March 27 Blog Review

It has been another busy week in the CRM world. Everyone is catching up from Convergence last week and spreading all the information. So let’s take a look.

• If you missed Convergence in Atlanta, here is all the information you need:
• Video Library Now Available! Thanks for sharing Ledgeview Partners!
• PowerObject’s Convergence 2015 Takeaways
• Jukka Niiranen posted A Few Notes on Convergence 2015 Announcements
• Sonoma Partners’ Convergence 2015 Keynote Recap
• McGladrey shared Microsoft Convergence recap from a Dynamics CRM Perspective (lots of pictures!)

Lean Tribe posted A Codeless Alert System for Dynamics CRM. This walks through how to use Business Rules to set up an alert for users. This is a great way to get the user’s attention and force them to read a message before interacting with the record. The main benefit is that the business logic for this alert can be easily changed through the interface without needing to involve a developer to modify the code.

PowerObjects discussed Branching and Programmatically Branching Process Flows. This talks about how to deal with processes which change based on certain data and the multiple ways to achieve the desired result.

CRM Tip of the Day posted a great time about Avoiding Duplicate Contacts when Upgrading. This gives some things to keep in mind when you are upgrading your CRM system and the options you have for dealing with the Outlook client.

That’s all for today. Have a great weekend!

March 20 Blog Review

This has been a very exciting week because it was Microsoft Convergence! Lots of exciting things were discussed and announced so let’s cover that first.

The big announcement of course was the CRM 2015 Spring Release. The CRM Team blog posted the Official Pre-Release Content for you to check out.

Hitachi Solutions posted some great summaries of the announcements each day: Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. The most exciting enhancement for me was themes which allows you to customize the colors of your CRM system and even add a logo! You can also see this feature on CRM Tip of the Day’s Turn CRM Green.

Microsoft’s Premier Field Engineers shared 3 posts on 15 tips in 15 minutes sessions that they had at Convergence – Upgrading, Optimization, and Customization.

Finally, McGladrey posted the Spring Release Highlights to recap what we have been looking at so far.

Non-Convergence related you should check out PowerObjects’ post on Definitions of ‘Append’ and ‘Append To’ in Dynamics CRM. This describes the difference, why it’s important and how to keep it straight in your mind.

That’s all I have. Have a great weekend everyone!

March 13 Blog Review

Happy Friday the 13^th and almost St. Patrick’s Day! It may be tempting to get lost in the excitement but I need you to focus for just a few minutes on the CRM blogs that came out this week.

Hitachi Solutions posted CRM Business Rules + Calculated Fields = Amazing. This discusses how to use Business Rules to set a default value for all of the fields that you want to rollup. This will ensure you do not run into any issues because fields don’t have values or things like that.

Jukka Niiranen also talked about Rollup Fields in Monitoring Rollup Field Values with Workflows. This describes how you can use a workflow batch process to check for certain conditions and send out notifications if the rollup fields have hit a certain threshold.

PowerObjects wrote How to: Open Quick Create from a Sub Grid. This talks about a few options to make the + icon when filling in a lookup open up the Quick Create form.

McGladrey walked through Using Marketing Lists to bypass the limitations of Advanced Find functionality. Often people are asking for how can I find Accounts without contacts or similar requests, this blog walks through how to do that using Marketing Lists. Keep in mind this can only be used if the record set you are looking for is Accounts, Contacts, or Leads.

A few weeks ago the CRM Team Blog announced a new CRM for Outlook ebook. This week they posed the new CRM for Outlook User’s Guide Page. This is a place to send users for generic training or get some customizable trainings that you can personalize for your organization.

CRM Tip of the Day posted several tips to take a look at:

• In Dynamics CRM we Trust – This talks about the CRM Trust Center and gives you an overview of what is says and what you need to know.
• Demystifying pop3/smtp for CRM Online – this describes what configurations are not allowed for Server Side Sync with CRM Online and how to set up those that are allowed.
• Sky is the limit for the Workflows – There is no limit for the number of workflows in CRM Online, at least not an enforced one.

Also for those of you shipping off to Convergence next week, be sure to check out Ledgeview Partners Hitchhikers Guide to Microsoft Convergence 2015. Then make sure you review PFE Dynamics @ Convergence 2015. This talks about the sessions that the Premier Field Engineers will be leading meaning they will be packed with excellent content.

That’s all for tonight. Have a great weekend folks! Please share all your news from Convergence so we can look at it next week!

March 6 Blog Review

It is our first opportunity to catch up on the CRM News of March. Let’s see what has been going on.

Hitachi Solutions posted an extension of a post we looked at last week in Dynamics CRM Mission Advanced Find Impossible? This discusses how you can edit the FetchXML of an Advanced Find view to accomplish things that are not possible out-of-the-box.

CRM in the Field discussed Memory Management for CRM in a Virtual Environment. This describes what to look at when dealing with performance issues and some things to keep in mind.

Anne Stanton posted about xRM Best Practices. This goes over important things to keep in mind as you work to expand your CRM implementation. This includes things like loving the SDK and working with it and having a CRM architect map out your system so you have a sustainable design.

CRM Tip of the Day posted a two part series on the name of your CRM environment. First, Choose your name Wisely (don’t get name and display name confused) then if you made a mistake Rename the Organization.

CRM Tip of the Day also discussed Using Stored Procedures with CRM Reports. This talks about the benefits and disadvantages of using stored procedures and how to get started.

That’s all for today. Have a great weekend!