Innovating on CRM « Microsoft Dynamics CRM Innovating on CRM

Rapid Development Best Practices CRM Field Guide Chapter 24

May 19th, 2013

It is week 24 in the review of the CRM Field Guide chapters from the book – The CRM Field Guide – How to CRM Like an MVP with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This week it is the 44 page Rapid Development Best Practices chapter.

This isn’t the typical instructional chapter in the CM Field Guide that walks you through a practical training session on a particular feature or component of the CRM system. You get to take a look inside a leading developer’s computer resources to see all the best utilities and methodologies that the author has assembled to make the development process less painful, more efficient, write and maintain better code, and deliver a superior product the client.

There are multitude of blog sites that have reviewed various utilities – free or commercial – to more rapidly develop CRM applications. This chapter does two things: puts them all together in one place and provides insight on why the ones that were identified are the best. Plus you get the re-assurance that they are good because the author is essentially giving us a peek inside of his computer and seeing the tools and processes he uses every day.

The author starts the chapter off with perhaps what could be considered philosophical perspective on life and how that applies to coding for CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Development Starts with Preparation

After providing links and usage guidance for about 25 tools the author then moves on to the subject of source control.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Source Control Best Practices

The author than wraps it up with the responsibility we have as a system customizer and working with the client.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer Best Practices

Sure Step Methodology Exam MB5-858

May 14th, 2013

For the last 3 years I have been thinking I should take the Sure Step Methodology Exam MB5-858. True, we use parts of the Sure Step Methodology for project management here at CRM Innovation, but I have never taken any official product training on it. I have sat in on two webinars several years ago and watched some of the free partner resources on the topic.

In February, our Partner Account Manager said she had a free exam voucher that we could use to take the exam. Being an entrepreneur the word ‘Free’ is magical so I immediately said sure send it on over. I printed out the email and put it in my good intentions pile on the side of my desk. About the 20th of April when I was going through the pile I came across the voucher and discovered that it would expire at the end of the month. I immediately panicked at losing a free voucher, went out to the Prometric site and scheduled the exam for the last possible day – April 30th at 8:30 AM.

The weekend prior to April 30th I went to the Sure Step Online site, reviewed several of the documents we use in our project proposals for work breakdown schedules, scoping, change management and project closeout. Read up a little more Sure Step theory and re-familiarized myself with the formal naming conventions for the various phases. I then went through one of the sample test exams that I had received when we purchased an online training course a while back. That along with a cursory view of several blog postings on tips and tricks on how to study for the exam completed my formal exam training.

So on Tuesday the 30th I went to the testing facility first thing in the morning. Sat for the test which is 70 questions and got out 90 minutes later just in time to get to my first client appointment at 10:30. I didn’t score as high as I thought I was going to as I moved pretty quickly through the questions at about 1 minute per question. The questions are your typical Microsoft exam format – 4 choices, 1 is wacko, 1 could be it, 1 is almost correct and the last one is definitely it and the one you are supposed to select. Add to that for this exam there are a lot of questions that ask you to select the two or three best answers out of the four which actually makes it harder. Definitely trying to use the high school strategy of just pick choice C, won’t cut it.

The interesting thing for me on my test score is that the lowest scoring section was the part of the process we do the best and are known for in our marketplace. Diagnosing customer requirements and coming up with the solution. Just goes to show you that a test doesn’t always map to the real world.

In any event in the Microsoft exam world a pass is a pass and at the end that is all that matters.

Microsoft Sure Step Methodology Exam

Connector for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Field Guide Chapter 23

May 12th, 2013

It is week 23 in the review of the CRM Field Guide chapters from the book – The CRM Field Guide – How to CRM Like an MVP with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This week it is the 44 page Connector for Microsoft Dynamics chapter.

This chapter takes us through a practical review of the possibility of using the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics as the integration mechanism between CRM and the Dynamics ERP products. The Connector was developed by Microsoft and it’s ‘Dynamics aware’. This means you do not have to worry about writing your code for the integration and you can rely on what Microsoft developed in regards to supportability and extensibility of your integration solution.

The author starts with a review of the three alternatives for providing an integration service:

Use one of the many third party tools
Write the Integration yourself
Use the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics

There isn’t one best answer, it depends on the environment, integration requirements, skill sets and budget. However, at the end of the chapter you will have a good sense if the Connector is a possible fit for your needs and if it should be given further consideration in the mix of alternatives.

Regarding when the Connector is a good fit depends on part on how you will allow both systems to communicate with each with respect to the storing and ownership of data. Some refer to this as the Database of Record notion. In the case of the Connector the philosophy is as follows:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is used to manage relational data, ie. to manage contacts and leads, manage sales pipeline, track sales activities, perform marketing activities, manage service contracts and claims, prepare quotes and enter orders, manage any other records that might be helpful to build proper relationship with your business partners.
Any Microsoft Dynamics ERP system is used to manage transactional data, ie. manage accounts and their structure, maintain vendor / supplier records, perform any accounting features, realize sales orders, manage stock and HR.

There are a lot of good resources online for the Connector including the community site on MSDN

There is a section that covers the integration templates.

Microsoft Dynamics Connector Integration Templates

First run setup and configuration of the Connector is explained. With some very good cautions about which buttons not to click as tempting as they may look during the initial installation process.

Microsoft Dynamics Connector Configuration and Setup

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Application Design Book Review

May 5th, 2013

I was asked by Packt Publishing to do a review of their Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Application Design book, authored by Mahender Pal.

There are 8 chapters and two appendices in this 220 page book. The book will walk you through the learning process to understand the out of the box features provided by Dynamics CRM 2011. You will learn how to use these features to develop some custom applications.

Specifically the book will give you a solid, initial introduction in the development process for:

Extending the business logic using plug-ins.
How to use Web Resources – a Bing Maps application using Silverlight.
Develop an External Web Application – Create and deployment process for a custom editable grid view
Custom Workflow Assembly- create an AutoNumber plug in

The two appendixes provide info on the data model for the Account and Contact entities and the supporting information for one of the business scenarios – Hotel Entity- that is used in the instructional process.

At CRM Innovation we will be using this book with new .NET Developers that need to get an introductory view of the CRM coding world.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Application Design Book

Solution Management and Troubleshooting CRM Field Guide Chapter 22

May 4th, 2013

It is week 22 in the review of the CRM Field Guide chapters from the book – The CRM Field Guide – How to CRM Like an MVP with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This week it is the 36 page Solution Management and Troubleshooting chapter.

This chapter is going to give you one big headache. It will also solve quite a few headaches for you at the same time. This is not a chapter to read and digest as easy reading just before you retire for the evening. Right off you will start the see that the solution management process – managed and un-managed – isn’t quite a simplistic as we envisioned earlier. I alluded to this in the review of Chapter 21 – Introduction to Solutions. This chapter is a good read for End User CRM Admins that desire to get a better insight into the strategies for administering the installation, customization, and removal of ISV IP (Independent Software Vendors Intellectual Property). For developers and product managers at ISVs this is mission critical knowledge that needs to be embedded into their minds.

The author walks us through the subjects of: Publishers, Solutions, Solutions Layers, Dependency Tracking, Solution Export Behavior, Solution Import Behavior, Downgrading and more.

CRM 2011 Managed Solutions Versioning

And although you may have learned about setting Managed Properties from other resources, there are some new ideas and techniques presented by the author.

CRM 2011 Un-managed Solutions Layering

For the ISVs there is an extensive discussion of Layer Strategies, managing development environments, and maintaining solution integrity.

CRM 2011 Managed Solutions Dev Environments

I am a CRM Billionaire! Well, Not Exactly

April 29th, 2013

Thanks to a story by Redmond Channel Partner I learnt today that I am ‘part’ of a Billion $ a year program.

So while I am not personally quite that rich, I am however reaping all the benefits of the wonderful application that Microsoft has created for companies that need a Customer Relationship Management application. Our firm has been associated with the product since 2003 when we watched a demo at a downtown hotel room here in Kansas City. I knew Microsoft got it when I saw the Outlook integration. All we do is CRM at our firm.

Is the product perfect? Not yet. Is it getting there? Most definitely. I think the best is yet to come. I clearly see the day that they will overtake their competitors and be in the top dollar spot. Until then we will continue to support the product in the Kansas City area where we do most of our implementations and also through out the USA where we have projects in several cities currently. We have bet the farm on Dynamics CRM because in addition to the consulting services we also develop and distributed packaged solutions for CRM in the areas of Sales and Marketing technology throughout North America and world-wide to other CRM partners and end users.

I am proud to be associated with the Dynamics CRM application for the last 10 years.

Dynamics CRM Revenue

Introduction to Solutions CRM Field Guide Chapter 21

April 28th, 2013

It is week 21 in the review of the CRM Field Guide chapters from the book – The CRM Field Guide – How to CRM Like an MVP with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This week it is the 32 page Introduction to Solutions chapter.

For those of us in the ISV community that produce commercial packaged solutions for the CRM marketplace when we first heard of the new feature called Solutions in CRM 2011 we were ecstatic. First off the question that came to mind is this a pretty complex task to accomplish and secondly this would solve all the issues we had been encountering with prior versions of CRM. Well it turned it out we were half correct. It has proven to be a very complex task and no it didn’t solve all the issues with distributing packaged Intellectual Property vertical and horizontal market solutions. But we are a lot better off than we were previously and it has been well used now that we understand when and how to use them. After you read this chapter you will have a better sense on how to use them.

Chapter 21 gives us an introduction into the process of successfully using solutions to publish customizations internally at your organization and build managed solutions for distribution to other end user organizations. Their is equal coverage to both managed and un-managed solutions, when to use which one, when not to use and documents other best practices for Solution use.

Each item that is placed inside a solution is considered a solution component. The following is a high level look at the different types of Solution components.

CRM 2011 Solution Components

The author then takes us through creating a solution and working with the default solution.

Dealing with the merging of solutions from different publishers and addressing how best to manage version updates to existing managed solutions is well covered.

This chapter then gives us a complete wrapup to close it out and lead us into Chapter 22 Solution Management and Troubleshooting which we will review next week.

CRM Innovation

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