February 13 Blog Review

I’m sure everyone has big romantic plans for the weekend so I will try to run through the news quickly.

At the end of last week, Rollup 2 for CRM 2013 SP 1 was released. So here is the KB Article and the Premier Field Engineers Overview.

PowerObjects posted Access Is Denied: How to Identify and Fix a Security Role Issue. This walks through some approaches for dealing with access issues and gives some helpful things to keep in mind.

Sonoma Partners talked about Custom Help Content in CRM 2015. This describes how to set up global and entity-specific help pages for your users.

Jukka Niiranen discusses CRM 2015 Rollup Fields: The Gotchas. This talks about the schedule on which rollup fields are calculated and the interesting fact that rollup field changes cannot trigger workflows.

CRM for Outlook is always an exciting adventure. CRM Tip of the Day discusses how to deal with duplicate contact issues in When Outlook Attacks.

CRM Tip of the Day also posted Qualify Lead – CRM 2011 vs CRM 2015. This walks you through what occurs when a lead is qualified in 2011 and 2015.

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

November 21 Blog Review

It was a fairly quiet week in the CRM world. Everyone is busy working to be done before the holidays. Let’s take a look at some of the top posts.

PowerObjects taught us about Calculated Fields in Dynamics CRM 2015. This walks through an example to show you how to set up Calculated Fields.

Adam Vero posted a blog about his experience as a CRMUG member. Take a look if you are interested in what it means to be involved with CRMUG, lead a chapter meeting, and be an MVP at Summit.

CRM Tip of the Day also posted several helpful tips:

• Beware of the implications of “non searchable” fields – this discusses the implications and considerations to keep in mind when setting a field to searchable = no (also check out my blog on the topic comparing non searchable to field level security)
• Server Side Sync and View in CRM – there is a known issue that the View in CRM button does not work when using Server Side Sync
• Close Appointments from Outlook – It is easy to use Outlook to close CRM tasks but the same thing does not exist for appointments. Check out this tip to learn a potential workaround.

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

November 7 Blog Review

It was a busy week in the CRM world so let’s jump right in.

First of all, Microsoft published the CRM 2015 Prerelease content. This will give you all the information you need to start planning your 2015 update.

Hitatchi Solutions was also talking about CRM 2015. They blogged about the CRM for your Business ad which shows how you will be able to use CRM along with the social listening and marketing components in the future.

Hitachi Solutions also showed us how to create Duration Calculations in CRM with Little or No Customizations. This utilizes a new custom entity and a workflow to calculate the days or minutes between two dates.

PowerObjects highlighted Marketing features in What’s New for Marketing in CRM: Fall 2014 – Part 2. (We looked at Part 1 last week.) This looks at Microsoft Dynamics Marketing and Microsoft Social Listening.

McGladrey discussed CRM 2013 errors in Google Chrome. This is related to Google Chrome no longer supporting the JavaScript method showModalDialog(). Their recommendation – “when in doubt, user Internet Explorer.” I tend to agree.

Finally, CRM Tip of the Day posted a few great tips to keep in mind. Globally Manage User Setting in CRM discusses how to use the XRM Toolbox to easily manage user settings all in one place. Prevent Export to Excel By Entity talked about using the Ribbon Workbench to essentially prevent users from Exporting to Excel for specific entities.

Have a great weekend everyone!

October 31 Blog Review

Happy Halloween! It’s time for some CRM Treats and hopefully no tricks.

PowerObjects posted about What’s New for Marketing in CRM: Fall 2014. Read to learn about the new CRM features coming for marketers.

CRM Tip of the Day wrote a tip about Updating Fields on Disabled Records. This describes how you can update disabled records using Export for re-import.

CRM Tip of the Day also posted about Unconditional Business Rules. This talks about how you can make Business Rules that always fire.

Exciting tip from Julie Yack – You can now disable the First Things First lady.

Just a quick recap today so we can all go eat some candy!

October 24 Blog Review

Everything is settling back in after the excitement of CRMUG Summit last week. If you were not able to be there, make sure you check out my recap blogs (Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3). Let’s see what happened over the last few weeks in CRM.

PowerObjects talked about CRM 2013 Data Import Templates. This walks through how to export the desired import template and import it back into CRM. This is a great way to get data into your system quickly and easily.

PowerObjects also posted about Assigning System Views Based on Security Roles. This talks about a codeplex toll that allows you to set which views are visible by Security Role.

CRM Tip of the Day asked Where do you see Advanced Find View? A commonly forgotten system view is the “Advanced Find View”. This is used to customize what is see when a user opens up Advanced Find for that entity (if not opening from an existing view of course). This can be a great way to help users save time when they are building their views.

Jukka Niianen posted this blog – Don’t Merge your Forms in CRM 2013. This discusses the issues with the Merge form features and encourages you to use this opportunity to optimize your forms for 2013 instead of just matching your old forms.

C5 Insight wrote about their white paper: 4 Reasons your CRM is Failing. This describes the common reasons CRM projects fail and what to do about it.

Have a great weekend folks!

Summit 2014: Day 3 Takeaways

Last day! So much information! There is no way to capture all the important information (especially since I can only be in one place at a time), so be sure to review the slides if you have access and watch the encore webinars when they occur.

Charting you Can’t do out of the Box – Adam Vero

Before you start working ask: Who? What? When? Where (Device, Resolution)?

Tools: Blank paper and pencil or white board and colored pens (get buy-in, determine how it will look); Notepad, Notepad++ or Visual Studio

Goal: “Use simple charts in clever ways”

Method: build what you can with out of the box tools, export, edit, reimport and repeat. Keep in mind if you “Keep Both” on your initial import you will need to export the newly created chart because it has a new GUID.

To save space, make the chart title descriptive so we can remove the axis labels.

You can easily change colors in the XML by listing the RGB values, if you give 4 numbers instead of 3 the first number will set the transparency.

Errors on chart import: Invalid XML means missing < > or similar issue, Specific error probably means a property name is incorrect (generally must be Camel Case).

Use ToolTips to display data on demand. Can be used for information or values. Keep in mind the values cannot be formatted.

“Palette Shift” – colors are assigned in order, not related to the data. You can fix this by using multiple series rather than 2^nd category. Filter each series by value.

Upgrading CRM Panel – Chris Cognetta, Bob Kanzler, David Goff

Scope

You can postpone updating your 2011 forms but it is recommended that you do this with the upgrade so you do not need to train twice. The forms must be updated before moving to SP1.

Form merge feature will include all default fields plus your form. Recommendation is to start with blank new form and add all your fields to it.

Do not add new functionality with the upgrade. Wait before deploying Business Process Flows. You can use new functionality to replace existing code (replace JS with Business Rules) but do not add new features.

When going live, go right to the latest!

Business Process rules will probably continue to be improved and eventually replace dialogs.

Test ISVs and Integrations in Dev/Test environments.

Outlook Add-in

CRM 2013 for Outlook does not support Citrx (may work but not supported, no longer part of documentation)

Resource Challenges

Need FULL TIME Project Manager

IT must be involved in day to day, do not just let partner do it. They must be able to provide support starting day 1.

Requirements

Try to freeze development during the upgrade. If fields are added in both places, those fields are NOT the same (different GUIDs). This can cause an error when importing solutions.

Testing and Training Plans

Use front-line users as testers.

Custom security roles will not be upgraded (they will not include new 2013 permissions). Recommendation to resolve is remove custom roles, go back to Out of the box roles and trim down permissions as necessary.

Tips from the CRM Tipsters – George Doubinski, Gus Gonzalez, Joel Lindstrom, Jerry Weinstock

Check out the daily tips at www.CRMTipOfTheDay.com and submit your tips at jar@CRMTipOfTheDay.com

Tip #92 – review cascading relationships to evaluate and understand behavior.

Tip #158 – review Security Roles when you upgrade. Do a full review. Start with Out of the Box roles and trim them down. There is a codeplex tool to determine what roles people have. May want to hire a developer to write a tool to replace old roles with the new roles. Do NOT ever modify built in roles, make a copy and edit there.

Tip #121-125 – Workflows and Wait conditions. Be careful using “waiting” workflows because these are always running. When using wait, separate into parent/child workflows where the Child is called after the wait condition. Also be careful with “Canceled” – only use when something must be done.

Tip #84 – To resolve date issues across multiple time zones set the time to 10:59 AM UTC. This will cover most of the world.

The Confidence Code – Kelly Rosvold

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Sit at the table – be a participant not a spectator

Don’t leave before you leave – commit until you can’t, don’t step back too soon

Making your partner a real partner – give up control and let your partner support and help you

Check out: Lean In Circles to find support in your community

The Confidence Code by Katty Kay, Claire Shipman

Learn to be confident by: Failing Fast (take risks, fail smaller), Acting instead of holding back, practice making decisions, self compassion for missteps, move on!, banish negative automatic thoughts, reframe

Summit 2014: Day 2 Takeaways

Sorry for the delay in Day 2 and 3 takeaways, I determined sleep was slightly more important. So let’s get caught back up.

BPM and Process Automation in CRM 2013 – Gus Gonzalez

Always keep in mind the following: (Admin rule #1) keep it simple and (Admin rule #2) check if something already exists before creating a new one.

Sales teams that adopt a sales process experience a 35% higher win rate than those with a random process.

Think about bottlenecks in your current process to find ways to automate.

Business Process Flows

Microsoft has provided Business Processes for download that you can use as a starting point (Settings -> Data Management -> Add Ready to Use Business Processes).

Required fields in the Business Process are only required to pass that stage. If they are passed that stage when the change is made, the field will not be required unless they go back.

2011 BPFs do not upgrade to 2013. In2013, you can only move to child records and then back to the parent as the last stage (closed loop).

There are many enhancements in 2015 including Conditional Branching.

Real-Time Workflows

You can leverage the “Run as” option to run as either the owner of the workflow or the user that caused the workflow to fire. Keep in mind that they will need to have access to do what the workflow is doing.

If the workflow is stopped as canceled you can return a message to the user.

Best Practice: always start workflows with a check condition.

Business Rules

Limited to one entity (cannot search parent records like in workflows).

Benefit over JavaScript is that the dependencies are automatically tracked.

If an error is returned it is displayed in a small bar, Real Time Workflows display a large pop-up error.

Actions

Actions are like workflows but called from code.

Easy to administer, allow changes without a developer.

Can be created to be used on multiple entities.

Bonus: for Duplicate Detection check out Jason Lattimer’s tool that will prevent duplicates from being created.

Partner Showcase: FastPath – Security, Audit and Compliance – Andy Snook, Nate Boettcher

FastPath provides a variety of tools to check who is editing or even just viewing data. They also have tools to help standardize and automatically assign security roles and teams.

They handle the auditing using SQL triggers on tables and add this to a custom table on the CRM server which is moved to their database overnight.

CRM 2013 Email Architecture – Gustaf Westerlund

If you have questions about your sync options check out this whole presentation for the pros and cons of each method.

Server Side Sync – [Incoming Email] cannot do “Set Regarding” so Outlook Client is still required; uses exchange web services; part of Async service; probably future investment. [Appointment/Contact/Task] filters are hard to set, some scenarios not supported, still a new technology and tracing could be better.

Custom/3^rd party program – keep in mind this will need to keep up with Microsoft Development

Note – beware of blacklisting. This can be a problem if you are sending large volumes of emails from your personal Outlook or the CRM server.

Outlook Client Troubleshooting – Derek Braun, Jon Bimbaum

When tracing the Outlook client the following types of traces can be generated: (1) OUTLOOK-CLIENT (Outlook Nav, Manual Tracking), (2) WebFormsHost-bin (web forms in Outlook), (3) crm-addin (Background synchronization), (4) ETL Tracking (event tracing) and (5) Configuration Wizard (more details than config log file).

If duplicate items are being created check the crmid (text) and crmlinkstate (number) in Outlook.

If an issue with Appointment/Contact/Task – check the SubscriptionSyncIssue table using the Outlook sync subscription ID.

If an email appears tracked but is not in CRM, use the “View in CRM” button to determine if it has been deleted.

Tools you will need: Fiddler, Debug Diagnostics (automated crash/hang analytics), Diagnostics Tracing, Notepadd++

Resources you can use for the Spring ’14 Release – Jackie Smith, Jim Daly

Review the blog: Looking for help in the CRM Product Family

All help for CRM 2013 and beyond can be found at www.CRMCustomerCenter.com

On Tech Net pages there is an “Other Versions” selector near the top of the page if you want to see the page for a different version.

Through the customer center you can download training and adoption kits. These are customizable presentations, quick videos, etc.

For developers, all resources are linked to the CRMDeveloperCenter.com

October 3 Blog Review

Somehow it has become fall. Even though it is getting colder, the CRM news keeps coming. Let’s take a look at the news and blogs from this past week.

PowerObjects discusses Importing and Updating Records in CRM 2013. This talks about how to update records if you cannot use the Export/re-import functionality.

Hitachi Solutions also talked about CRM 2013 in The Best Little CRM 2013 Feature you might not Know what to do with: Timers. This discusses the timer feature release with 2013 service pack 1 and how to use it.

The CRM in the Field Blog blogged about Table Bloat Due to Workflow Log Entries. This talks about issues related to workflow history retention and what you can do about it.

Leon Tribe discusses Bringing Graphs Down to the Record Level. If you have ever wanted a graph on a record form – now you can learn how to do it!

Finally, Jukka Niiranen talked about 10 tips for Designing a Great User Experience in Dynamics CRM. Use these tips to increase user adoption and help your users enjoy the system experience.

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

Originally posted here:

September 26 Blog Review

I feel there are so many versions of CRM being discussed currently, we need to break up all news by version.

Applies to All Versions

CRM Tip of the Day discusses how to keep your users from becoming Overwhelmed with Reminders when first setting up CRM for Outlook.

CRM Tip of the Day also talked about how to use Privileges to Hide Site Map areas. This can be used to hide a particular entity from the Site Map, or a whole area (such as Settings).

CRM 2011 News

Rollup 18 was announced for CRM 2011. Please review the Knowledgebase, Download Page, and Blog.

CRM in the Field discusses Troubleshooting Workflows. This gives an overview of processes in CRM 2011 and then lists the steps to work through when you are having issues.

CRM 2013 News

Rollup 1 for CRM 2013 Service Pack 1 was announced. Check out the Knowledgebase, Download Page,

and Blog.

CRM 2015 News

PowerObjects discusses SLA Enhancements for CRM 2015 focusing on the ability to pause the SLA when the case is put on hold

PowerObjects also posted CRM 2015 to Feature Improved Search Capabilities. This goes over the new Multi-entity search which will be available in the web client (not just mobile as before).

CRM Team blogs talks about Creating Custom Help for your Users. In CRM 2015, instead of linking to the Microsoft help we can link directly to internal help sites allowing users to see what to do within our business processes.

Sonoma Partners shows of the CRM 2015 Calculated and Rollup Fields. Quick Note before you get too excited is that the field type of simple (regular), Calculated or Rollup must be set when the field is created. So if you want to migrate some existing code to use this instead you may need to migrate some data as well. There is a great list of limitations at the bottom of the blog to help give you a well-rounded view of the feature.

Sonoma Partners also discussed the CRM 2015 Enhanced Business Processes. This goes over the changes and also the limitations to keep in mind.

There was lots of news this week as the CRM 2015 announcement began to sink in. Hopefully I captured the highlights today. Have a great weekend everyone!

September 19 Blog Review

Welcome to another CRM Blog Review. Remember today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day so read up and then go get your Free Donuts!

The biggest news this week was the announcement that CRM 2015 will be available early next year! To get all the information you can read the Announcement, Blog and read the Release Preview Guide.

While the presses were still hot with the news, several blogs were published showing off the new features. Check Out:

• PowerObject’s Top 10 New Features of Dynamics CRM 2015
• PowerObject’s CRM 2015 to Feature Enriched Business Process Flows (Hint: it involved If/else statements!)
• Sonoma Partners blogged CRM 2015 First Look: Enhanced Business Rules
• Also from Sonoma Partners we have CRM 2015 First Look: Multi Entity Search
• CRM Team Blog Posted Get ready to catch the CRM 2015 wave! This goes over how the resources to help you get ready for the change.

Amid all of this excitement the Premier Field Engineers of the CRM in the Field blog still managed to post Administering Dynamics CRM. This goes through many resources to help you maintain your CRM system.

Leon Tribe talked about Seeing your CRM 2011 System in CRM 2013. This describes how to set up a CRM 2013 environment and get an idea for how your customizations will look there.

That’s all I want to highlight tonight. Have a great weekend!

September 12 Blog Review

We are now almost less than a month away from CRMUG Summit. My CRM Nerd self has been already reviewing the Agenda and planning the sessions I will attend. You do not need to register for each session but you can mark the ones you plan on attending for future reference. It looks like a good variety of sessions and technical levels. I hope to see all of you there!

Now to the topic at hand – CRM news of the week!

We will start off with PowerObject’s, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Dynamics CRM Implementations. This goes over the things you need to get in order as you plan your CRM implementation. This can apply to new implementations or upgrades. It focuses on planning, security and movie references.

Hitachi Solutions discusses Microsoft Dynamics CRM Rapid Release Cycle and Why you Should Try to Keep Up. This talks about Microsoft’s update plan, why you should keep your system up to date, and some items to keep in mind when you do. One interesting comment is in regards to how upgrades have changed over the years and how CRM 2013 may be the last “traditional” upgrade. We may continue with incremental updates as the system continues to adapt to support new technologies instead of large new versions every few years.

Also there are a few Tips of the Day to check out:

• Mixed Messages – When updating an Entity name don’t forget to update the Messages to match
• Sales Literature vs. SharePoint – this discussed the benefits of both approaches and some things to consider
• In a Parallel Dimension – If you are having some performance issues, have you checked your Max Degrees of Parallelism

That’s all the news I have to pass on today. Have a great weekend!

September 5 Blog Review

Apparently it is September. So now it is back busy fall work, even though I believe the summer was just as busy but more sunny. Let’s see what was happening in the CRM world this week.

PowerObjects posted Create a List of Values for Workflow Check Conditions in CRM 2013. This talks through the different options you can use in workflows to set up an OR condition. This is especially helpful when working with long lists of values that need to be “OR-ed”.

Hitatchi Solutions wrote CRM 2013 Performance: Form/View Load Analyzer. This discusses the new analyzer included in Service Pack 1 that allows you to track form loads.

CRM Tip of the day blogged about Upgrading Behind the Scenes forms. This specifically discusses the importance of updating your Team form when you upgrade to CRM 2013.

CRM Tip of the Day also posted about When CRM for Tablets last Synced Metadata. If your mobile users are not seeing recent customizations, you can follow these directions to determine when they last downloaded customizations and resolve the issue.

McGladrey blogged about the CRM 2013 Data Import Limitations. This article goes over some of the common questions that come up about the built in data import capabilities and limitations. Although it is written for 2013, the same information applies to 2011.

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

August 28 Blog Review

It has been a quiet week in the CRM blog world as everyone prepares for the long weekend. Let’s see what has been going on.

PowerObjects wrote about Editing XML Charts in Dynamics CRM 2013. This goes through how to export your charts and update them to fit your specific needs.

Hitachi Solutions blogged about Adding CRM Shortcuts in Outlook in Windows 8 – previously you could simply drag your CRM folders up to the Favorites, since you can no longer do this they developed a workaround to make CRM easier to access.

CRM Tip of the Day posted how to Make Dashboards More Touch Friendly. This gives some ideas on how to help users who use an iPad to look at their CRM dashboards.

If those iPad users are having trouble accessing CRM you should check out Jukka Niiranen’s Troubleshooting CRM for Tablets Login Issues with ADFS.

That’s it. Have a great weekend!

August 22 Blog Review

Let’s check out the CRM news from this week!

CRM Tip of the Day had a series of blogs this week about the Spring ’14 features. They compiled some great videos on: Mobile, Sandbox Instances, Developer Features, Service and Cases, and Other Stuff.

Hitachi Solutions walked through How to Change the Tiles on the Menu using the Sitemap Editor. This shows how to remove tiles you don’t need to make it easier for your users to navigate.

Hitachi Solutions also talked about Lessons Learned using Business Rules in CRM 2013. This walks through situations that are good cases for Business Rules as well as when you should consider a different option.

Also related to Business Rules, McGladrey posted Business Rules in CRM 2013 are missing One Key Feature. This goes of the limitation that Business Rules will only run on forms that have already been saved.

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

August 8 Blog Review

Two weeks to review this week.  Let’s take a quick look at the tips and tricks that have been floating around about CRM.

PowerObjects posted a great tip to help you tell the difference between your DEV and LIVE environments. Check out How-to: Change the Default Blue Color in CRM.

CRM Tip of the Day had several great tips worth checking out:

• Recurring Goal Creation Strategies – Goals are a nice feature but you need to create a new one for each time period, I cannot just say I want this same goal every month. However, there are some ways to make this recreation a bit easier. This post goes through those methods and what each entails.
• Check your Duplicate Detection Rules after Solution Imports – I have personally needed this tip within the last few weeks. Make sure you check your Duplicate Detection rules after each release to make sure the rules you need published are still published.
• What does “reparent” Mean? -  This walks through what the Reparent cascading relationship means and the security effect it has on your system.
• How to Display Entity Image on CRM Form – in CRM 2013 you have the option of adding images to your records. This shows how to take advantage of that feature.

The Microsoft CRM Team Blog posted a video last week – Learn a few new Tricks in Quick Tips for CRM for Tablets video. This goes through some features of the Dynamics CRM Tablet app to help you work more efficiently.

Salentica posted a good blog describing a CRM 2011 Rollup 17 issue – Rollup 17 Breaks Deployment Manager. If you are having an issue importing solutions with plugins into your Rollup 17 environment, check the deployment manager and see if this is your issue.

That’s all the CRM blogs I have for you this week. Have a nice weekend!

July 25 Blog Review

Let’s jump right in to the CRM tips and tricks from the past week.

PowerObjects gave some productivity tips in Tracking Records from Outlook to Dynamics CRM. They talk about how to track, CRM features you can use in your reply and the conversion options.

PowerObjects also wrote Performing Form Merges Like a Pro in CRM 2013. This goes through the process of merging your 2011 forms into 2013 forms. They go over best practices and some tips and tricks. This will be very helpful for anyone upgrading to 2013.

Another helpful 2013 tip from PowerObjects was Four Important Concepts Needed to Understand about Actions in Dynamics CRM. This explains how actions work and how they can be used.

Last one from PowerObjects – Using HTML to Format Text in Email Templates in CRM. As you may know, you can copy HTML e-mails into e-mail templates in CRM, but you may not know that you can actually include raw HTML code and it will be converted when the template is sent.

Hitachi Solutions blogged about Accessing Controls within Composite Control Flyouts Using Javascript. This gives some considerations when using Javascript on fields within the new CRM 2013 flyout fields.

Hitachi Solutions also talked about Naming Records using Real-Time workflows in CRM 2013. This walks through how to create a new process that will fill in the name field for your records. This can be useful when viewing default views and can be configured to fit your business need.

CRM tip of the Day also had a few good tips this week. First of all – Keep Batch modifications Under Control. This describes the importance of discussing the implications of changing Modified By/On with the business and other things to keep in mind.

Also from CRM tip of the Day – Functional Roles all Deployments should have. This describes all the different roles that need to be filled to support your CRM deployment. One person may fill multiple roles, but all these duties must be accounted for.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

July 18 Blog Review

Let’s jump right in to the CRM news for this week!

Hitachi Solutions presented an innovated way to keep users up to date with Sending Text Message Alerts from CRM 2013. This explains how to use regular CRM email to send texts to your users. Use this to notify them of alerts, things that require their attention or goals they have reached.

 Rollup 3 for CRM 2013 has been released. Check out CRM in the Field’s Podcast and Overview for more information. This contains all the links and information you will need to get started with Rollup 3.

CRM Tip of the day had several helpful tips this week to keep us working efficiently. First of all, Do you know what a Wildcard is? This discusses how to use the * as a wildcard when searching in CRM. This is a very helpful feature and is often forgotten or overlooked. Personally, I like to use it on entities that have phone numbers as search fields. That way I can leave off the area code and not worry about formatting differences.

Another tip this week was Understand “First Response Sent” for SLA. This discusses some specific details as part of the Spring Wave enhancements for CRM 2013.

One more helpful tip this week was Adminless Traceless Troubleshooting. This describes how you may be able to use the URL for troubleshooting when you receive the generic “An Error has Occurred” message.

Mitch Milam is helping us this week with Monitoring Prospects and their Email Preferences. This describes the functionality of the “Do not allow Email” and “Do not allow Bulk Email” fields. As well as some discussion on how to review contacts with these fields set and then what to do about it.

Also this week the CRM 2013 Quick Start book was released (only ebook currently). You can get more information and a summary of the chapters on Julie Yack’s blog.

Jukka Niiranen wrote a great blog this week on Update Rollups, Service Packs, Major Releases: Understanding Dynamics CRM Versioning. This goes through what those confusing version numbers actually mean, how to interpret and what to expect going forward. It also has some great explanations of what a Rollup means compared to a Service Pack. This is one to read carefully, not skim!

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!

July 11 Blog Review

Today is such a busy day here in America – free Slurpees at 7-11 and Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. Why isn’t it a holiday? How do they expect us to work under these conditions?

Moving on. Let’s take a look at the CRM news this week.

Hitachi Solutions posted New Shoes and Dynamics CRM Upgrades. This contains a great Features Cheat Sheet that describes the new features in 2013 and the Spring 2014 update.

PowerObjects posted a helpful tip: How to Open a CRM XML File on a Windows 8 or 8.1 Device. When you Export some data to Excel from CRM on a Windows 8+ device it will not automatically open in Excel. Follow the directions to fix this.

PowerObjects also posted about how to Display Business Process Values on Forms in CRM 2013. Adding these fields to your form can assist while you figure out reporting or other automation options.

There were several great CRM Tips of the Day. Check out Tip #175: Miscellaneous privileges with multiple access levels to learn where you can trim down the access those miscellaneous privileges offer. Also take a look at Tip #173: Don’t disable Quick Create for Standard Entities. This discusses what happens if you turn off quick create and try to use the tablet app.

Mitch Milam posted Refreshing you Development or QA Environment with Production Data. This goes through the important steps when you want to update the data in your other environments to match production.

Sonoma Partners loves to talk about mobile and this week is no different. Check out The Seven Use Cases Your Mobile CRM Sales Application Must Nail. This talks about the important features that your mobile workforce needs to be able to accomplish on their device. These things are necessary to achieve good user adoption.

That is all the news I have to pass along this week. Have a great weekend!

May 16 Blog Review

Now that I caught up and the backlog of blogs earlier this week, I am hopefully back on schedule. Here are the top blogs this week.

Adam Vero wrote a great blog called, Why Use Access Teams in Dynamics CRM 2013. This describes the reasons to use Access Teams and the benefits they can provide to your system. He also links to some other great resources on the topic.

CustomerEffective taught us about design in Form Style in Dynamics CRM: Tips from the Fashion Industry. Some of the tips are: make sure important things are easy to access, make sure the order follows your process, and to update regularly with input from other people. There are also several great style ideas included.

CRM in the Field wrote a how to article to deal with Sitemap Issues after CRM 2011 Import into CRM 2013. Read carefully and take note of the disclaimer before proceeding.

The CRM Team Blog released Important Information about supported Configurations in the next release for CRM. This describes what you need to know for the next major release of CRM.

Sonoma Partners posted about an Activity Feed Quirk when customizing “Follow” Views. This describes an issue when out of the box entities have been renamed and the view names are not correctly renamed in the import.

Jukka Niiranen also taught us this week in Visualizing Your Progress with CRM Goals. One idea brought up in the post is to use a long continuous goal that is limited in the rollup query instead of creating a new goal for each month. Also make sure that your goals are always visible to users where they can be analyzed and acted upon.

Have a great weekend!

May 9 Blog Review

PowerObjects posted Moving CRM 2013 Business Rules with Static Values from Dev to Production. This describes what to do if you cannot activate one of your solution components due to a reference to the item in a development instance which has a different GUID than the production instance.

CustomerEffective wrote a handy blog on Retrieving a Record's GUID in CRM 2013. This describes how to create a Javascript Bookmarklet that will grab the CRM record GUID for you.

Mitch Miliam posted a helpful tidbit in Workflow Ownership and Disabled Users. Be careful when disabling users that nothing is assigned to them especially workflows which will stop running. Also a good reminder to keep an eye on your waiting system jobs to notice these problems quickly.

Sonoma Partners posted CRM 2013 - Phone Call Fields won't Default from Sub-Grid. This discusses how some fields are not auto populated depending on where you create your Activity from.

Sonoma Partners also posted Five Reasons Your CRM Deployment Needs Enterprise Mobility to ensure that everyone uses the mobile capabilities of CRM 2013.

Jukka Niiranen teaches us a thing or two in CRM Reminder Workflows Done Right. This describes the correct way to create a reminder workflow and some things you should keep in mind.

Biggest news over the last week was the release of Rollup 17 for CRM 2011. Here are the pieces you need to be able to find: Knowledge Base Article, Download Site, PFE Blog. Sonoma Partners also recorded their top picks here. Here is what I picked out of the KB (probably still too much to read but less than what we started with):

Important Fixes

·        Quick Find fails with "Invalid Argument" when whole number fields are added as find columns

·        Removing / Adding any field to the form after enabling the option "Automatically expand to use available space" causes the sub grid to shrink or resize to much smaller in size.

·        Reports cannot be executed once the default filter form the report is removed and the update is saved. The execution fails with the following error on screen. "Reporting Error: The repot cannot be displayed"

·        After applying Update Rollup 16, Solution import fails with overwriting components

·        After installing Update Rollup 16, CRM reports embedded in IFRAME objects (on forms / dashboards /etc...) no longer display correctly when using Internet Explorer 9 or Internet Explorer 10

·        A form has multiple tabs which are initially hidden and then made visible programmatically. Once the tabs are made visible, the navigation bar containing the links to other related entities moves down and part of it gets off the screen, making the users unable to see or select some links.

·        After exporting the results of a Quick Find search to Excel Pivot Table, the resulting file cannot be opened. The following error appears: "[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'AccountBase', database '...._MSCRM', schema 'dbo'."

·        Cannot change owner on create of Appointment after Update Rollup 16

·        Audit setting disabled when changing cascading behavior

·        Activity Types change when importing Solutions. As a result a view on the Activity entity that references the custom activity entity stops working. Warning message on the filter: This condition had one or more list values that no longer exist in the system.

·        After applying Update Rollup 16 in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, users are unable to remove Deployment Administrators if the account exists in a separate domain.

·        After installing Update Rollup 12, there are changes to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 forms that may impact the visually impaired such as lighter colors and the absence of highlighting on items such as the SiteMap and Tab titles.

Interesting/Odd Fixes

·        Bulk Edit on Cases shows wrong dialog box

·        Advanced Find date range with "last-x-fiscal-years" is wrong when exported to a Dynamic Worksheet

·        When you have an HTML web resource on a form, the web resource is removed when clicking the backspace button in Internet Explorer

·        Users attempting to delete the oldest audit log in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 after Update Rollup 12 receive the following error:

"You can only delete the oldest audit log"

·        If the number of notes on a record exceeds the records per page set in a user personal options, you will not be able to see the additional notes in the control. For example, if the records per page is set to 25, and you have 26 notes on the record, you will not be able to see the first note. Prior to Update Rollup 12 the Notes Control had "Add a new note..." and "Show more notes" hyperlinks on the notes control.”Show more notes" would allow you to display the next page of notes in the notes control.

·        Even though the print preview fits one page, always blank page 2 is printed.

CRM for Outlook Issues

·        When you create service activities and you sync those activities to your Outlook Exchange Mailbox, and you have devices like an iPhone or Windows Phone you will see UNKNOWN:UNKNOWN on the activity parties or invitees on those devices when viewing those service activities. This can lead to invitees getting removed from the service activity or becoming duplicated in CRM.

·        Poor performance with smart matching when the Email Hash and Activity tables have a large number of records.

·        Clicking the mail merge button in the Ribbon bar of the Advanced Find screen opened from the Contacts entity doesn't do anything.

·        The context sensitive ribbon is not displaying in the Outlook 2011 Client when configured to a CRM 2013 deployment

·        After Update Rollup 12 or greater is applied to the Outlook client, the startup time for Outlook.exe can be significantly impacted if the configured organization contains many customizations

·        Microsoft.Interop.Mapi.MAPINameId.GetHashCode module led to Outlook crash

·        Outlook start-up time is impacted post Update Rollup 12

·        Outlook Quick Find does not work correctly for custom entities after Update Rollup 12

·        When users have several forms open in the Outlook Client and then open a model dialog such as a Lookup, several of the forms will be forced to the background, losing focus.

·        An environment where the SendEmailSynchronously OrgDbOrgSetting set to 1 the message below is presented when forwarding e-mails from Outlook.

"A record with these values already exists. A duplicate record cannot be created. Select one or more unique values and try again. Do you want send the e-mail? If you click Yes, the e-mail will be sent out, but no corresponding activity will be created in Microsoft Dynamics CRM."

·        When a manually tracked contact in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Client for Outlook is merged with another contact as a subordinate record, that contact can be incorrectly synchronized to Outlook if the Outlook Client is reconfigured.

·        Untracking an email you do not own results in the email being deleted from CRM

·        Quick campaigns are not working in Outlook client when Critical Update is installed

·        Users of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Client for Outlook may experience issues where shared personal views may not show up on entity grids if the views had been shared or unshared previously.

·        After installing Update Rollup 10, 11, or 12, file attachments for emails get a contentId appended to them. If file name is mywordfile.doc, then the file attachment in CRM will show {cid:somecontentid@somedomain}mywordfile.doc