Saratoga Technologies Microsoft CRM Blog

Here is a GREAT list of CRM 4 resources that i found from Wim Coorevits Blog – http://wimcoorevits.blogspot.com/

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 User’s Guide (Document – Microsoft)

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

One request we had recently was to show all the notes for a company, in order for a Sales rep to get a snapshot of anything currently going on with the client. This was to include all notes for the Account, Opportunities, tasks, appointments, and leads. This was to be viewable on the main company screen.

In order to accomplish this, we needed to first create SQL views of all the different notes we were going to need with the information we wanted. Instead of doing one massive view of all of the notes, we did a view for each type. For instance, for Opportunities, we created a view called Opportunity_Notes.  It should be noted that since we are creating views, this is an unsupported way of getting the needed data.  Here is the SQL script for the Opportunity_notes that we used:

SELECT dbo.AnnotationBase.ObjectId AS OpportunityId, dbo.OpportunityBase.AccountId, dbo.AccountBase.AccountNumber,
dbo.OpportunityBase.Name, dbo.AnnotationBase.NoteText, dbo.AnnotationBase.Subject, dbo.AnnotationBase.CreatedOn,
dbo.SystemUserBase.FullName AS CreatedBy
FROM dbo.OpportunityBase INNER JOIN
dbo.AnnotationBase ON dbo.AnnotationBase.ObjectId = dbo.OpportunityBase.OpportunityId INNER JOIN
dbo.AccountBase ON dbo.AccountBase.AccountId = dbo.OpportunityBase.AccountId INNER JOIN
dbo.SystemUserBase ON dbo.SystemUserBase.SystemUserId = dbo.AnnotationBase.CreatedBy
WHERE (dbo.AnnotationBase.IsDocument = ‘FALSE’) AND (dbo.AnnotationBase.NoteText IS NOT NULL) AND (dbo.OpportunityBase.AccountId IS NOT NULL)
ORDER BY dbo.AnnotationBase.CreatedOn

From there, we created a .asp page to create the screen to combine all of the notes. Pretty simple, just made a connection to the database, and used DataLists with SqlDataSource to create our record views.

One problem we did have was that our various headers (ie: OpportunityNotes) would show up, even if there were no Opportunity Notes for that Company. To hide the headers, we added a Selected event to each SqlDataSource. Within that event, set a variable to “block”. Then within each datalist, use a DIV with a Style of “display” set to the variable.

Lastly, within the Account Form, we added an IFrame. Within the Form Onload, we set the IFrame source to the .asp that we published on the CRM server, with the Customer Number as a passed variable in the URL. We use the Customer Number from GP, which is unique, and used that as the passed variable instead of the GUID.

Here’s a screenshot of the final product.  Happy coding!

One of the developments that we accomplished for a client was a custom task and appointment report, and since this comes up quite often. This was mainly because the layout of Microsoft CRM tasks printout was really lifeless by default.

 For example it didn’t have additional information such as the information about the task at hand, who the salesrep was meeting with, what the company’s phone number and contact numbers where in an easy printable format.

 We created a better solution by utilizing a simple .net site that contained a SQL recordsource control that binded to a details list and modified the default template to look as the reps desired. We just had to create a customized SQL view of the data to pull from.

We then added additional navigation in CRM for easily selecting at any time the type of reports to print so that a salesperson could literally open CRM, print their tasks and appointments (with full details) that they could take on the road with them, write on during the day, then enter details back into the system the next day or later that afternoon.

I got this idea from the Microsoft CRM team blog and their guest blogger David Jennaway. The idea of acceptance and user reporting for CRM is really basic, but it provides a trackable way to determine if users are accessing the system. Here is the article.

 http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2009/04/08/crm-usage-reporting-unleashed.aspx

 A couple things that i found in the article to ‘tweak’ was defiantely adding a couple check constraints onto the SQL log table that you will be using this for. In my case there are quite a few users generating activity and that would be a very large file. Thank goodness for sql table compression in 2008 right… we will see.

If you haven’t created a check constraint before it is really easy, and you will save your tables from a bunch of useless rows of data. Here is a quick example below.

USE [CRMACCEPTANCE] 

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[inetlog] WITH NOCHECK ADD CONSTRAINT [CK_inetlog_username] CHECK (([username]<>‘MEDTECH\scribe’)) 

This is basically because i use scribe integration that is always writing rows into the database and these could cause significant storage use during the period of a month.

Microsoft has now released update rollup 2 for CRM 4.

I just finished watching a Partner Session entitled a Technical Deep Dive of CRM Solution Accelerators. This session was focused on the 8 new releases of Microsoft CRM 4 Acelerators.

 I think that the team has done a great job getting these out for release. The first releases are to partners and customers are slated for as early as the end of this week.

The Solution Accelerator demo videos are going to be posted on the PLC and Partnersource by the end of the week as well. There will also be additional collateral such as BDM and TDM decks, Whitepapers, etc on each solution accelerator from what i heard in the session.

It was funny because the sessions were so crowded that keeping a decent internet audio connection was quite horrible. I will keep you posted as i get to try these out for myself.

As a Microsoft CRM Consultant i get to interact with CRM clients on a regular basis, which i really enjoy. Spending adequate time with a client is needed to get an understanding of not only if CRM can work for a particular business, but is it the right fit for the organization.

I thought it would be helpful though to talk about some of the implemenatation quirks i have seen and hopefully it will help you along as well in your CRM project plan. Knowing some hurdles upfront will hopefully save alot of trouble down the implementation road.

First Thing is First….Processes!
The first thing to always look at is what issues are the clients facing? Why are they investigating CRM? It is funny that some “Consultants” do not even manage to ask this question sometimes and really get to what business processes that the client is looking to achieve. So what is needed here? Just an understanding of:

• Know What the customer is doing
• How they currently do it -> Detailed Explanation
• What processes the customer has in place to achieve operations – Manual? Automated?
• What users in the organization are needed to perform the work at hand.

Knowing these issues even at a high-level can mean the difference in user acceptance down the road.

Current Process Management
Take a hard look at how you are currently providing information to additional users in the organization. Do you have spreadsheets everywhere for tracking sales information, customer info and more?

Don’t underestimate goal-setting for the implementation!
Make sure that when you are performing an implementation that you have defined specific goals for your implementation. For example:

• What measurements does the company want to achieve?
• What processes are in place to achieve them currently?
• Does the company currently have any baseline measurements for these goals?

Do not just implement CRM in an organization without an idea of what the existing indicators are for matching at the end of implementation. If you do you could find that your customer will not believe that the application has valuable ROI for the organization. Especially if they don’t consider results of the system properly.

These results come in many, many ways:

• Cost reductions – whether it is a cost reduction for providing your services, repetitive tasks administrative tasks, or customer aquisition costs.
• Revenue Increases – Closed opportunities and quoting win rates.
• Others – customer retention rates, and lead capture and close rates.

Hand in hand with results is the fact that you have to make sure that your idea of success with your CRM implementation is in line with the industry average.

For example you wouldn’t expect 80% close rate for qualified sales opprtunities from CRM for an industry that typically averages 0.5%. Hindsight as well is never 20/20.

Set Realistic and attainable Goals
Setting relevant goals will ensure that you stay within reasonable expectations of the CRM system that you have invested time and money in.

Know your Resource Limits!
How is your company staffed in IT. Do you have someone knowledgeable in CRM? Knowing these limitations will help. If you plan to do a simple installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with no customization your technical staff can most likely handle the setup.

However, CRM is not just an application so you will not see value add to the organization simply from this. To get the value add such as automation, sales stages, workflow design, and additional reporting it does pay to find a Partner that knows how to truly implement Microsoft CRM.

Underestimating implementation time can kill a project that is under development so you should have a good idea going in what the overall project cost is going to be.

Start Out Small and Simple
I really cannot stress this topic enough, do not initially do everything you want with your CRM Deployment. Phased approaches are the best way in my opinion to go in a CRM deployment.

Starting with a test group in your organization, a CRM committee, or just a handful of users is normally the best way to start. You have to not only master the basics first from a user interface standpoint, but your employees have to understand the application as well. Luckily Microsoft CRM’s interface is integrated into outlook so most users will get it really fast. I am sure that we are all familiar with the Garbage In, Garbage Out Rule. Remember, Walk… Crawl ………. Sprint!

Know when you shouldn’t Automate Processes
Ok. Now i know that this may sound anti-progressive, but honestly there are times when processes should not be automated in your organization. Although the capability is there it just doesn’t make sense.

With this in mind make sure that the relevant people in the organization are involved with reviewing and approving your existing processes. Lose the processes that are no longer needed or used. Make changes to the ones that need to be made, and add functionality only where it is needed for the first implementation phase.

Measure.. Measure… and Measure Again!
The last point really is taking the measurements to help with indicators of how CRM is doing in the organization. You shouldn’t stop reviewing this information and comparing it to your original baseline. Let this be an aid to provide how CRM is doing in your organization.

If you have seen this problem happen in the installation process you are not alone. Sometimes this happens during the microsoft crm 3 to 4 upgrade of the crm client. 

Something that will aid in this situation is Microsoft’s Internet Facing Deployment Tool. I have had clients mention that they cannot configure Microsoft CRM 4 Outlook client and that they receive the “configuration wizard cannot connect to the Microsoft CRM server” Error message, and it becomes pretty frustrating.

With the Microsoft CRM IFD tool you can easily fix this problem . The tool comes in handy for troubleshooting the errors with the AD SDK Root domain and IFD SDK Root Domain location in the database which seems to cause this issue for the most part. There is more information about the IFD tool below at the following Microsoft Support website.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948779

During the process of upgrading the Microsoft CRM 3 outlook client to Microsoft CRM 4 i noticed issues with leftover dropdown CRM menu in my outlook client. I thought it was strange and i wasn’t for sure if anyone else as well had seen this. The fix is very simple, but i thought i would blog about it just in case other people run into this as well.

To remove the extra leftover CRM toolbar options you can go into outlook click tools-> commands -> menu bar. From here you can select the options to delete from the menu to remove the leftover components.

Simple enough, kind of aggrivating the upgrade didn’t remove it on the client, but here is a simple fix.