It’s hard to believe that CRMUG Summit Nashville was already
a month ago! The 2017 event was amazing! Full of live music, great content, and
lots of networking! Of course, the #CRMUGDC
Monkey was hanging around and we even had a party for all the DC, Virginia, and
Maryland Attendees. If you didn’t make it out to this party, be sure to check
out the Photo
Gallery.
Better late than never, check out the top takeaways from the
sessions I attended at #CRMUGSummit2017 (I also linked to the materials for
those who attended Summit to download).
Alex Fagundes
Data breaches are very common and very expensive plus on
average the breach isn’t detected until after over 6 months. We discussed
statistics, ways to prevent and detection techniques. In addition several tools
were discussed for different security functions.
Top ways to prevent:
·
Move to CRM Online – 99.9% more secure
·
If On Premise: Set up external and internal
scans weekly to check for issues and follow best practices (network and windows
server hardening best practices)
·
Have a security awareness program to train your
users – they are the weakest point! Plus minimize their security to eliminate
risky access they don’t need (Export to excel, SDK access, etc.)
·
Follow Service Account best practices – one
server account per integration, do not grant admin rights, set as a
non-interactive user (cannot login via the web)
·
Turn on Two Factor authentication
Rick McCutcheon leading a panel featuring: Peter Vieira,
Anne Stanton, Beth Burrell, Jennifer Codding, and Neven Bradasevic and Melita
Bouchet.
The panel broke the discussion into the different phases of
the project and discussed their tips and tricks for user adoption including:
·
Set expectations for the initial release
·
Gather information from your users and identify
your key stakeholders and champions
·
Involve end users in the building process
·
Discuss end results with stakeholders especially
reporting needs – Remember that data has value and explain this to users
·
Don’t forget about less frequent tasks users
need to perform (What tasks do you perform weekly? Monthly?)
·
Find the low effort, high reward items to
resolve pain points (the gold nugget)
·
Involve department influencers in testing
·
Plan trainings carefully
o
Set up groups based on level of skill with the
system, knowledge of past systems, keep departments together
o
Find Training Champions to become subject matter
experts and help other users
o
Consider pairing stronger and weaker users
together to assist each other
o
Keep training materials specific and provide in
multiple formats (manual, video, email, etc.)
o
Use real data to keep training relevant
Alex Fagundes
So many tips on performance and many beyond my level of
expertise. Here are just my top takeaways that I can put into practice:
·
Use a modern browser with temporary files
(cache) set to >=250 MB
·
Views – sort by only one column, minimize or
eliminate columns from related entities
·
Remove “All Accounts” Default views on large
entities, no reason to display everything
·
Forms – Collapse unnecessary sections, avoid using
too much JavaScript and instead use multiple forms
·
Workflows – keep Asynchronous, auto delete when
complete and only have ONE running per entity (then use child workflows for
different actions)
·
Follow SQL Best practices and use tools to
review your indexes
·
Avoid Plugin chains – one plugin triggering two
more
·
Run enterprise reporting against a read only
replica of your system
·
Set up automated monitoring that can notify you
if there is an issue
Panel featured Jennifer Johnson, Trisha Tunilla, Rob
Harrison and Victor Guven
This is a topic that I especially needed assistance on – how
to help Marketing and IT get along and get the results both sides want. The
major take away from this session was just to get shared understanding on both
sides. Have IT spend time with marketing to understand how they manage their
business. Have Marketing learn more about the systems so they can better
understand the framework. Build relationships on both sides to ease the process
of working together.
This understanding and personal connection will build the
trust necessary to get work done. When work comes from the other side, the team
knows it is necessary. Most of the problems between marketing and IT can come
down to poor communication. Take the time to build that understanding.
We also spent some time discussing the value of data and what
to do with “dirty” data. These discussions can be hard when IT may not want
“bad” marketing data in the CRM system. This comes down to determining a data
governance plan at the beginning. This allows us to choose what data is the
master and what data can go where. Remember that marketing sees all data as an
opportunity!
Ryan Talsma
This was an excellent session that helped to clear up the
confusion between the Outlook App and the soon to be deprecated Outlook client
(expected to be gone by the 10.0 major release, end of 2018?).
Most importantly – the App is available for On-Premise. The
main difference is that the Client must be installed on all workstations where
as the App is a light-weight add-in pushed via Office 365. The App does require
Office 365 and Server Side Sync. Server Side Sync means that the user does not
need to be logged in for a workflow to send email and appointments can sync
when out of the office as well. The App is also much more stable than the
client so fewer (if any) issues with disconnecting, re-enabling, etc.
Last important note – the App can be pushed out to users if
webmail (OWA) while they still use the full Outlook client on their office
machines.
Panel discussion featuring Nhung Le, Bill Meadors, Beth
Burell, and Phyllis Eriksen.
In this session, common issues were broken down into a few
categories and then tips were discussed for how to handle each type.
·
Permission Problems
o
Do not edit the Out of the Box Roles – then you
can review these if issues arise
o
XRMToolbox: Access Checker – select the user and
entity to see the final permissions they have with all roles combind
o
If intermittent – try clearing the cache and
restarting
o
Remember with Field Level Security – no access
is granted by default
o
If it could be a permissions issue, assign Admin
role temporarily to see if it resolves the issue. If it does, then the issue is
permission related.
·
Data Import/Export Errors
o
Review the data mapping
o
If error on export, verify there are no
duplicate field names as this will cause an error
o
To update data, an export must be done (must
export for re-import, you cannot import and match)
·
Error Messages with no Information
o
Check Application log for details
o
Use Auditing to isolate issue (do not turn on
for everything)
o
F12 for client-side troubleshooting
o
On-Premise: monitor event log for errors. These
could be a sign of something bigger.
·
Testing tips
o
Clear cache and try to reproduce
o
Turn on F12 then try to reproduce
o
Test on a different browser, different computer,
etc.
o
Check browser plugins
Gus Gonzalez
This session covered some great tips to keep in mind for all
changes being made in your system. The goal of many of these is to change our
thinking to implement with a business mindset as we want to enhance business
outcomes not just think about the technology. These rules exist to help us
avoid potential problems.
1.
Keep it simple – always look for the simplest,
easiest, least work solution.
2.
Check before Create – if you can use something
that already exists, use it. Avoid adding additional entities, fields, views,
etc.
3.
Allow users to deactivate – remove delete
permissions. Tell them “Deactivate” is the CRM word for delete, same behavior
from a user perspective.
4.
Don’t customize production – plan then deploy to
development, move to test and test, then deploy to production. Use unmanaged
solutions.
5.
Use Tools – When getting a requirement, see if
there is a tool you can use before building yourself.
6.
Change management systems – follow a change
management system to help you implement successful change
7.
Field best practices
a.
Never use “Whole Number” because they may want
more precision later
b.
Stay away from “Two Options”, use Option Set
instead (no default, allows for change)
c.
Always use Global Option Sets
d.
Turn off “Searchable” for unused fields
e.
Use “Field Security” only if really needed
f.
Deactivate “Auditing” if info is not important
g.
Create “Mappings” if added to multiple related
records
8.
Decentralized Command – get help and share
administration tasks with others
9.
Be Proactive – stay up to date with Microsoft
releases and new features, get involved in the preview program to test things
before they are released
10.
Reach out! – Reach out to the experts for help!
Don’t try to do everything on your own.
