August 2016 Blog Review

Let's start the month of August off right with some CRM Tip of the Day:

• Tale of a Small Change - great example showing the work that goes into "small" changes
• Record Merge fails when assignee has insufficient privileges - merge issues when reparenting records owned by administrative access users
• Get your Tab order in order - a few quick tips to help users tab through fields and enter data in your system

Ledgeview Partners posted Setting Up a Sales Follow-up Workflow in Dynamics CRM. This walks through a workflow example showing the planning and final logic.

Ledgeview also shared Customize Color of Dynamics CRM Icon Backgrounds. Use these steps to theme your entity icons to match the rest of your system.

If you are interested in testing out a portal solution check out Donna Edward's CRM Online Portal Trial - Step by Step Installation.

Sonoma Partners was busy this month and shared:

• How to Use CRM Business Process Flows: The Checklist Strategy - Pros and Cons of using Business Process Flows and what it means for your system and users. Major takeaway: Have a clear, defined process and report on usage of it.
• Troubleshooting the Dynamics CRM Outlook Addin - everyone has issues with CRM for Outlook so Microsoft has provided some new diagnostic tools to assist. This article walks you through how to get started with this tool.
• What did Johnny Cash know about CRM? - this discusses the importance of planning your CRM implementation and working with a good team to make that a reality.

Hitachi Solutions posted How to Create a Voice of the Customer Survey in Dynamics CRM. Walk through these steps to create surveys that you can send to your customers directly from CRM.

Mitch Milam shared Dynamics CRM Security: Crossing Your I's and Dotting Your T's. This is a great example of the need to double check everything and never make assumptions in your system.

Speaking of security, you can also check out Leon Tribe's post on Securing Records by a Field Value in CRM. This gives an overview of how to handle a complex security situation.

PowerObjects also shared several posts this month for you to check out:

• Best Practices for Business Process Flows - this gives tips to keep in mind during the design and build phase for BPFs
• How to Disable Exporting or Printing Reports in CRM 2016 - you always want to be careful with dangerous permissions in your system. This post shows you how to turn off Export to Excel and Print access for a particular security role. Be sure to ensure that it is removed from all roles that the user has.
• Using Security Roles to Disable Custom and System Dashboards - you can now limit dashboards to only certain security roles. In this way, you can hide unnecessary dashboards from certain user groups.

That’s all for August!

January 15 Blog Review

Let’s jump right in to the news of the week with Microsoft announcing Microsoft Envision. This is replacing Convergence and will focus on strategic leadership and Microsoft Dynamics. If you want focused learning on the Microsoft Dynamics Products you should look into the CRM User Group Summit.

David Yack talks about Making the Most of your CRM Trial by using the reset feature to go back to the base organization or to look at past versions.

PowerObjects shared about Color Themes in Dynamics CRM 2016. This specifically talks about how your color schemes impact the CRM mobile experience.

PowerObjects also posted The Great Debate: Dynamics CRM Connections vs Lookups. This shows the benefits of using connections including keeping your forms cleaner and eliminating the need for multiple relationships between entities.

Donna Edwards blogged about the CRM 2016 Task Flow. This walks through the new Task Flow feature – how to create and run in the web and via mobile. Task Flows allow you to provide a wizard for your users that can walk through multiple entities to help them finish all the steps for a particular task.

CRM Tip of the Day shared Recently Visited Items in Outlook Client. The Recently Visited button is a great timesaver in the web version of CRM, check this post out to see how to do the same thing when accessing CRM through Outlook.

Finally, Mitch Milam posted about Read Only Fields and the Dynamics CRM Workflow Editor. This describes ways to allow your workflows to update Read Only fields. You can remove the Read-Only condition on your fields while you edit the workflow or you can try one of his more elegant solutions.

Also, for those in DC, Maryland and Virginia don’t forget to plan to come to the CRMUGDC 2016 Chapter Launch Party! This will be a fun event to get to know CRM users in the area and learn more about all the local chapters in the DMV. Register Here!

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

January 16 Blog Review

It has been a very busy week for me because I have been finalizing the CRMUG DC Chapter Meeting. This is going to be a great year for the DC Chapter so all of you should plan to attend!

Now let’s take a look at what was going on in the world of CRM this week.

PowerObjects posted a great tutorial for new users on Modifying a View in CRM 2013 to Create a Personal View. This shows you how to take existing Advanced Find views and create your own copy with columns and filters that are exactly what you need.

Hitachi Solutions blogged about Using Goals as Rollup Tables in CRM. This talks about how you can use the Goals functionality to replace custom reports you might have created long ago to track progress and distance from a target. Goals recalculate every 24 hours so your numbers will be fresh each morning and will not need to be calculated when you run a report.

Donna Edwards posted about CRM Online Licensing Highlights which goes over a few key takeaways from the CRM Online licensing and pricing guide. As CRM continues to have more attached products (Marketing, Social, etc.) licensing becomes more complex, so any extra help understanding is beneficial.

The CRM Team Blog shared a list of the new CRM 2015 videos. Check these out to learn more about the CRM 2015 offering and the benefits it can bring to your organization.

Finally from CRM Tip of the Day remember to Name your Relationships. If you just set up Relationships with default names the left hand navigation of the related entity could show the same name multiple times. So edit this name on the relationship properties or completely remove it.

That’s all for this week. Have a nice weekend!

October 10 Blog Review

There are only a few more days before CRMUG Summit so next week will be full of news! Let’s see what has been going on this week.

The CRM Team posted – Looking for help for the CRM product family. This has lots of links to help, information and blogs about the different Dynamics CRM products (CRM, Marketing, Social Listening). This is a great resource to keep handy.

McGladrey posted two blogs about their takeaways from eXtream CRM 2014. What to Expect for CRM 2015 goes over the key features and functionality we can expect to be seeing in the next version. Then Looking beyond CRM 2015 talks about Microsoft’s vision and the things we can expect to see highlighted in the development of future products.

There were two CRM Tips that I would like to highlight today:

• The Undo Button – this discusses the functionality of Jason Lattimer’s Audit undo solution which allows you to roll back changes on your form to an earlier audit record.
• My Workflow is my business – here you can learn about the impact of the scope field on a workflow to segment your business processes or for use in testing.

CRM in the Field posted CRM Outlook Client Performance Troubleshooting and Optimization Guide. This goes through everything you need to look at and know when troubleshooting problems with CRM for Outlook.

Donna Edwards started her compilation of CRM 2015 Helpful Resources. Refer to this when you begin the process of upgrading to 2015 and find all the information you need.

Adam Vero posted a compilation of CRM 2015 YouTube Videos. This features three videos from Microsoft about what to expect in CRM 2015. The topics consist of Upgrading (must be on CRM 2013 SP1 to upgrade), Field Level Security (now for built-in fields!!), and Business Process Flow Improvements.

Finally, PowerObjects talked about the CRM 2013 Performance Center. This describes how to use this new functionality (2013 SP1) and how to review the data.

That’s all for today. Have a great weekend and I hope to see you at Summit!

March 28 Blog Review

The past few weeks have been very busy it seems - work and vacations and family and all kinds of stuff. So this is not really a weekly review but basically the whole month of March review. It has been a busy month in the CRM world with Convergence and all of the news from there. Make sure you check out Virtual Convergence. There are many sessions you can watch online for free so you can learn some of what those that attended learned.

This month Microsoft released the Scalable Security Modeling with CRM 2013. This is an expansion on the 2011 document including the new information on Access teams.

Since we have so much to cover I will try to hit the highlights quickly:

Power Objects:

Lookup Types and Customizing Lookups in CRM – this describes how to resolve the issue where a lookup only looks at a team instead of user and team.

Preventing Users from Going Back with Child Dialogs – Neat trick on how to prevent duplicate actions from users using the previous button within a Dialog in CRM 2011

Unwanted Activity Types in CRM – Options on handling Activity types you do not want users to use

Adjusting CRM 2013 Field label sizes – tips on how to make your forms look the way you want them to in CRM 2013

Customer Effective: CRM 2013 Update Rollup 2 – Recap on the changes with the CRM 2013 UR 2 release. Also check out the PFE CRM in the Field Overview

Donna Edwards: Update Rollups – Should I or Should I Not, that is the Question – a look at how to know if you should install Rollups and how to plan for that

CRM in the Field:

Useful Tools and Features – a list of tools that they are using from CRM 2011 and 2013 that you may find useful as well

CRM 2013 Form Upgrade Experience – this discusses what to keep in mind when upgrading your forms for CRM 2013

Dynamics CRM Team Blog: CRM Online Sandbox Instances – some changes for CRM Online customers for non-production instances

Mitch Milam: KnowledgeBits – Make sure you sign up for Mitch’s newest tips and tricks newsletter

Salentica: CRM 2013 Form for Every User Error – how to deal with the “There must be at least one form for every user” in CRM 2013

Sonoma Partners:

Convergence Recap – Part 1, Part 2: Unified Service Desk and Part 3: Sonoma Partners Booth – check out everything you may have missed at Convergence

CRM 2013 Upgrade Considerations – things to keep in mind as you plan and execute your upgrade to CRM 2013

Jukka Niiranen:

Spring Cleaning for your CRM System – how to find which fields are not on your forms or which fields do not have data and what to do

Synchronization vs. Tracking: Understanding Activity Management Options in CRM – Understanding the differences between syncing and tracking and determining how you should handle your activities

2014 CRM Roadmap – a look at the 2014 roadmap as presented at convergence

Power User Tips for CRM 2013 – learn how to use CRM like a power user and be productive

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

September 6 Blog Review

Back on the regular schedule this week. Let’s see what has been happening in the CRM Blog world:

First, PowerObjects posted a quick tip on Reporting down to the Second. When creating or editing a report you can change the properties of a field to include an unformatted value column. You can do this for Date/Time fields, Currency, Whole Numbers and Decimals.

PowerObjects almost missed the deadline with today’s bog – Top 10 New Features of CRM 2013. The blog contains much more detail but here are the top 10:

1. Command Bar
2. Simplified Navigation
3. Flat User Interface
4. Auto-Save
5. Business Process Flow
6. Social Pane
7. Quick Create Forms
8. Portable Business Logic
9. Quick View Forms
10. Real Time Workflows

Donna Edwards posted a great blog compiling all the links for Getting Ready for CRM 2013. She has links to the Microsoft blogs, TechNet Blogs, and PartnerSource content.

Also while preparing for 2013, you should look at Sonoma’s CRM 2011 Legacy Feature Check Walkthrough. This Microsoft tool allows you to evaluate issues that will not work in CRM 2013. Related, make sure you also review the Custom Code Validation Tool that Chris Cognetta talks about.

Everyone knows you shouldn’t make changes directly to the CRM database. However, I know that most organizations do it or at least think about. When it’s suggested, how do you respond? Jamie Miley compiled the reasons from several MVPs into Solid Reasons Not To Do Direct Database Operations on Dynamics CRM Database From the Pros. It is great information. I will definitely be keeping it in mind so I have a good answer the next time direct SQL updates are suggested.

Another interesting development this week was the announcement of Microsoft Acquiring Nokia. This is especially interesting amid rumors that the head of Nokia, Stephen Elop, may be replacing Steve Ballmer at Microsoft. Interesting things to ponder as the weekend begins.

Those were the big topics this week. Happy Friday!