December 18 Blog Review

This will be the last blog review before my holiday time so let’s make sure it is interesting.

I must start by reminding you that the CRMUGDC 2016 Chapter Launch Party was just announced! This will be a fun networking event on Thursday January 21^st. It will feature eating, drinking and question-answering. Come out to learn more about all the user groups in DC, Maryland, and Virginia and talk with CRM users in your area. For more details, read the Blog or get Registered.

Within the last few weeks Microsoft announced the release of CRM 2016. This week they announced the acquisition of Metanautix, a data analytics company. No information is given about CRM integration but it will be interesting to see how this develops in the increasingly connected Microsoft product catalog. (Although Salesforce is mentioned in the announcement. Odd.)

With 2016 in mind, check out CRM Tip of the Day’s post on CRM 2016 Postponed Features. This talks about some items that were originally expected in CRM 2016 that have been pushed out to upcoming releases.

PowerObjects was very aware that most of the population was distracted with Star Wars this week and so their blogs reflect that. Be sure to read The Force is Strong with this Version: Top New Features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Online and Light Side or Dark Side? Personalize Dynamics CRM 2015 with Themes.

Adam Vero posted Figuring Out Shares in the PrincipleObjectAccess POA table in CRM. Take a close look at this if you are experiencing any odd access issue and need to dig in to all the sharing going on in your organization.

That’s all for today folks. Happy Holidays!

Announcing: CRMUGDC 2016 Chapter Launch Party

Save the date for the January 21, 2016 CRMUGDC Chapter Launch Party!

The fun will start at 7pm at Higher Logic in Arlington.

This will be a great time to meet other CRM users in the DMV and learn more about the user group. We will have lots of food and drink as well as great networking. We will also have an Ask-It Basket where you can submit your questions and experts will answer them right then! Questions that are not answered may be used as topics for future meetings.

Come see the value of CRMUG - networking and getting answers to your questions!

Learn more about all the chapters in the DMV - DC, Baltimore, Richmond, and Reston (coming soon!)!

This is a great event for regular attendees of the local chapter meetings to meet up with old friends. It’s also a great time for new members so you can learn what the local meetings are all about and make connections before attending the regular quarterly meetings. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Location: Higher Logic, 1600 Wilson Blvd, Suite 400, Arlington, VA

Register here!

Post any questions in the comments!

December 11 Blog Review

This time of year is very busy with parties and gifts. So we will keep this quick so you can rush off to your cookie exchange.

Microsoft sent us the gift of CRM 2016 last week. This week came all of the documentation and more information about new features. The CRM Team shared the CRM 2016 Product Wave Documentation. This has links to many different documents and videos to help you prepare and transition to 2016.

The CRM Team also shared information about the new Task Flows feature. Check out, What are Task Flows and how do they compare to other tools in CRM? 

Then, when you are ready to build your own you should read, Creating and Customizing Task Flows.

Lastly for today, if you are looking to make a change in the new year you can review Sonoma Partner's Infographic on Resume Tips from the Recruiting Desk.

That's all for today folks. Have a lovely weekend!

December 4 Blog Review

Welcome to the first blog review of December! 2015 is quickly slipping away from us but don’t get too melancholy – CRM 2016 has been released!

Here are all the blogs to check out about the CRM 2016 announcement:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Now Available: ushering in a New Era of Intelligent Customer engagement (Microsoft)
• First Glance at Dynamics CRM 2016 (Jukka Niiranen)
• CRM 2016 is available (CRM Tip of the Day)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 is here! (Ledgeview Partners)
• CRM 2016 General Availability Announced at Convergence EMEA! (Chris Cognetta)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 (Carsten Groth)

Lots of new and enhanced features to look for. I’m sure there will be many more blogs about CRM 2016 in the coming weeks!

Let’s check out a couple other interesting blogs posted this week.

PowerObjects shared Take your Disk Space to the MAX: Automatically Delete Completed Workflow Jobs in CRM 2015. This walks you though how to set up your workflows to be removed when they complete. This is great to save space by removing the completed system jobs for workflows that have been fully tested and are running smoothly.

Leon Tribe posted an interesting article on Calculating the Day of the Week Without Code. This shows you how to use Business Rules to have a field show “Friday” when “12/4/2015” is entered in the trigger field.

That’s all for today folks. Enjoy your weekend!

November 27 Blog Review

It is a shorter blog review today with so many on vacation for Thanksgiving. That means you should start it off by reading a few themed blogs Hitachi Solutions shared CRM Features to be Thankful For and CRM Tip of the Day posted about the Top CRM Turkeys.

I would say the CRM features I am most thankful for are Workflows and Advanced Find along with Export for Re-import. Workflows allow me to automate processes without needing to involve a developer. Advanced Find allows me to find detailed information about a record or isolate instances where a particular situation is occurring. I’m also very thankful for the CRMUG Community and how it has really helped me learn and grow as well as make so many friends in my field.

But back to the regular blog review as there are a few quick items I want to focus on.

PowerObjects shared Troubleshooting Tips: Why isn’t my Business Rule Working? This walks through how to troubleshoot a few common issues you may run into with Business Rules. A helpful tip that was mention was that Calculated Fields cannot be used in a Business Rule or to trigger workflows. Keep this in mind when you are planning your logic.

Develop1 posted Option-Set, Lookup or Autocomplete. This talks through the different options you have to avoid using free-form fields. They talk about the options for each and the best options for specific scenarios.

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

November 20 Blog Review

Let’s jump right in to the CRM news of the past few weeks!

Update 0.2 for CRM 2015 On-Premise has been released. For all the information review CRM in the Field’s Overview Blog.

PowerObjects shared Manipulating the Value of Days Remaining between Today and the Expiration Date in Calculated Fields. This shows you how to modify the Days Remaining field so that it will not show a “-ve” value when the expiration date is in the past.

Adam Vero the CRMGuru posted an interesting post on Figuring Out Shares in the PrincipalObjectAccess POA Table in CRM. This provides more information about how shares are saved behind the scenes and how to view/interpret that data.

Chris Cognetta shared the Great Microsoft Cloud InfoGraphic! This shows the number of users that are on the different Microsoft cloud offerings. It shows why this is such a large area of emphasis and why this continues to be important for future growth.

Leon Tribe blogged about the Post MVP Summit Roundup. Unfortunately not too much information can be released yet but at least we can see everyone’s smiling faces and get a little glimpse into what it is like to be a CRM MVP. Also mentioned was that the CRM 2016 features that have already been announced were presented and provided a much better understanding of the capabilities. So be excited for more information at the end of the year!

Finally, one quick tip from CRM tip of the day is what to do with Disabled User’s Personal Views. Everyone runs into a situation where a user leaves and their views remain assigned to that now disabled user. Check out this post to see 3 possible solutions.

That’s all for today folks. Have a great day and Happy almost Thanksgiving! (In America, or happy almost Christmas, Thanksgiving was forever ago why are you still talking about it in Canada :) )

November 6 Blog Review

This was a lovely week for CRM because it was the Washington, DC Chapter meeting! We had a full house to talk about Marketing. See all of the notes on DC Chapter Community Blog.

If those notes don’t give you enough information about the topic, also check out Sonoma Partner’s Microsoft Dynamics Marketing: A Few Tips and Tricks.

For general tips, look at PowerObjects post on Copying a Workflow. We have used this fairly often in my environment to start a similar workflow by making the original a template temporarily.

User Adoption seems to be the ever present problem. Ledgeview Partners presents some ways to help in 8 ways to Increase CRM User Adoption on Rollout Day. There are some great tips in here including storing videos in CRM. (I loved the tip of linking to a SharePoint folder of videos with the custom help from Summit Day 3.)

Finally, for a taste of the season check out CRM Tip of the Day’s Pumpkin-Spiced CRM. No description required but let’s just say it makes me want to go get another red cup.

That’s all folks. Have a great weekend!