Today we came across the great unsupported customization requests of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3 which was a customized and filtered lookup box for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
Although lookup boxes are much easier to generate natively in Microsoft CRM 4.0 you just need to create a N:1 relationship to whatever entity you want your lookup box to pull information for.
For example on the opportunities entity you may want to not only have “potential customer”, but also have the ability to show a list of contacts to choose from that are specific to the selected customer. This is simply known as a filtered lookup, and here is an easy way to accomplish it.
After you have completed your many to one relationship (if one doesn’t already exist) on your customized entity you can easily with javascript filter the second lookup.
You will first have to add the following onload event to your entities form.
document.FilterLookup = function(source, target)
{
if (IsNull(source) || IsNull(target)) { return; }
var name = IsNull(source.DataValue) ? ” : source.DataValue[0].name;
target.additionalparams = ’search=’ + name;
}
Then on the onchange event of your attribute (in our case potential customer) you will have to trigger the filter function as in the example below, so that it will in fact also filter the second lookup field on the form as shown in the Custom Lookup Filter Image.
// If company is defined pre-filter lookup with customers
document.FilterLookup(crmForm.all.customerid, crmForm.all.sti_contact_opp_linkid);
This also works best if you additionally copy the script to the onload of the form as well, this is so that if the user decides to change the existing contact to another contact it will still function as originally intended.
Well… For the past couple of weeks (in my spare time) i have been taking the scribe integration training classes as a new partner for the product. I have seen alot of similarities to another solution that i have used in the past for CRM to GP integrations.
I really believe that scribe is way ahead of the game when it comes to the isolation of the collaboration engine and the idea of using software package adapters as i think that generally this is easier for technical and non technical users to digest in a decent and easy to understand interface.
I have deployed the CRM and GP adapters now in a test and production environment and i have now passed a few of the exams for becoming a certified partner. The only tests i have left are the adapter exams and i plan to attempt those after i have a chance to revisit the partner training center and go through the videos again.
My current integration is working well and i am typically a very visual learner so getting my hands dirty with the product is usually what works best for me, and has worked out well in this case also.
I look forward to discussing GP and CRM integrations with the product in future and i am just wondering when an integration solution will come out natively from Microsoft as well. I heard some rumblings at convergence and attended a session about the new integration adapter, but it looked as if it was still under development.
The best part about scribe is the fact that it doesn’t only have to be linked to GP and it is flexible enough to pull information in from just about any data source imaginable.
Well…. back to studying for now… just thought i would post an update.
Take Care!
First off I was glad that I attended ms convergence 09. The show had 7000 plus attendees during the week and with our rfid tags in our eventforce badges they even told us a calculation of all the steps we had taken combined.
With kirill tartarinov at the opening speech and also the microsoft R&D presentation on thursday it was very apparent that everyone should be able to utilize something with their existing infrastructure better with the current economic climate.
Once again more with what you currently have, and making sure you have simple quick wins to aid with more challenging endevours such as BI.
I also discovered that I am not that excited about creole cooking. 
I will stick with red beans and rice from a zatarans box!
For the past couple of weeks i have been involved with going through the Scribe Insight training. So far i have completed the Workbench, Server, and adapter training for GP and CRM.
I must say that i really like the open ended adapters that allow such access into both GP and the CRM platforms through e-connect on the GP side and the services access on the CRM side. I will post more information about some projects i will be completing with the application in the near future, but all in all i am really psyched about it.
I also saw today that Microsoft is also going to discuss integration between CRM and GP at this years convergence…. Ow! Ouch! Ouch! Horrible flashbacks of the biztalk adapter and the seamless integration for CRM 3.0 are lodged in my brain now.
Ok so maybe i am being a bit pessimistic here, but i will attend the sessions about the new integration at convergence anyway to see what is up!
I found these great videos today about Microsoft CRM 5 platform discussions and what kind of additions that may be possible for the future Microsoft CRM 5 release.
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/benriga/CRM-5-Chatting-with-the-platform-team/
After registering for Convergence this year i got a notice this morning stating that the sessions catalog has been released. This will be helpful in planning out which sessions i would like to participate in on partner day and throughout the general sessions.
https://www.msconvergence.com/modules/sessionlist/Default.aspx
If you haven’t registered yet you still have until the 21st of january to register and receive $300 off by registering early.
Looks like they have extended the early registration now until Jan. 21, 2009. I just managed to get everything booked. If you register early you can get a $300 discount.
If you haven’t quite registered yet you can do so here.
http://www.microsoft.com/Dynamics/convergence/neworleans09/registration.aspx
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.
