Dynamics CRM

Hello everyone… It’s been a while, but I’m finally back with more words of CRM wisdom:

Here at Fpweb.net, we’re hard at work gearing up for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5.0 TAP program, and the most common question asked of the CRM Samurai (or Sammy to my friends):

“…will CRM 5.0 integrate more fluidly into SQL 2008?”

Hey folks! Like a lot of you, I like my MS Dynamics CRM with a little bit of Mozilla Firefox mixed in. The only problem is, you cannot view your CRM environment in the Firefox browser. This frustrates me. Luckily, I have a way for you to get the best of both worlds with a simple add-on for Firefox. Who said you can’t have your pie and eat it too…

Ok, so you have installed a new language pack from Microsoft to use in your Dynamics CRM 4.0 environment but cannot find it when you try to enable it. Not only that, but the language settings box is blank. What in the world happened?

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is a vastly customizable solution, perfect for developers to create applications that run on top of it.

There are numerous issues and questions that arise when I’m assisting Fpweb.net hosted CRM customers that have a high level of CRM customization. One of the most common is: How do I access the Dynamics CRM Discovery Service via the internet?

Here’s the situation: you’re using workflows in Dynamics CRM 4.0. All of a sudden your workflows are not working, and you are receiving this error:

“an error occurred when the workflow was being created. try to save the workflow again”.

Most CRM users/admins I encounter as the Dynamics CRM guru at Fpweb.net tell me they are going to simply save their CRM workflow and try to publish again. Since the error message is telling them to do that… I can’t really blame them. However – I know from experience that this does not work. Luckily, I have the solution that does work.

What are the new entities in Dynamics CRM 4.0 Mobile and how do I access them?
You’re in luck… we have the answers!

Finally! Mobile access for CRM 4.0 users

Redmond has finally answered the call of the users, and released the long-awaited mobile client for Dynamics CRM 4.0. This will allow users to access their CRM data via a web-enabled mobile phone. Most browsers will allow access, although IE mobile and Safari are guaranteed to work.

Here is the scenario: I have created a few test quotes in Microsoft CRM 4.0. Once I close them, I want to delete the CRM quotes.

Simple right? Right? WRONG. The way Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is configured by default, CRM Quotes become read-only once they are closed. This makes it impossible to delete them. So the question becomes…

This past week, I attended the Midwest SharePoint Conference.  There were about 300 people at the conference.  I heard great presentations from Quilogy, Nintex, and Microsoft.  I was probably most impressed with where Nintex has taken their work flow and reporting tools.  They have taken a UI based approach that makes work flows and reporting simple for users.

I also met Nintex co-founder, Brett Campbell.   Brett is an amazingly sharp guy that really understands his customers.  Brett and I were able to key some of our key folks together and push our partnership forward while at the conference.  So in the coming months, expect to see Fpweb.net offering services from Nintex.

CRM is the wave of the future, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is a fully developed solution that is extremely cost-effective on a hosted CRM platform. The best part about it is that since it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook, the most used business email client in the world, it is even easier to utilize.

Now the question you may ask is “In order to integrate CRM with Outlook, which version of the Outlook interface do I need to install? The standard online install or the scary (Advanced) Offline Access install?”