Archive for October, 2009
One simple but useful idea that was posted on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog was how to use an IFrame to show a map of an accounts business location (http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2009/04/15/microsoft-dynamics-crm-iframe-magic.aspx).
We decided to take this idea one step further. Since our in-house technicians go out to several client locations in a given day, it would be nice to give them a set of map directions to go from client to client. Using Dynamics GP and Enterprise Scheduler in-house (along with Field Service Anywhere), we have a database of scheduled appointments as well as the client addresses.
First thing we did was to create a SQL view of all of the appointments for that day. The view includes the Tech ID and the client’s address.
Next, we created a .NET app that takes the Technicians ID as a passed parameter, pulled all of the appointments from the view using the Tech’s ID, ordered them by appointment date (done in SQL view), then created a URL for google maps with all of the addresses.
This next part can be done in many ways. You do not even need to do anything in CRM, just create a web form to allow the user to select a Tech ID, and call the .NET app above. We decided to embed it in CRM, and this is how we did it. We created an entity called Technician Service Route, made the “Name” field of a record the name of the technician (and made him the owner). We created a field for the Tech ID (which we manually enter), and added a tab for an IFRAME to link in the .net app. Pass the tech id to the .NET app, and all done. We also made the Route tab the first tab on the entity form. Now, when a technician opens up the Technician Service Routes, they have just their record, open it up, and there’s his map for the day.
Technician Service Route
