September 11 Blog Review

We have lots of CRM tips and news to catch up on from the last 2 weeks. First of all, the big news is the CRM 2016 was officially announced. Check out the press release, video and release preview guide for all the information. This is scheduled to be available at the end of the year as a new version for online and on-premise. It appears that Microsoft is working hard to improve the integrations with other Microsoft offerings like Outlook, Excel and Cortana. It will be exciting to see what is to come!

Ledgeview Partners posted about Using Calculated fields in CRM 2015. This walks through the different formulas available for different field types and how to set up the calculation.

In the last blog I shared the Outlook Synchronization in CRM 2015 white paper. If that was too long to read, check out the EMEA Support Blog’s Recap of Outlook Synchronization. This talks about what happens when you hit Track or Set Regarding, what happens if you delete an email or appointment, etc.

The CRM Team shared my favorite feature of TechNet – Finding you way around CRM topics on TechNet and MSDN or how to be a CRM Technical Documentation Zen Master in 5 minutes. This was one of my top takeaways from CRMUG Summit last year. When viewing an article there is a version drop down you can use to switch between versions. So if your search takes you to 2015 but you need the 2011 article you can find it in just a few clicks!

The CRM Lady tackled the Easy and Hard Questions to consider as we think about Managed and Unmanaged Solutions. Understanding how different solutions interact is one of the hardest parts of CRM. This blog is a great way to build the foundation for that understanding.

PowerObjects talked about Customizing Entity Icons in CRM 2013 and 2015. This goes through step-by-step how to update your icons and everything you need to know.

PowerObjects also walked through Expanding the Field Label Widths in CRM 2015. This is something to look into if your field labels are being cut off on the form.

Finally, there are always great tips on the CRM Tip of the Day. Check it out this week to learn more about Unified Service Desk and OneNote integration.

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

June 12 Blog Review

Welcome everyone! Let us quickly review the CRM news this week so you can get back to enjoying your summer!

The CRM Tip of the Day posted several great tips this week:

• Some things are Irreversible – Keep in mind anytime you create a currency function the system will create transactioncurrencyid and exchangerate fields. These will not be deleted even if you delete the currency field.
• The Mysteries of Sync – this discusses a few interesting behaviors of the CRM for Outlook sync
• Convert your SQL to FetchXML the Easy Way – this talks about using the SQL2Fetch Converter to change your CRM on-premise SQL to FetchXML statements for CRM Online

PowerObjects posted Product Bundles with Variable Product Quantities. This walks through how to create the Product Bundle and how to use this on an Opportunity.

The CRM Team announced this week that there is a new Web API for CRM Online 2015 Update 1. Make sure you check out the available documentation and samples.

The CRM Lady shared Time for Graphics, Easy Graphics from CRM with Excel PowerBI. This walks you through how to export data and plot it on a map using Excel PowerMap. This is a very cool feature to play with!

Finally who doesn’t love a good infographic? Check out, Somoma Partners INFOGRAPHIC: 2015 State of Knowledge for Customer Service. This reviews some stats about customer service about things that customers are expecting and employee challenges. This points out how important it is to have a robust, user-friendly CRM system to help your employees get the information they need quickly.

Don’t forget – the CRMUG Chapters for DC and Baltimore will be meeting up for a summer networking event at the July 18^th Nationals game. You can register here and buy tickets from the Nationals directly. Meet us at the Red Loft Bar anytime during the game!

That’s all for today folks!

May 15 Blog Review

The most important CRM News this week was (of course!) the Washington, DC CRMUG Chapter Meeting on Wednesday May 13! If you are a CRMUG member, you can view all the notes in the DC Chapter blog. If you are not a member, check out the CRM Lady’s Blog from that day as she captured some of our top topics.

Also for everyone in the Washington, DC area – block of July 18^th on your calendar! CRMUG DC will be having a joint event with the Baltimore user group at the Nationals game vs the Dodgers. You can come with your family and friends then come meet fellow CRM users at the Red Loft Bar throughout the game!

Also important this week is that Microsoft announced the Annual Dynamics Product Satisfaction Survey! Take a few minutes to go through this and let your feedback be heard!

Now let’s get to the other CRM Blogs posted this week.

PowerObjects posted on How to Retrieve all the Access Team Members for all Accounts in CRM. This talks about how you can grab Access Team data so that you can use it in other queries and reporting.

Sonoma Partners discussed the CRM Online Spring 2015 – Plug-in Trace Log. We have talked about this before but it is a great new feature so it never hurts to share more! This new option allows Administrators to view plug-in errors easily from within CRM.

Jukka Niiranen shared Customizing Lead Qualification process in CRM 2015. This walks through how you can use Business Rules and edit your processes to fit your needs.

CRM Tip of the Day posted an interesting tip – Why aren’t my Workflows running? This explains how Real Time workflows do not show up in the System Jobs as you might expect.

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

May 8 Blog Review

The most important news this week is that you need to be coming to the CRMUG Washington, DC Chapter meeting next Wednesday May 13^th (Blog, Video, Register). You can also see other news and posts below.

This week the CRM Team announced the General Availability for Spring 2015 Release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics Marketing. Their post discusses the key improvements to be aware of (and excited for!).

If you need more information, Anne Stanton compiled a list of Great Resources for Dynamics CRM v7.x.x. This links to the Microsoft videos as well as the different announcements.

Related to this update, Sonoma Partners posted CRM Online Spring 2015 – Folder Level Tracking. This is a great new feature which allows users to set up specific Outlook folders which automatically track and even set the Regarding to a specific record.

Adam Vero continued his charting series with “Mind the gap” to make your CRM Charts look better. This describes how to use the PointWidth and MaxPixelPointWidth properties to ensure your chart looks good on all size monitors and devices. These properties set the amount of the screen filled with columns and (from the opposite perspective) the max size that your columns can be.

I also found these two blogs from a few weeks ago from Ms. Dynamics CRM – Import Case, Account and Contact at once in Single File in CRM Import Wizard and Tips & Tricks: How to solve the Common Bulk Import Problem: ‘The Lookup Reference Could Not Be Resolved’ in CRM Import Wizard. Both of these are things that I have never tried but sounds very interesting. I can’t wait to experiment with it!

Finally, from the CRM Tip of the Day – Training? On New Features? Free? Yes, Please! This directs you to some training for the 2015 Spring release that is available on YouTube.

That’s all for tonight. Have a great weekend everyone!

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!