understand the value of one consolidated database and you know why users make data silos and you have cataloged all your data sets and then formed and documented a well thought out plan that leverages Microsoft Dynamics CRM, well then, you should be on your way to improved data consolidation.  

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

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.

Managing Access to Activate/Deactivate Ribbon Buttons in Microsoft CRM 2011

 

 

Demonstration of Editing the ribbon using the CRM 2011 Ribbon Workbench to Remove the Account’s ‘activate/deactivate’ buttons from non-administrators.

 

Background:

When an account or a contact isn’t currently engaged in business with your company, we might think of them as “inactive.” –  CRM offers a button on the ribbon to ‘deactivate’ the record - but is that the right way to manage the status of a record? - Typically not. – The Active/Inactive status of CRM records really refers to the status of the ‘record’ rather than the contact or account the record refers to. Setting a customer to ‘inactive’ means that it cannot be edited, re-assigned, shared and it immediately gets excluded from most views and reports.

While an administrator may ultimately want to de-activate records if the customer goes out of business or is merged, everyday users shouldn’t be deactivating records on-the-fly. Far more useful is to add a customer “Classification” options to include a more descriptive set of data around why the customer is not an ‘active customer.’ – Once that information is captured, a data administrator can review and deactivate those records through a more methodical process.

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. 

Do I Need IFD In My Microsoft Dynamics CRM Environment?

Every day it seems that CRM is changing. When CRM 2011 was released, most deployments were strictly on-premise deployments with access restricted to users on the company network or VPN. However, with the changing landscape of how people work, the consumerization of IT, and the upcoming changes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM R8 (cross-browser support and mobile applications), most of our customers are now more closely evaluating their options for giving users external access to the application, including access on mobile devices. They must weigh these enhancements in light of their security policies and what their users are requesting. I’m frequently asked the question “will we need to deploy ADFS+IFD?

To help demystify the options, I have prepared a list of the most common external access scenarios, and whether or not IFD is required in these scenarios.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Standalone Sandbox Using VirtualBox Part 2

Back to Part 1... Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Standalone on VirtualBox Part 1

2: Add the ASP.NET role service:

Install CRM 2011

Great! We are ready to finish and fulfill our goal.  From the host machine unmount the SQL Server 2008 R2 and mount the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011.  When you mount Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011 from the host machine go to CRMDEMO2011 and run the splash.exe from the ‘D:’ drive.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Standalone Sandbox Using VirtualBox Part 1

One of the best approaches to learn CRM is to have a sandbox.  A lot of recommendations out there suggest having your IT administrator provide you with a CRM sandbox to play in.  That is fine and is surely a good idea, but personally creating a sandbox will certainly give you the satisfaction of getting your hands dirty and will give you a little respect with your colleagues.  So here we are going to look at getting a basic MS CRM 2011 up and running with Oracle’s VirtualBox.

Entity Relationship Diagrams in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Visual representation of entity relationships and metadata can be very useful in a CRM project. Thankfully, Microsoft has provided pre-built Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERD) for the eleven of the most important out of the box entities in CRM2011. They are available here in Visio format.

You can also create ERDs for custom entities. The generator is buried deep inside of the SDK (…\sdk\samplecode\cs\metadata\diagram ). You will need Visual Studio and Visio 2010 to run the document generator.

1. First, open the above file path and open the file MetadataDiagram.csproj in Visual Studio.
2. Next, from the toolbar, click the Build Solution icon.
3. You could run the program now. However, it will map all of the entities, their attributes and their relationship to each other. This will take a very long time, but more importantly, it's complexity may render it useless to most people. What I have found useful it to map one entity at a time, or at the most two or three.
4. In order to draw one or more specific entities, click the debug tab, then enter the logical name in the Command line argument box. You can enter as many entities as you would like to map here. For instance, if you would like to map accounts, then simply enter "account". If you would like to map an custom entity then enter "new_entityname". If you would like to map the relationships between you custom entity and accounts, then enter "account new_entityname". Remember, that will map your new entity, accounts, and the relationships between them. If you want a map for accounts and another map for your custom entity, you will need to run the program twice.
5. To run the program, hit the Start Debugging button in the toolbar.
6. This will bring up a command prompt. It will ask for a CRM server and a port. It is very simply orgname.domainname.net (no https:, etc.) Then you enter your username and password just as you would if you were logging into CRM as a user.
7. The program will run (usually a few minutes) and create a Visio document in the path: (..sdk\samplecode\cs\metadata\diagram\bin\Debug ). The name of the file will be simply "account.vsd". It is important to note that if you use the program to create another account diagram, and there is already a file called "account.vsd" in the Debug file, the command prompt will issue an error and the document will not be created. It is a good best practice to move your finished files from the Debug folder as you finish them.


A sample of the output is below. This is for the entity 'sharepointsite' in ootb CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extension (SRS Data Connector) Installation Service Account Warning

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extensions, previously known as the SRS Data Connector, will sometimes return an error message during installation that is intended to be a warning, not an error. The message that you see is ‘A Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server component is using the same account as the instance of SQL Server Reporting Services.’

There are several conditions which will provoke this message

· A Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011 component is installed on the computer where Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services Setup is being run.

· The SQL Server Reporting Services account is a member of the Active Directory SQLAccessGroup security group. This can occur when the Reporting Services is running under the same account as another Microsoft Dynamics CRM component.

· All Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011 components, SQL Server, and Reporting Services are installed on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server Small Business Edition where Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services Setup is being run.

· The SQL Server Reporting Services account is set as "Local Service."

To get around this error, follow the steps below. Once this is completed, you will still see the error message however the ‘Next’ button will be available and you can continue with the installation. This does require a registry setting change, so it is recommended that the registry be backed up PRIOR to making any changes. One thing to note before using this, if you change this key on your CRM server, any checks that are supposed to take place during the CRM installation will also be ignored. This should only be used with great care and turned off after the Reporting Extensions installation is completed. Failure to do so may result in checks being ignored during other installations and could have negative consequences.

1. Close the installer window

2. Find the MSCRM key in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT directory

3. If the MSCRM key does not exist, create it in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT directory

4. Once you have the key, create a new DWORD value named IgnoreChecks and set the value to 1

5. Launch the installer and follow its instructions. When you get to the environment checks the ‘Next’ button will be available.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Email Router Throws 5.7.1 Client Could Not be Authenticated When Sending Emails

I was working on a 2011 upgrade and came across an issue when running the Email Router on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine. I installed the router with no issues, but when someone sent an email it failed. The following message was in the event viewer of the machine the router was installed on:

‘5.7.1 – Client could not be authenticated.’

During our troubleshooting, we found that the Email Router worked on a Windows Server 2008 machine with no Exchange authentication challenges. A Network Monitor trace confirmed the authentication challenge on the Windows Server 2008 R2 machine as an Exchange challenge. Research confirmed that Exchange 2007 was setup to accept anonymous users.

The solution to this was to set the authentication method to ‘Anonymous’ in the email router configuration manager. On the Windows Server 2008 machine, the authentication method was set to ‘Windows Authentication,’ however there is a conflict when sending authentication from a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine to an Exchange Server 2007 environment which is configured to accept anonymous users. It is also important to note that in this particular environment the Exchange server as well as the server with the Email Router are on the same network.

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.

Controlling Tabs and Sections with JScript in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

The options for managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM forms dynamically has increased tremendously in CRM 2011 – we can now, more than ever, tailor the look of a form to the specific type of record displayed.

Here are 2 functions I use to manage the form at runtime to show or hide sections or tabs based on data in the form.

The first function, “toggleTabDisplayState” hides or shows a tab and can show it collapsed or expanded. Call the function by passing in the ‘name’ of the tab, desired ‘display state’ [either “expanded” or “collapsed”] and whether the tab should be visible [ true or false ].

The second function, “toggleSectionDisplayState” hides or shows a section by setting its isVisible attribute to [ true or false ].

In this Example, I’ve named the “Prospect” tab: “tabProspect” in the form configuration - and based on whether a (previously set) variable “typeProspect” is true or not, I want to hide or show this tab – and when it’s displayed, I want it expanded. – I also want to hide/show the Customer tab based on whether the record is for a prospect or not.

// If the 'Prospect type' == true, 
//    then Show and expand the Prospect tab and hide the Customer section
// Otherwise, 
//    Show the Customer Section and hide the Prospect Tab
if (typeProspect == true) {
    toggleTabDisplayState("tabProspect", "expanded", true);
    toggleTabDisplayState("sectionCustomer", false);

}
else {
    toggleTabDisplayState("tabProspect", "collapsed", false);
    toggleTabDisplayState("sectionCustomer", true);
}


function toggleTabDisplayState(tabName, tabDisplayState, tabIsVisible) {
    //Hide/Show and/or Expand/Collapse tabs     
    var tabs = Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get();
    for (var i in tabs) {
        var tab = tabs[i];
        if (tab.getName() == tabName) {
            tab.setVisible(tabIsVisible);
            tab.setDisplayState(tabDisplayState);
        }
    }
}

function toggleSectionDisplayState(sectionName, sectionIsVisible) {
    //Hide or Show Sections 
    var tabs = Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get();
    for (var i in tabs) {
        var tab = tabs[i];
        tab.sections.forEach(function (section, index) {
            if (section.getName() == sectionName) {
                section.setVisible(sectionIsVisible);
            }
        });
    }
}

CRM 2011 and Restoring the SSRS server

To make a long story short, if you aren't careful, bad things can happen when you lock down a CRM IIS server. There are many articles on the internet that cover this topic, but changes to IIS range from local security permissions to registry hacks. We learned the following details as a result of an IT department hardening IIS. The one item a local IT department did in this situation was to remove “Domain Users” from the local users group.

I wanted to validate the SSRS connector installation on a fresh SSRS box installation. After building the base Windows 2008 server, installing and configuring SSRS, I thought it would be pretty straight forward to reinstall the Microsoft CRM 2011 SSRS connector. I was surprised when I got an error message and then noticed that “no default reports” existed on the new SSRS server. It turns out that Microsoft Dynamics CRM stores information in the config database that indicates that the SQL Server Reporting Services connector was previously installed. In the end, this makes sense because if you edited a “default” CRM report, you would not want a new CRM installation to write over the top of it. Although, it would be nice if when you uninstalled the last SSRS server that the bit would be reset to the default value so when you reinstall the SSRS connector it would reinstall the reports.

Here is how we came to understand the details on how Microsoft Dynamics CRM tracks information related to SSRS reports being installed.

• After we rebuilt the SSRS server, we ran the SSRS connector install on the SSRS server and no reports were installed and I received a new error message
• Since this was a development environment, we uninstalled CRM (since our deployment was all on one box except for SSRS) and reinstalled it to the exiting configuration and org databases and still no reports. My theory was that there must be a flag in the DB that tells the install not to republish reports because of it being an “existing” installation. You would not want to overwrite any customizations that you might have made to an existing MS report.
• We also found an our old friend “publishreports.exe” still included as part of the CRM installation on the IIS web server and not the SSRS server. If you recall this utility allows you to republish all the standard reports back to your SSRS installation hosting your CRM reports in CRM version 3 and 4.

We opened up a case with Microsoft support, and they clarified how it works. It stores a flag in the “MSCRM_Config” database that prevents the install from redeploying the reports when the SSRS connector is reinstalled. The following screenshots were provided by Microsoft Support and our direct relationship with them (Thanks Arpita!)

In the MSCRM_CONFIG database the Organization table now includes a value called “AreReportsPublished.”  If this flag is flipped, the installation of the Microsoft CRM 2011 SSRS Data Connector will take no action.

The following are the steps to redeploy your reports:

1) Please check to verify that the flag has indeed been flipped (Value 1). The following SQL Statement should show you the info needed.  AreReportsPublished should be the first column returned for each record.

Use [MSCRM_CONFIG]

Select * From Organization

2) If the value is 1, run the following update script to reset the flag back to 0……Be sure to set the proper Unique Name for the customers Org

Use [MSCRM_CONFIG]

Update Organization set AreReportsPublished = 0 where UniqueName = 'CRM'

3) Once the AreReportsPublished value is confirmed to be 0, you can run a repair on the Data Connector and it should read that value and import and publish the CRM standard reports.

The other option you have is to redeploy the reports using the “publishreports.exe” here’s how…

On the CRM server (not the SSRS server) change to the tools folder under CRM directory and run “PublishReports.exe “NameOfYourOrg”

Hope it helps!

Scribe GP/Microsoft CRM 2011 Templates and CRM Online

I recently worked on integrating Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online with a local deployment of MS Great Plains 10. While you might assume that this might be an easy task considering that Scribe has had the GP templates around for a while now, it presented some challenges stemming from the security around CRM 2011 online hosting. The native Scribe GP templates need adjustments to connect to CRM 2011 online.

Scribe pointed us to the following blog post that will help you get started. We won’t go into all the details covered in the posting but here are the key points that you will need to do in order to make this work.

• You will need two CRM online accounts for this modified process which means customers have to pay for additional user licenses.
  • One of the accounts needs to have the “isintegrationuser” set to 1. You need to create your own DTS to flip this value.
  • You will need to modify all DTS connection that point to CRM 2011 to use one of the accounts you created above. There is one exception so please review blog posting.
• You will have to modify the “publishers” associated with CRM 2011
• The steps related to installing and configuring “Order History Monitors & Views for Microsoft Dynamics CRM” will not work because you cannot create an ODBC connection to the CRM DB located in the cloud.

The ability to use the GP templates and CRM 2011 online is mentioned in the release notes.

Lesson learned: always read the release notes for Scribe templates (and any Microsoft Dynamics CRM updates). They include important information about system requirements, and can save you from making time-wasting mistakes.

Hope it helps!

CRM 2011 - Missing Ribbon Bar

An existing customer of ours, in the process of upgrading to CRM 2011, was testing an upgraded development organization against workstations that previously had the CRM 4 Outlook client installed on them. They encountered this strange behavior relating to the Outlook ribbon bar missing. This only happened on one of the desktop clients they were testing from. Initially they tried uninstall the CRM 2011 Outlook client and the ribbon bar would magically reappear.

The process that they were following:

• Uninstall CRM 4 Outlook client
• Install CRM 2011 Outlook Client
• Configure CRM 2011 Outlook Client
• Open Outlook

The workstation was Windows 7. I did not spend a lot of time troubleshooting because I found this MS KB article. In addition to that, we do know that there were some ribbon bar issues were introduced in earlier MS CRM 2011 releases. As a result of that we recommend doing the following process of for changing Outlook clients for CRM 2011.

We updated the client installation process as follows:

• Close Outlook
• Uninstall CRM 4 Outlook client
• Install CRM 2011 Outlook Client
• Install CRM 2011 Outlook Client rollup 3
• Configure CRM 2011 Outlook Client
• Open Outlook

Obviously, if that does not work the following KB article did fix their particular issues.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Security - The "Append" and "Append To" Rights

Here’s an easy example to help remember the distinction between the Append and Append To Rights defined in CRM's Security Roles.

Consider the situation when a user needs to set the Parent Customer field on the Contact. Beyond the obvious ‘write’ permission on the contact, they also need the “Append” right for that Contact and the “Append To” right for the intended parent Account record.

For more information, Joel Lindstrom provided an explanation in this blog post. (http://blog.customereffective.com/blog/2009/11/microsoft-crm-append-vs-append-towhats-the-difference.html)

Gain and Secure Employee Buy-in to Your New CRM System

Most workers value tools provided by their organization that help them do their jobs better. Some covet a platform that will reduce their time spent on cumbersome, manual-intensive activities, keep them more organized, and make it easier to find data. Others desire a tool that allows them to spend more time with clients and prospects. For instance, if employees are convinced that a new CRM system can help them be more effective in their respective roles and enhance their efficiency, they will be more motivated and inclined to learn and incorporate it into their daily routine. However, if employees feel that the new CRM system will not increase their overall productivity, they will demonstrate a resistance to change and be reluctant to learn the new platform. New technology tools that come with steep learning curves and actually add extra time-consuming steps to already existing arduous tasks will certainly not be embraced by employees. Similarly, users will not be fond of a new CRM system that takes an extraordinarily long time to implement and that does not even provide the core functionality improvements requested and absolutely needed by the user base. As new users become frustrated and confused by the new system, they will spend more time complaining at the water cooler rather than working on mission critical tasks. The users’ growing disdain and lack of commitment to adopting the new CRM system can unfortunately become an enormous roadblock for a successful CRM implementation. Without employee buy-in, the gains achieved through the CRM implementation will be quite minimal and few and far between. The buy-in must come from all levels of the company, from upper management to power users to less frequent users of CRM.

After selecting a CRM solution, executive management must ignite a sense of excitement as the implementation project commences. In order to execute a smooth transition to the new CRM system, upper management must also demonstrate a steadfast commitment to completing the implementation on time, exude a passion for learning and mastering the system, and actually use it every day themselves. Management must not only be positive, supportive, and passionate about the CRM system, but also communicate early and often with the user base and explain why exactly the firm is embarking upon this CRM initiative. By clearly articulating the benefits of the CRM system and how it will help the firm and specific departments meet strategic business objectives, employees will recognize that their time invested in training and familiarizing themselves with the system will not be wasted. Upon hearing and experiencing how the CRM system is going to help their on the job performance and yield personal advantages, users will be more likely to embrace and support the implementation project. Frequent communication and extended training support are keys to boosting a firm’s adoption rates. It should be noted, though, that tactfully securing employee buy-in needs to occur well before UAT. Moreover, end-users should not be left alone to figure out the system on their own after UAT. They more than likely will need continued assistance and motivation as they become acclimated to the new system. To further accelerate adoption rates, executives and project champions must continue to engage users, offer encouragement, and share CRM success stories. Doing so will renew a sense of focus, urgency, and pride in leveraging the CRM system of choice across the user base.

If you are currently evaluating CRM systems and are clamoring for ways to help employees automate their marketing, sales, and service activities, then you should consider investing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The familiar, intuitive Microsoft Office interface and tight integration with Outlook in CRM 2011 provides a better, personalized user experience, which will drive user adoption throughout your organization. The comprehensive solution suite of CRM 2011 offers flexible point-and-click customizations and deep configuration capabilities that can actually meet the needs of end-users. As employees come to trust and appreciate the robust, yet easy-to-learn functionality of CRM 2011, they will want to learn the system faster, utilize it more frequently, and share their knowledge with co-workers more often. By gaining user buy-in to CRM 2011, you will definitely increase not only user adoption, but also the firm’s overall ROI on its technology purchase.

Firms Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Adopting CRM as a Strategy

Research from Bain & Company indicates that as little as a 5% increase in client retention can provide companies with a 75% boost in profits. In today’s intensely competitive global marketplace, an increasing number of best-in-class firms utilize CRM to drive performance across the enterprise and retain and add clients. Over a decade ago, some viewed CRM as optional or a “nice-to-have.” Today, though, CRM is a strategic business differentiator and essential to the long-term growth and success of an organization. The cost of not investing in CRM is significant. Negative results include smaller profits per customer, flat or declining revenues, eroding market share, lower margins than industry peers, lower returns on poorly-targeted and executed marketing campaigns, higher costs to acquire new clients, longer sales cycles, missed cross-sell opportunities, declining customer satisfaction rates, higher client attrition rates, increased turnover of valuable employees, lower shareholder value, hindered employee productivity, and uninformed, error-prone, and untimely decision making.

Oddly enough, some companies are still hesitant to invest in CRM. Often, these non-CRM adopters are complacent due to past success and they still adhere to product and service-centric strategies and metrics. Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School Professor and one of the world’s renowned experts on strategy and competitive advantage, elaborates: “If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful. It's incredibly arrogant for a company to believe that it can deliver the same sort of product that its rivals do and actually do better for very long. That's especially true today, when the flow of information and capital is incredibly fast.” Merely relying on a stellar track record and a pristine reputation to produce referrals and new business may have some sort of payoff in the short-term, but it certainly will not lead to any long-term sustainable competitive advantage. Besides offering unique in-demand products and solutions, companies must differentiate themselves by embracing a client-centric focus and implementing CRM throughout all levels of the organization.

Other reasons commonly cited for a reluctance to adopt a CRM strategy and utilize a CRM system include conflicting and more pressing IT priorities, budgetary constraints, or preferences for home-grown proprietary solutions. In other situations, lack of consideration for CRM may derive from a misunderstanding of what CRM entails. CRM is so much more than managing contact records and address books. It is about focusing on customers, building relationships, and capturing and tracking real-time data across multiple channels to better understand client needs and preferences so that they keep returning. Furthermore, CRM involves transforming and streamlining business processes to generate lasting client value, retain and satisfy more clients, and ultimately grow revenues. That being said, companies can no longer afford to ignore implementing a CRM strategy and investing in a leading-edge CRM system, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM. IT initiatives must be re-prioritized and budgets must be reallocated to include room for CRM. Core legacy systems are no longer viable. They cannot integrate with other core systems, they are not scalable, they cannot grow with your business, they cannot provide real-time information, and they cannot push data to multiple electronic devices. Firms delaying CRM strategic investments will continue to lag and lose ground to industry leaders.

Lastly, firms in the process or in the need of establishing a CRM vision can benefit by watching this brief four minute video produced by Software Advice entitled “What is the current state of the CRM software market,” which is an executive interview with Brad Wilson, Microsoft Dynamics CRM General Manager. As always, Customer Effective can help assess your organization’s readiness for CRM and prepare you for a successful Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 implementation that meets or exceeds time and budget targets.

Best Practices for CRM Environments

At the 2010 CRMUG Summit at the end of October, I lead a session with Chris Condron from FM Global called “Best Practices for CRM Environments.” 

During this session we covered best practices for CRM administrators to keep a CRM environment running smoothly (and by extension, keep users happy).

• Automation—The best system administration is automatic.  By automating system administration processes, you guarantee consistently repeatable results.  Some of the areas that should be automated include environmental refreshes, configuration deployments, and client installations and updates.
• Sandboxing development—Some frequent CRM deployment issues happen when there isn’t a clear distinction between dev and production.  A best practice that can avoid these issues is by sandboxing dev in a separate environment from your UAT/Production environments. 
• Source control—CRM is a very agile, customizable system; however, it is still important to apply standards of good source control practices to your configuration changes.
• Performance and sharing—Sharing is a very powerful tool for your CRM security strategy; however, if sharing is not properly implemented, it can cause performance degradation.   The CRM database Primary Object Access table is used by crm to record privileges for each record shared with a user or a team.  If this table gets too large, performance of system views and searching can be impacted.  If you are sharing a large number of records, team sharing is recommended (instead of sharing with individual users), as it reduces the number of records in the POA table.
• Backup—Disasters happen.  Having a good backup strategy is vital—knowing how often to back up, and what components to back up is the most critical component in disaster recovery.

Chris and I  will be presenting an encore presentation of this session on 12/9/2010 at 1:30 PM ET.  If you are not currently a member of the CRMUG, you can find out more at www.crmug.com.

del.icio.us Tags: CRM Best Practices,CRMUG,encore presentation.

CRM Update Rollups and Hotfixes and Updates That Must Be Enabled or Configured Manually

You are probably aware that approximately every 8 weeks Microsoft releases an Update Rollup, a cumulative set of updates and fixes. 

When deploying an Update Rollup, it’s important to realize that update rollups include two categories of updates:

1. Bug fixes—these are fixes to issues where CRM is not working as designed, and they are applied automatically when you install the update rollup.

2. Design changes—these are updates where CRM is working by design, but Microsoft has made a change in the way CRM works. For example, there were recently some updates that changed how CRM handles housekeeping of completed system jobs. Design changes require a manual change on the CRM server, typically a registry change, to enable the update, since Microsoft doesn’t want to change the system design for users who expect it to work the way it was originally designed.

The changes that require a registry change to enable are included in knowledge base article for the update rollup under the section "Hotfixes and updates that you have to enable or configure manually.”

This is why it’s important to read the knowledge base articles associated with CRM update rollups before you roll them out. Read through the changes included. I only make the changes that require registry changes if the fix addresses an issue that I’m seeing in my environment. Making changes that fix issues that you are not experiencing can have unintended side effects. It’s ok to pick and choose which ones you enable.

This is also why, if you read a blog or hear somebody from Microsoft say “Rollup X fixes that problem,” don’t automatically assume that the problem is fixed because you have installed the update. Read the small print—there may be additional steps required to enable the change.

 

del.icio.us Tags: CRM,update rollup,best practices

Improving CRM Performance by Setting the Preferred Domain Controller

The other day we helped one of our customers bring their production CRM environment back online. Earlier in the week, they lost one of their Microsoft Active Directory domain controllers. When the controller went down, users could no longer access CRM. All users were getting the error message below when trying to access CRM.

Server Error in '/' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The server is not operational.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: The server is not operational.

We were able to recover from the failure of the Domain Controller by setting the “PreferredDc” key to the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSCRM registry hive. This key sets where CRM goes first to get security information for user requests. 

Before setting this value, it is important to remember that if you lose the domain controller specified in the PreferredDC registry key, CRM performance may be impacted; however, if you are having some performance issues or weird conditions related to authentication, you might want to give it a try.

For implementations that have huge MS infrastructures and many users and security requests, they could spin up an additional DC and then point CRM to that domain controller. This way users and security requests would have a dedicated DC to handle CRM authentication requests. The following link references the KB article from MS.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954811

Additional notes:

After adding the key you will need to reboot your server.

You may want to take a look at what domain controller CRM is sending user security requests to, and which DC is responding. Example(s): If you have a large exchange environment, you might not want to send CRM requests to the same domain controllers where the exchange servers are sending their requests. Or if you have a Windows 2008 AD infrastructure with read-only domain controllers, you may want to see if CRM is sending requests to them and try sending them to a read-write domain controller using this key.