tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91656285201252245602024-03-28T08:49:18.052+00:00xRM ConsultantDelivering The Best That Microsoft Dynamics CRM Has To OfferAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-49170633839378506882014-05-30T00:06:00.001+01:002014-05-30T00:14:07.856+01:00BIG NEWS: Microsoft & Salesforce.com Annouce Partnership!!!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those who haven't seen the news that is coming out of the US this evening, Microsoft new CEO Satya Nadella has announced a <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/may14/05-29mayannouncementpr.aspx" target="_blank">partnership between Microsoft and Salesforce.com</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is really REALLY big news....and not particularly great news. For at least 4 years Microsoft have had SalesForce in their sights. In 2010 it really kicked off when <a href="http://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/crm/article.php/3889931/Salesforce-Suit-Clouds-Microsofts-Patent-Attack.htm" target="_blank">law suits were filed for "patent infringements"</a> To say SalesForce were equally "miffed" was an understatement</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In last 2 years in particular, it seemed that Microsoft's singular commercial goal was to wipe SalesForce off the map. Even Microsoft's pricing strategy for CRM Online (MS CRM Professional Licence was priced the same as SalesForce "Basic" licence) seemed like an ironic slap in the face to SalesForce</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now Microsoft seem to want to play nice....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't.....quite....know what to say really....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the face of it, this is not a smart move AT ALL. Integrating SalesForce and Office365 surely removes what should be a core USP of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Also, does Microsoft REALLY want to present SalesForce as a good solution to Office365 customers looking for a CRM Solution??</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is one possibility but it rely's on Microsofts new CEO Satya Nadella being sharper than initially appears. If this was a bold first move to an acquisition of SalesForce by Microsoft this could make for more drama than a CRM Industry version of Eastenders. Even without an acquisition, there could be a positive angle. SalesForce do have a significant customer base. Get them on Office365, impress them with SharePoint and OneDrive and....<i>"oh by the way...did you know that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is way more awesome than this SalesForce rubbish????"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I trying to put a positive spin on this? Yes...but time will tell.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Needless to say this hasnt been met with much enthusiasm in the twittersphere...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please feel free to use the comments section to discuss your insights/thoughts on this. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Joel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com258tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-4958902438632005362014-05-23T08:50:00.000+01:002014-05-23T08:50:00.021+01:00The Million Dollar Question - How To Get Buy In! - Part 2 (End Users)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFcEn6w6ZZ6sa5neJlNizbSUZDcRz3iVFYLGFGdiAUgNKmZUqw202Snu9GKQ69Z-DtfN2MzBImZeeHplP-AKOG9zq8LkltVBFNeao5JkzdWD_8oigfCyfwN5x0NC5okfi5uKq2ISnmgTk/s1600/work-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFcEn6w6ZZ6sa5neJlNizbSUZDcRz3iVFYLGFGdiAUgNKmZUqw202Snu9GKQ69Z-DtfN2MzBImZeeHplP-AKOG9zq8LkltVBFNeao5JkzdWD_8oigfCyfwN5x0NC5okfi5uKq2ISnmgTk/s1600/work-12.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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If you read the
second article in our 3-part series on how to get buy-in for your CRM project.
Part 1 of the series focused on getting management teams on board. If you
missed it, <a href="http://xrmconsultant.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-million-dollar-question-how-to-get.html" target="_blank">go and have a look here</a>. In this article we will discuss what is
probably your toughest audience for getting buy-in…</div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">End Users</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> - Getting buy-in from the
day-to-day users of CRM can be a huge challenge. Some users are very
resistant to change. Others, are desperate to cling onto the existing
system. Ironically, these users often are hugely critical of the way
things are done, but when change is on the horizon suddenly the current
way is the best way! Still, yet others are either "too busy" or
just plain uninterested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
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Been there? Done it?
Got the t-shirt? Like with management, In my experience there is no standard
formula for success with getting buy-in from end users, and a tailored approach
is a must. As they are probably your biggest group,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you may need to adapt your approach for
different teams of users so you will need to be very flexible . So what
measures are available to you?</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Issue Initial Feedback Questionnaires</span></div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">End Users</span></li>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - Simply inviting
users to a session to discuss CRM without any 'warm-up' will <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpZ5Dal0d8-JB-u3mD4l6kRRDzjvw7N8t-XBZsFp5faPVkuxF2s-SA_EIUtryPPnFi5YduejqnI47MIhq7tfr1w3tlLAG4m8I3Xzi0uHbdcSLfEVKRsglhhjSoIS3fnNV-0Pm1HKxuRi4/s1600/post-4-270x193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpZ5Dal0d8-JB-u3mD4l6kRRDzjvw7N8t-XBZsFp5faPVkuxF2s-SA_EIUtryPPnFi5YduejqnI47MIhq7tfr1w3tlLAG4m8I3Xzi0uHbdcSLfEVKRsglhhjSoIS3fnNV-0Pm1HKxuRi4/s1600/post-4-270x193.jpg" height="142" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ensure noting
other than a very dry boring meeting. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">To combat this, issue an
initial feedback questionnaire to the team asking them questions such as,
what do they currently do in their day to day job? What systems do they
use? What would they like to change?</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> Etc. The purpose of these is not for them to write down
all their requirements but to get them thinking before they come into the
feedback sessions, making those sessions much more productive</span></span></li>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Empower Users To Take Responsibility</span></div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">End Users</span></li>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - We discussed
this in our last article as a strategy that benefits the management team
but in truth it is a huge way to get buy-in from end users too. User will
feel much more engaged in the entire process and get on board with process
changes quicker if </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">they feel that they have the power to make suggestions
and decisions that are taken on board</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">. This can be done by </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">asking Power-Users to sign-off
functionality before it gets developed</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">. This often also has the knock on effect of
making these individuals an advocate of the system when it is deployed</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Do What You Said You Would When You Said You Would</span></div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">End Users</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg91kjJo8j6-SpUmfU89LtBGfZdgq-NGhDiK_uzzB6O8ssbzcLBN5DwKj7GagphZbbcUSMxGl1cwxfHncihSePhsQX9kPbSLnN1_RUbdnkD3xnPP8SxWcAqm0LQ7-wIWIXwto2HeXvJS_8/s1600/work-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg91kjJo8j6-SpUmfU89LtBGfZdgq-NGhDiK_uzzB6O8ssbzcLBN5DwKj7GagphZbbcUSMxGl1cwxfHncihSePhsQX9kPbSLnN1_RUbdnkD3xnPP8SxWcAqm0LQ7-wIWIXwto2HeXvJS_8/s1600/work-9.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - We discussed
this in our last article as a strategy that benefits the management team
but in truth it is a huge way to get buy-in from end users too. Often a
project of this size is the next in a list of IT implementations, systems,
processes etc. and you may find that previous promises made that were
never delivered can impact users view of your project. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">The simplest
and quickest way to get round this is to do what you said you would when
you said you would. Cancel/Rearrange meetings as rarely as possible. </span></li>
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<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Carry Out Dual-Phase UAT</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">End Users</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - UAT is essential
and yet it can often be where a project really slows, sadly so close to
the finish line! To combat this, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">carry out 2 phases of UAT</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">. The </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">first phase</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> should be carried out with
the project lead with the purpose of </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">verifying that what has been
delivered meets what was requested in the documented solution</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">. The </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">second phase</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> is where the system is
verified with the end-users, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">checking that nothing major has been
missed</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> or not
delivered. </span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Process Oriented Training Materials</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">End Users</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJSO-CEdkJn6h23E5fmX2ebTZt3dveYayRGhyv_Po3B_SA2H4GZjHioeuVz-GkPVwx3XsfNQSF1wJvcH2SmcVDO-dlwY-6YA8A-3JT9yxa3cPy97LOdcPwiedhyphenhyphenAAdBaXJTINSyxoHxc/s1600/work-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJSO-CEdkJn6h23E5fmX2ebTZt3dveYayRGhyv_Po3B_SA2H4GZjHioeuVz-GkPVwx3XsfNQSF1wJvcH2SmcVDO-dlwY-6YA8A-3JT9yxa3cPy97LOdcPwiedhyphenhyphenAAdBaXJTINSyxoHxc/s1600/work-6.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do -Avoid simply
handing users manuals that cover only the basics of CRM or worse the
detailed minutia of how to administer CRM. This will bore your users and
turn them off your system. Instead, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">create manuals and training programs
that focus on how the user groups will follow the company process</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">. Accompanied with
screen-shot manuals, this approach will make users feel empowered to do
their job confidently in CRM from day 1.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Make Good Use Of Videos</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">End Users</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivFwbXLlp1WyU4JFkRanHOipE4_Emqx8S1AVIEaHdXN-3A8WkyN4iS0xHOOqRLb9fj9vnGKmZRobHrbKpWf2u-MlTwOlWJdWphy0R-D1-tj_2tVjhoKMLt908ixETRBimA86Gfp9bB2Ik/s1600/vimeo-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivFwbXLlp1WyU4JFkRanHOipE4_Emqx8S1AVIEaHdXN-3A8WkyN4iS0xHOOqRLb9fj9vnGKmZRobHrbKpWf2u-MlTwOlWJdWphy0R-D1-tj_2tVjhoKMLt908ixETRBimA86Gfp9bB2Ik/s1600/vimeo-logo.png" height="56" width="200" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - It’s a nightmare
getting all the individuals you need together for training. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">Using screen
capture software to create short videos that demonstrate how to use
certain aspects of the system</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> can be a great way of not only mopping up those who
couldn’t attend but also providing a first stop for users wanting a
refresh on something from the training. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Top Tip: Keep
them short! Users are much more likely to watch a video if it is 3-5 mins.
long</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Run Project Feedback Sessions</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">End Users</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv5TjSq2UzE7tT3o7ojISCucM5DSkhTXTaK1I28FvCGEoOicYb5v6__nfJjL1kPuiFAWuO6TPEruUzV4NzizmuDWylfSoxjb6v-lbTtz0owVIvOJFs9t8f0hl9F9ed92QoCK5F8i6uAd4/s1600/service-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv5TjSq2UzE7tT3o7ojISCucM5DSkhTXTaK1I28FvCGEoOicYb5v6__nfJjL1kPuiFAWuO6TPEruUzV4NzizmuDWylfSoxjb6v-lbTtz0owVIvOJFs9t8f0hl9F9ed92QoCK5F8i6uAd4/s1600/service-2.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a> </div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - Throughout the
project, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">run project feedback sessions</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> to not only gather feedback
from end users on how things are going from their perspective but also to </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">give them
feedback on how the project is progressing.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> There can be quite a gap between stages for the
end users, particularly during the development phase. Keeping them
up-to-date on progress will reinforce that their hard work and input
hasn’t been forgotten.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
None of these alone
will guarantee success. Much depends on the size of your organisation and a
realistic view of what is achievable. However, using a combination of these
will really help your users feel engaged with and when end users feel like they
have a say in the project this is only a positive thing. </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
But what about
getting buy-in from an often forgotten area, the IT department? <b><u>This will be
discussed in the final article in our series out on Tuesday</u></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
If you are
struggling with user adoption and would like some help and support, we would
welcome the chance to discuss this further with you. We have worked with
thousands of users over the years and we are confident that we can help support
you. To arrange a discussion, please complete the Contact Us page</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Hope this helps,
please feel free to add any comments below. </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Joel Abbott - xRM
Consultant. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-74170678100330290282014-05-21T16:43:00.000+01:002014-05-21T16:45:24.230+01:00The Million Dollar Question - How To Get Buy In! - Part 1 (Management)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLugmbiRF96oKm7iGLgkkOKus6CnmcCvteobbTTGmQW5wyt4obne5PEftV_JDCUwOXQMcrMEQnIDQm1X_-etKzIfHwAEVJpyNTCrStSYn4vI7hZDxYNnq60TDjVs9whqGNSf-CuqJiuZY/s1600/going-digital-team-buyin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLugmbiRF96oKm7iGLgkkOKus6CnmcCvteobbTTGmQW5wyt4obne5PEftV_JDCUwOXQMcrMEQnIDQm1X_-etKzIfHwAEVJpyNTCrStSYn4vI7hZDxYNnq60TDjVs9whqGNSf-CuqJiuZY/s1600/going-digital-team-buyin.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I recently attended
the <a href="http://www.crmug.com/member-resources/regional-chapters/crmuguk/" target="_blank">CRM User Group</a> at the Microsoft Campus in Reading (UK). If you haven't
gotten involved with the CRM User Group yet I would thoroughly recommend it. It
is run by a Microsoft<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MVP<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>called <a href="http://blog.crmguru.co.uk/" target="_blank">Adam Vero</a>. Adam is a top bloke and
fantastic MCT so definitely worth attending as this event attracts a good
number of users, administrators and CRM Consultants too, all looking to share
their knowledge. </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Anyway, back on
topic….</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
We had a round table
discussion about managing CRM projects and the issue that kept coming up again
and again was the age-old question for any Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Administrator……..</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><b>How do I get users, management, even IT to buy-in to
both the product and the project?</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Now, anyone who has
ran any sort of software implementation project<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>will have faced this challenge before. The reason for a lack of, or
perceived lack of, interest from your user base can be for different reasons depending
on the users:</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA3OykNav6jPpobnYeuOkgTdUhD2lCGmUqL9KBa2uhIl3pQJ2hor46RGi-DDqc_9tjBTjiLpMwybBt92pWZVyZZD0ZPsTbKR6qZlA_1wcxCgGvvk0keQveJMbV1xbcxcX6pHJd4Rfb7QE/s1600/work-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA3OykNav6jPpobnYeuOkgTdUhD2lCGmUqL9KBa2uhIl3pQJ2hor46RGi-DDqc_9tjBTjiLpMwybBt92pWZVyZZD0ZPsTbKR6qZlA_1wcxCgGvvk0keQveJMbV1xbcxcX6pHJd4Rfb7QE/s1600/work-12.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">Management</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> - The VAST<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>majority of successful implementations I
have been involved in were lead from the top. Far from just ensuring that
the project is delivered on time and signing the cheques, a good
management team will support both the project processes (detailed scoping
& requirements gathering, development etc..) but will also be fully
engaged in any<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>changes to business
process. Without this level of backing, delivering a successful CRM
project (i.e. one that delivers real, tangible business benefits short and
long term) is incredibly difficult.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">NB: This is also true of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Users</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> & </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">IT</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> but we will be discussing this in Parts 2 & 3 of
this series.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Ok, so with that
thoroughly depressing picture what can be done? In my experience there is no
standard formula for success with this, but a tailored approach is crucial.
Depending on what issues you are experiencing, you can create a strategy of
measures that work for you. This can be flexible also so that as the user
adoption issues change, your strategy for dealing with it can too. So what
measures are available to you?</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Establish A Project Board</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Management</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6pt; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.375in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTfEkf7YJPB_GPkJF8JvPqE2iz0bCmBqrYkOdI7CbAfBlZRuFHeVIbdjU6K3nvzbL8S6vjjw01pziHhyphenhyphenN8UD73X3k-xJdDBgtLnJ7nY6y9SuWfFltjjJUeUKn46cMXomjRkjljd9RQBU/s1600/post-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTfEkf7YJPB_GPkJF8JvPqE2iz0bCmBqrYkOdI7CbAfBlZRuFHeVIbdjU6K3nvzbL8S6vjjw01pziHhyphenhyphenN8UD73X3k-xJdDBgtLnJ7nY6y9SuWfFltjjJUeUKn46cMXomjRkjljd9RQBU/s1600/post-3.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">What To Do - Managing a CRM project can be a very lonely place, whether you are an outside consultant or an internal project lead. Every project will have its ups and downs and </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">support from senior management is absolutely essential.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"> Forming a </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Project Board is different from your project team</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">. The project team will consist of individuals at all levels. However the Project Board will generally consist of </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">(1) the Project Lead, (2) the main Project Sponsor and (3) at least 1 other member of senior management (director level)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">. This means that when high level strategy is being discussed, a </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">fair and accurate picture of your progress is given</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">. In addition, when the project slows due to a lack of a decision being taken, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">you have individuals with the authority to either make the decision or take the delay on the chin on your behalf</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Control The Message</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Management</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_qAFb8VNg5sTBs58zfqK8oE-ny1AZ5euxqNRGbwxbGBjfCtB2POro1lwDB0VArIM_rr4PGFoJzzer-SKRH1kxAAk1hQyKewA-Ek2EhAy-IoJ-57EEI0qR0ypiq7UPyhhAR2OKaVoTvao/s1600/work-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_qAFb8VNg5sTBs58zfqK8oE-ny1AZ5euxqNRGbwxbGBjfCtB2POro1lwDB0VArIM_rr4PGFoJzzer-SKRH1kxAAk1hQyKewA-Ek2EhAy-IoJ-57EEI0qR0ypiq7UPyhhAR2OKaVoTvao/s1600/work-2.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - Ensure that very
early on you </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">identify the objectives of your project</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;"> from the perspective of the
management team and ensure that </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">progress on these objectives is
regularly measured and reported on</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">. This can be a challenge, particularly when you have
issues but control how those issues are communicated. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">If they have
no impact on the deliverability of the management objectives don’t open
your mouth unless necessary</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">. </span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Issue Weekly Project Updates</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Management</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZB70X_zLDV3N6m7X-u3Mbs1CnPStnVmkzKrpDr7D9WS8J8y0sxEYPTYX6bu56qcAj7Zy9whBg4aFypS8maU2IXnQCgksOXA0NhnbIi5WKlkqpmnLX9LRrNFmmq1ZX3Bp4Uu6-t22CKU/s1600/post-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZB70X_zLDV3N6m7X-u3Mbs1CnPStnVmkzKrpDr7D9WS8J8y0sxEYPTYX6bu56qcAj7Zy9whBg4aFypS8maU2IXnQCgksOXA0NhnbIi5WKlkqpmnLX9LRrNFmmq1ZX3Bp4Uu6-t22CKU/s1600/post-4.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - Any CRM project
will ebb and flow when it comes to progress. Meetings with users to
under<br />
stand feedback, getting documentation and sign-off and overcoming
technical issues can all seem to take time with not much to show for it.
This is why </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">issuing weekly project updates is so critical</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">. This </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">allows you
to front-up to the management team exactly what IS being achieved and
where there are sticking points can be an excellent way of demonstrating
the impact of these</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">.
This means that management are far more likely to support rather than
question your progress. </span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Empower Users To Take Responsibility</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Management</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtqauVTw7Sl-t7HdEyO8tFNWt6zKsqEFLVtsTMyqYSWLH1APjXDdF4G2sFCQQ7MoxwxrvcN1_BjqhRz3heWT4EwF6odhBPquK6m2GCZJomdy2gW3ljgcDAjCgYCTBabYaNUjSHQ60Lva8/s1600/work-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtqauVTw7Sl-t7HdEyO8tFNWt6zKsqEFLVtsTMyqYSWLH1APjXDdF4G2sFCQQ7MoxwxrvcN1_BjqhRz3heWT4EwF6odhBPquK6m2GCZJomdy2gW3ljgcDAjCgYCTBabYaNUjSHQ60Lva8/s1600/work-4.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - An approach that
is often taken by management teams is the sledgehammer </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">approach
("Your having this system whether you like it or not!"). This
often ends in wasted money, time and enthusiasm. Empowering users to give
input goes a long way to ensure this doesn’t happen. Make it clear to end
users who are involved that </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">not only is there feedback welcome
but it will have a direct impact on what the system looks like</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Let them
have considerable input into decisions, particularly around business
process.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Measure - </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Do What You Said You Would Do When You Said You
Would</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who For - </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Management</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 6.0pt; margin-left: .375in; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA-kFOQ_vJ6kTooiCHBhIApHWLONBTzJggZ4-VI9xFpCvmin1xVAykRRlYF6arMvFu3Henl0Jy-TUBNk1O3DmIqalbhKQhEFau4-CdFxriXWANebC1zxN-NmhgVaa2vP2MCNfCgOpxf-w/s1600/work-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA-kFOQ_vJ6kTooiCHBhIApHWLONBTzJggZ4-VI9xFpCvmin1xVAykRRlYF6arMvFu3Henl0Jy-TUBNk1O3DmIqalbhKQhEFau4-CdFxriXWANebC1zxN-NmhgVaa2vP2MCNfCgOpxf-w/s1600/work-6.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What To Do - This is probably
the simplest of measures but is so very important. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">Set
realistic deadlines, push back if you feel expectations that are being put
on you or the team are unrealistic</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">, even putting your concerns down in writing, but then
when you commit to a date…meet it. Trust is a key issue in any project as
you need the management team to trust your view on how the project is
going. If you make promises that go unfulfilled this trust will evaporate.
On the other hand, if you </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold;">do what you said you would when you said you
would, it will engender support from those overseeing the project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
As we said at the
start, none of these are the proverbial silver bullet, nor will using all of
them guarantee success. Much depends on the size of your organisation and a
realistic view of what is achievable. However, using a combination of these can
get you a long way towards delivering a great project. Microsoft Dynamics CRM
is by far the best CRM solution in the marketplace. A great project delivery
will only enhance the way your organisation views it and you!</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
But what about
getting buy-in from End Users? This will be discussed in the next article in
our series out on Friday</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
If you are
struggling with user adoption and would like some help and support, we would
welcome the chance to discuss this further with you. We have worked with
thousands of users over the years and we are confident that we can help support
you. To arrange a discussion, please <a href="mailto:Joel.Abbott@xrmconsultant.co.uk" target="_blank">click here</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Hope this helps,
please feel free to add any comments below. </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Joel Abbott - xRM
Consultant. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-22386445813009473512014-05-20T00:21:00.000+01:002014-05-20T00:21:31.411+01:00Service & Case Changes…Small But Mighty! Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 - Spring Wave<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As part of
the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Spring Wave there are a whole host of updates
to different areas of this fantastic solution. To get more information on all
the changes, you can find the release preview guide here.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In this
blog I just wanted to focus on a few of the changes to the Cases entity. There
are a number of changes but I am focusing here on the 3 that I believe will
have the greatest impact as customers have </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">continuously</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> asked for them:</span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Finding Similar Cases:</span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On any
support desk, knowledge is power and sharing that knowledge is key . There are
a number of ways you could do this but what has been lacking from the Service
offering Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the ability to quickly, efficiently and
easily find cases similar to the one you are currently working on. This has
been included in the Spring Wave. Without leaving the case record you are
working on, your service agent can click on the Similar Cases lookup and find a
list of suggested cases. From here they can link these or other cases they know
to be relevant to the case they are working on. Perhaps the issue was handled
in 3 or 4 different ways in the past. No problem, link all the cases and your
agent will have all the information at their fingertips. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5rmHmjdkMxoDOzArU6OpydarJrAMPy-WZjdd8hZbFT29GYRbL4Jhq5wHaE6NPrQg_wW62k02wYCnwLyPiGv814OxmWFX4-4aLcrWrkSg7un9F9N0o-8jKAMGuSn_r3Jjd43xPk22pcE/s1600/findsimilar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5rmHmjdkMxoDOzArU6OpydarJrAMPy-WZjdd8hZbFT29GYRbL4Jhq5wHaE6NPrQg_wW62k02wYCnwLyPiGv814OxmWFX4-4aLcrWrkSg7un9F9N0o-8jKAMGuSn_r3Jjd43xPk22pcE/s1600/findsimilar.png" height="323" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The
suggestions that CRM makes are based on the related "Subjects". I
would like to see this work a little smarter as I know that the subject tree
hasn’t always proved to be effective for my customers but it’s a great start. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Merging Cases:</span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For some
time in CRM there has been the ability to merge records. However, the ability
merge cases is extremely useful. Not only does it merge all activities and
associated records from your merged case to your new one but it allows you to
merge more than a single record at a time. This means that, for example, if you
get a user who is very "enthusiastic" about their issue and calls
through to your helpdesk 4 or 5 times logging the same case, these can be
merged into a single case very quickly and easily. Brilliant!</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdP8LbdUQyZQ0Xw1PqykRr2wTKNUS6KFMkpzjE0q2NjUztY37tAZSgGQprM2-aFAx4s7z2qGJvUZW7IYlEnVgwjxKuXpjrc4cdYXseHTdS-f9UvH_CNu0uww30AbRY_En0OnwoV5dS0iE/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdP8LbdUQyZQ0Xw1PqykRr2wTKNUS6KFMkpzjE0q2NjUztY37tAZSgGQprM2-aFAx4s7z2qGJvUZW7IYlEnVgwjxKuXpjrc4cdYXseHTdS-f9UvH_CNu0uww30AbRY_En0OnwoV5dS0iE/s1600/untitled.png" height="382" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Segoe UI Light"; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Parent & Child Cases:</span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This
feature has been a LONG time coming. I have often had to build this manually
for customers who were bemused at the fact that they couldn’t do this "out
of the box". So it is with great delight that we see the ability to have
parent and child cases in the Spring Wave. There are two main scenarios were
this is invaluable:</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">One issue from same
customer and work needs be done by other teams</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUaF5nTc5Id3JEwA1MQowlJvF34_r8E2NZHs1GpyD033rPVhlWVXdpV6b-Nyxv0LoPQNg4zp-8b80YjSHoV0DhnCPou7uYqvzyRGG6fcxNl-c1TwyaOHmUdGcLIPwltfDwPu4iW0QgOYc/s1600/Difftasks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUaF5nTc5Id3JEwA1MQowlJvF34_r8E2NZHs1GpyD033rPVhlWVXdpV6b-Nyxv0LoPQNg4zp-8b80YjSHoV0DhnCPou7uYqvzyRGG6fcxNl-c1TwyaOHmUdGcLIPwltfDwPu4iW0QgOYc/s1600/Difftasks.png" height="230" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Same issue effecting
multiple customer from same </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">organisation</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSqcMnKziPN26uVLylSnf1GIbmO9jMjNk5qc_mMjfVHB060RchR7a1N3ArEyNVJ6vurvcEHURkf9Ylkgw-1u_XPOLyOth6rx5jDQg1BpoDPgad3cu8nE6lnt7rqIFYDm69Z2EOCAvn_rc/s1600/Difforgs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSqcMnKziPN26uVLylSnf1GIbmO9jMjNk5qc_mMjfVHB060RchR7a1N3ArEyNVJ6vurvcEHURkf9Ylkgw-1u_XPOLyOth6rx5jDQg1BpoDPgad3cu8nE6lnt7rqIFYDm69Z2EOCAvn_rc/s1600/Difforgs.png" height="222" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How is it
done? Very easily in one of 2 ways. First you can click on the "Create
Child Case" button on your "Parent" case. This will create a new
case that is already linked to the parent one and visible as such. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5mSHG5sr5-_h4ydjJVBghnKhl-QWoSO2CNYCMBLnFrjrKDryy8yGCDaj7wkaSIvz56FxXJ6byuWE1Kyoa-OhTdZm4f9Y8uDhrcF9iA3ryLz2oHpp5pMGzJXsDPhxay_9jBa7rtcNSIrY/s1600/childcases1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5mSHG5sr5-_h4ydjJVBghnKhl-QWoSO2CNYCMBLnFrjrKDryy8yGCDaj7wkaSIvz56FxXJ6byuWE1Kyoa-OhTdZm4f9Y8uDhrcF9iA3ryLz2oHpp5pMGzJXsDPhxay_9jBa7rtcNSIrY/s1600/childcases1.png" height="332" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Secondly,
you can associate other pre-existing cases as child cases. Not only can this be
done by using the Child Cases Sub-grid on the Parent Case form but it can also
been done in bulk by going to a view of cases, selecting those you wish to make
child cases, clicking on the "Associate Child Cases" button and
selecting the parent. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIP4zud95uStAghLodw0CptHdXz9ekfL69yCG43VkWeZBlooqVWwpcNXyXidln8o_KaUgg21kJUr2yLtpX8PLwuuglg-9U31y8xXgqGFhUIS1W35HXf-XcyDWdZoBN5MaAeK1dpXhIJRM/s1600/childcases.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIP4zud95uStAghLodw0CptHdXz9ekfL69yCG43VkWeZBlooqVWwpcNXyXidln8o_KaUgg21kJUr2yLtpX8PLwuuglg-9U31y8xXgqGFhUIS1W35HXf-XcyDWdZoBN5MaAeK1dpXhIJRM/s1600/childcases.png" height="354" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Its
important to note that you only have a single "level" in the
parent/child hierarchy. If Case B is a child of Case A then Case B cannot be a
parent of any other case. If you delete Case A but leave Case B in place, then
this can become a parent case but not otherwise.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I know
these may not be as razzmatazz (I should get an award for getting that word in
a blog post!) as Social Listening or Microsoft Dynamics Marketing but these
changes, small though they are, have been well thought through by the dev team
and Microsoft and will deliver real tangible benefits to our customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My
information is based on the following <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=393634" target="_blank">information eBook provided by Microsoft</a>
and as such may be subject to change as but it matches up with all we have told
already so we have no reason to doubt what this information tells us</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Please feel
free to comment below</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thanks</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Joel Abbott</span></div>
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">xRM
Consultant</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com74tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-23684557298249423022014-04-22T23:59:00.000+01:002014-04-23T00:03:31.328+01:00Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Mobile Options - xRM Product Demonstration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL4XvaOZibclndFAVgkxhw5A3ixaR3jkwGPIdXfmDNThPbg3j6FiZC3SIEpSSFSHT1F59BpKi0XZrXPYyyZnkvpwXjp-9J5GZDd1r_JQsNNgzl4uPbChU2atq0mmtKUWuKPKpkrdJo3FI/s1600/MobileCRM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL4XvaOZibclndFAVgkxhw5A3ixaR3jkwGPIdXfmDNThPbg3j6FiZC3SIEpSSFSHT1F59BpKi0XZrXPYyyZnkvpwXjp-9J5GZDd1r_JQsNNgzl4uPbChU2atq0mmtKUWuKPKpkrdJo3FI/s1600/MobileCRM.jpg" height="283" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
With the latest release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 mobile has become increasingly important to Microsoft. While the Microsoft Mobile App is certainly an improvement (with many more exciting improvements to come in "Vega" later this year) on what has gone before, there are another of cross platform options out there in the meantime. The video below shows my comparison of what i see as the three main options for organisations looking to implement mobile CRM now.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/92652243" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>"
</div>
<br />
Hope this helps!<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
Joel Abbott<br />
Managing Director<br />
xRM Consultant (UK) Ltd<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com7Bristol, City of Bristol BS3 5AF, UK51.4387865 -2.582593599999995651.437549499999996 -2.5851150999999954 51.4400235 -2.5800720999999958tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-50023489844533241772014-04-18T23:38:00.000+01:002014-04-18T23:38:33.584+01:00Apex Planner v GroupCalender for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 - xRM Product Demonstration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXJedFnNzI1PTFLniEaY8xDBFNYllZPJ5WEewshlQctFl2nyLbPm-xNHOJkKELeFt9aSC9W6KnZX4kz_D7-Qo5ef89wl1zO6FrnYNbCZqzoiZwr6LCUAhefiNYJHAUlhehAIWDmgyjDec/s1600/GroupCalendarvApexPlanner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXJedFnNzI1PTFLniEaY8xDBFNYllZPJ5WEewshlQctFl2nyLbPm-xNHOJkKELeFt9aSC9W6KnZX4kz_D7-Qo5ef89wl1zO6FrnYNbCZqzoiZwr6LCUAhefiNYJHAUlhehAIWDmgyjDec/s1600/GroupCalendarvApexPlanner.png" height="238" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
I was recently asked about the how the calendar and scheduling functionality works in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 and unfortunately all I could think of was "not as well as you would think" (I THOUGHT this...didn't say it!) There is however a number of great extensions out in the ISV community that extend this functionality in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. So, i decided to pull together a short video to show how the two best solutions i have come across compare against each other....<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/92357867" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
Hope this helps!<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
Joel Abbott<br />
Managing Director<br />
xRM Consultant (UK) Ltd<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-75909534221553320212014-04-15T02:08:00.000+01:002014-04-15T02:12:14.302+01:00Sales Entity Overview - xRM Quick Look<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3e04cyhKTx7eBZlrrwBqsT9HvVaDN3TKllKZXOaUz-GHOxTKYjfY1OR0B69SxBto9g1engBc9jZ9RwmWPOHPK15tq0gUsaAMOtrNZTXmwJ37l-9DjmnvFvV8GxgJ0iYq7aLky1JwATI/s1600/Sales+Entities.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3e04cyhKTx7eBZlrrwBqsT9HvVaDN3TKllKZXOaUz-GHOxTKYjfY1OR0B69SxBto9g1engBc9jZ9RwmWPOHPK15tq0gUsaAMOtrNZTXmwJ37l-9DjmnvFvV8GxgJ0iYq7aLky1JwATI/s1600/Sales+Entities.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I was recently asked about the sales process in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 and to give them a quick overview of how it works and potentially how they could use it. So, i decided to pull together a short video to show how these entities hang together in quick overview. Hope this helps...<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="400" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/91960496" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
Joel Abbott<br />
Managing Director<br />
xRM Consultant (UK) Ltd<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-56124298113852714922014-04-12T22:02:00.000+01:002014-04-14T10:24:00.834+01:00The Money Pit of CRM Deployment! Delivering On-Time And In-Budget<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9AkhEDqr6y1On2RLd8-dfEd1y3FLN-QjtJiXPtRmPJimp0m5h95KuCbKpMVEXPiRYDefio3vYLEwiwQRS8eUGdrrnVDV5_KrihW9nQ7L4UEMgGMEhBniyIQRPHI7kmIj5S2utfxRfhY/s1600/BBCPost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9AkhEDqr6y1On2RLd8-dfEd1y3FLN-QjtJiXPtRmPJimp0m5h95KuCbKpMVEXPiRYDefio3vYLEwiwQRS8eUGdrrnVDV5_KrihW9nQ7L4UEMgGMEhBniyIQRPHI7kmIj5S2utfxRfhY/s1600/BBCPost.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9AkhEDqr6y1On2RLd8-dfEd1y3FLN-QjtJiXPtRmPJimp0m5h95KuCbKpMVEXPiRYDefio3vYLEwiwQRS8eUGdrrnVDV5_KrihW9nQ7L4UEMgGMEhBniyIQRPHI7kmIj5S2utfxRfhY/s1600/BBCPost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you remember the film The Money Pit? Tom Hanks & Shelly Long star as home renovators who start with big dreams for their new home ultimately to realise that it will suck every penny from their lives. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why are we talking about this? Many businesses would agree that, all too easily, an IT Project can become a Money Pit in its own right. Even the BBC has suffered from what the city calls <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant" target="_blank">"White Elephant Syndrome"</a>. They paid over £100 million for an IT project called the <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">Digital Media Initiative (DMI) that was intended to move the BBC away from using and storing video tape, sounds simple enough? Not so. After 5 years and producing "almost no results" it was branded a complete failure. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Now as we sit smugly (before realising that the £100 million came from YOUR TV licence) reflecting on the failures of the poor BBC IT Dept. ask yourself, is this really so difficult to do? On more than just a few of the projects i have worked on, the reason we have been brought in is because the project is over-budget, behind schedule and no where near being delivered. Why? There can be any number of reasons from bad management of resources and poor planning to bad technical choices. So if your planning to implement a CRM solution, how do you get it right? Here a four key points that you need to seriously consider: </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Choose The Right Product</span></b></h3>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocrWjKnPzwx7GszsRSRvpTNJtq_8sZYi9yZ3Z4oZ49UHWukCD4B8M8IEYkHA90qKUMrYwSy7hCJ3OitQJf3sDiQZx0D_B4ISY-GII1MDMpQf1KUem8DI5aj2bFD1vea1nA5sL5FNJudo/s1600/products.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocrWjKnPzwx7GszsRSRvpTNJtq_8sZYi9yZ3Z4oZ49UHWukCD4B8M8IEYkHA90qKUMrYwSy7hCJ3OitQJf3sDiQZx0D_B4ISY-GII1MDMpQf1KUem8DI5aj2bFD1vea1nA5sL5FNJudo/s1600/products.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocrWjKnPzwx7GszsRSRvpTNJtq_8sZYi9yZ3Z4oZ49UHWukCD4B8M8IEYkHA90qKUMrYwSy7hCJ3OitQJf3sDiQZx0D_B4ISY-GII1MDMpQf1KUem8DI5aj2bFD1vea1nA5sL5FNJudo/s1600/products.png" height="309" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">One customer came to us having spent over £150,000 on a CRM solution. Once the first phase of the project was over, they were told by the product vendor that no further development could be done on the solution meaning they were stuck with what they had. And you guessed it....what they had been left with was not fit for purpose! This example clearly shows how important it is to choose the right product. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Any product that is selected should be both flexible enough to accommodate what you want from it now but also have enough scope to grow with your business. The only product that truly fits the bill in this regard is Microsoft Dynamics CRM. I have implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM for small businesses and major UK corporations. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is flexible, easily customised and extended with products from the huge amount of ISV's making custom solutions to suit your needs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition, any product should provide value for money. Microsoft have clearly taken a view that providing their customers with huge value for money over making a quick buck is the way to go. This can be seen from the huge improvements and additional functionality that Microsoft are including <u>for free</u> as part of the update roll-ups. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<h3>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Choose The Right Partner</span></b></h3>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is one of the most important decisions you will make and can be the difference between success and failure. A good partner with extensive experience can guide you through the decision making process and help you to avoid the pitfalls. A bad partner can not only prevent your solution from being delivered but cost you the earth! So what should you look </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">for? 3 things... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQitJt6DXpM9_ZDJgzN4MFzpzOQauRVYOJvhJkcLGhyphenhyphenNXIIny5Iw3JhgU9U_A0vQ28sx41u1lXXsk7lluB5B6Z2mpTjpkosVQSjjmm9eOXVRIEyxucmQh1W0Sf2iDDQOnt3SuDVSPpBio/s1600/work-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQitJt6DXpM9_ZDJgzN4MFzpzOQauRVYOJvhJkcLGhyphenhyphenNXIIny5Iw3JhgU9U_A0vQ28sx41u1lXXsk7lluB5B6Z2mpTjpkosVQSjjmm9eOXVRIEyxucmQh1W0Sf2iDDQOnt3SuDVSPpBio/s1600/work-12.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, your partner <b><i>must have relevant experience that you can <u>independently</u> measure</i></b>. Ask your potential partner for a client list and ask how many would be willing to provide a reference. The right response is "you can speak to any of our customers!" When you do speak to them, don't be afraid to ask hard questions (Deliver on time? What were they like to work with? Were their cost estimations accurate?). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Second, your partner <b><i>must be easy to get along with.</i></b> Before you dismiss this as a nice-to-have, trust me, its crucial. You will be spending A LOT of time with your chosen partner and especially the project liaison. At times you will see them more than your family so if your project liaison is an idiot it will seriously impede the smooth running of your project so ask for your project liaison to be included in meetings right from the start. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, take a <b><i>holistic view of partner selection.</i></b> In comparing partners, so many organisations will focus on only the the technical aspects of the offering from each partner, or even worse focus solely on the price. Take into consideration all aspects of the offering that the partner provides (Experience, Approach, Cost, Company History & Ethics, Training </span>Experience<span style="font-family: inherit;"> etc...) Doing this may mean you don't select the cheapest option, but this will cost you far less by the end of the project. I'm sure there are many other things that you can think of when selecting a </span>partner<span style="font-family: inherit;"> but these have shown </span>themselves to be basic essentials.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Choose The Right Approach</b></span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Historically, the classic software delivery approach was known as the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model" target="_blank">Waterfall</a>" approach. Waterfall </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">basically refers to the following:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbPFfekvG8_PM7CCqzPVxoHkr2Iu9UinW8setWRtzSK1DWmquw8awS8sEozcI-ncXLndM16Lr2gHnrTrN88STESv2ydPfuPjFLIlbAx4t4B0Nu_zKyug99bi8NiJ7UKhDhqEtmgpDD-wI/s1600/work-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbPFfekvG8_PM7CCqzPVxoHkr2Iu9UinW8setWRtzSK1DWmquw8awS8sEozcI-ncXLndM16Lr2gHnrTrN88STESv2ydPfuPjFLIlbAx4t4B0Nu_zKyug99bi8NiJ7UKhDhqEtmgpDD-wI/s1600/work-6.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4>
- Perform a high level scope of the requirements</h4>
<h4>
- Review with client</h4>
<h4>
- Perform more detailed requirements gathering</h4>
<h4>
- Outline the detailed solution proposed</h4>
<h4>
- Develop the entire solution</h4>
<h4>
- Go Live!<ul>
</ul>
</h4>
I realise that this is perhaps a little simplified but in short, what this means is that you gather the requirements (no matter how extensive), develop it, then deliver it.<br />
<br />
Sounds good yeah? It is with one problem. Generally speaking, the requirements are so extensive that the development period takes 6 month plus. This means that in between gathering the requirements and finishing the development 6-8 months at least has passed! Most organisation will have changed or adjusted their processes 2 or 3 times during that period meaning some (and at worst ALL) of your changes are no longer valid. To deal with this you may hear partners talking about using an Agile project methodology. An <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_management" target="_blank">Agile methodology</a> involves making small iterative changes and regularly reviewing these with the user who requested it. This means that your project can handle changes much more effectively. However, be cautious. A number of organisations i have worked with have found that while Agile helps them adapt and deliver small changes quickly, its all too easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. A solution can grow organically and unless there is a tight control on the changes that focuses on the bigger project aim, you can find yourself spending the same money but having a system that is a mish-mash of functionality from users, some of whom may no longer even be with you anymore.<br />
<br />
To combat this, i recommend my customers to adopt a combination of the best of both:<br />
<h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> - Take the time to conduct a proper and full requirements gathering exercise</span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> - Document clearly all changes that have been requested and prioritise these both by the business benefit and cost</span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> - When documenting the solutions add 30% of the development time on top to review the changes with the user. This includes allowing them to be engaged and make minor modifications </span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> - With all parties, and based on the priorities divide, the requirements up into project stages. It really doesn't matter if you have 2 or 200 stages, but these must be manageable and generally deliverable within a 2 month period.</span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> - Have weekly and monthly reviews of project progress</span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> - As each part of the solution is developed, use the time allotted earlier to engage with the users allowing them to verify what you are doing. This will also reduce the amount of time required for UAT and Training</span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> - Any change that requires a larger modification should be removed from the current phase and re-scoped preventing any lag on delivery of the current phase. </span></h4>
<ul>
</ul>
<br />
There are still pitfalls to be found, but in general i find that this approach gives a good mix of the two project management models allowing you to get the best from both.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan</b></span></h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTF4TOZT4jx852UR5tAtmYWQBh51Yfv5EkRQwiN09fdo9NBySB2Fh0H11-nOgNf_kSmAWLB4Do7D29eu-U8V6-i7uLSRde98xKcvvhoc_L0HEN9dO3u95ngMlHMNPdwHL9v1ZNJaHjou4/s1600/work-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTF4TOZT4jx852UR5tAtmYWQBh51Yfv5EkRQwiN09fdo9NBySB2Fh0H11-nOgNf_kSmAWLB4Do7D29eu-U8V6-i7uLSRde98xKcvvhoc_L0HEN9dO3u95ngMlHMNPdwHL9v1ZNJaHjou4/s1600/work-11.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Its not new, but this old adage applies here and particularly in the requirements gathering phase. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Take as much time as you can in gathering the requirements and getting these signed off before you start development. This </span>isn't<span style="font-family: inherit;"> as easy as it sounds. The moment a project is started, senior management will be champing at the bit to see "something" for all the work that is going on. This </span>isn't<span style="font-family: inherit;"> easy but its absolutely essential to not allow the initial planning stages to be rushed. No one will thank you for rushing into development and not delivering what is truly needed or nothing at all, least of all senior management. One client i worked with on a project spent 6 months gathering requirements, making organisational changes, running focus groups, reviewing the proposed solutions before starting development. The development process only lasted 3 months. On paper, this seems crazy and yet the project was </span>delivered<span style="font-family: inherit;"> on time, within budget and with functionality that provided real benefits. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This strategy </span>isn't<span style="font-family: inherit;"> supposed to be everything that you need to make your CRM project </span>successful<span style="font-family: inherit;">. However, by </span>remembering<span style="font-family: inherit;"> the points above you will have a much greater chance of delivering a quality solution that delivers real </span>benefit<span style="font-family: inherit;"> without wasting your companies budget. BBC....take note</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you would like any help with your project please don't hesitate to contact me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="mailto:Joel.Abbott@xrmconsultant.co.uk" target="_blank">Joel Abbott - Managing Director</a></span><br />
xRM Consultant<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-37731425791963493872014-04-08T11:39:00.003+01:002014-04-08T11:44:51.849+01:00Knowledge Base Functionality in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 - xRM Quick Look<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkG_dVKQzrOPcu_VJJ7Jfw4t336k83FGjPAuXURf8hQShPRJLJJK8OJhmUBSULwIPAZjkfCaNHV3DBt9aR4YJNoaJRceAHskgnI41fyMni1MDchDoMJhoE8wAshzrYpIIdBUTcyflm_4/s1600/KnowledgeBaseCRM2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkG_dVKQzrOPcu_VJJ7Jfw4t336k83FGjPAuXURf8hQShPRJLJJK8OJhmUBSULwIPAZjkfCaNHV3DBt9aR4YJNoaJRceAHskgnI41fyMni1MDchDoMJhoE8wAshzrYpIIdBUTcyflm_4/s1600/KnowledgeBaseCRM2013.png" height="336" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Hi All,<br />
<br />
One of the features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM that is often under-utilised is the Knowledge Base functionality. With an ever increasing number of organisations using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for service desks, a good integrated Knowledge Base solution can be a huge benefit. However, as few people use it, few consultants have much experience in setting it up and using it.<br />
<br />
For everyones benefit, I have pulled together a very brief overview of the Knowledge Base functions in the video below....<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="309" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/91348709" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="550"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
Hope its useful!<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
Joel Abbott<br />
xRM Consultant (UK) Ltd<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-80625748792187838282014-04-07T17:46:00.000+01:002014-04-07T17:54:05.875+01:00Universal Search - xRM Product Demonstration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMYQp402JqF0BDxzgNd2CJD__2HlxsXsGMqKXd2ibVgqnT56oP0bPcE30B1VKGok5FSfdbJBO5wXSU1i75IS6j4zRuN2IaSazqsT4pkBw7nSqQm_JWKJZR-BLDZiAkxIxOx2MJ_raZA4/s3200/GlobalSearch_download.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMYQp402JqF0BDxzgNd2CJD__2HlxsXsGMqKXd2ibVgqnT56oP0bPcE30B1VKGok5FSfdbJBO5wXSU1i75IS6j4zRuN2IaSazqsT4pkBw7nSqQm_JWKJZR-BLDZiAkxIxOx2MJ_raZA4/s3200/GlobalSearch_download.png" height="395" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Hi Guys,<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
A key problem facing many Microsoft Dynamics CRM users is the ability to quickly search for records in their organisations across multiple entities. Quick search is great but only covers a single entity at a time. Power Objects Global Search is great but very detailed and also comes at a cost. Whats the answer? Sonoma Partners have produced a solution called Universal Search which not only provides a fantastic cross-entity search functionality but its also free!! I have produced a video demonstration of the product to give you an idea of how it can be used...</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/91318687?autoplay=1" width="550" height="309" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/91318687">Universal Search - xRM Product Demonstration</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user23635642">Joel Abbott</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Hope this helps!<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
Joel Abbott - xRM Consultant
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-71512313814437151742013-11-05T21:47:00.002+00:002013-11-05T21:49:45.433+00:00New Beginnings...xRM Consultant (UK) LtdBig news for xRM Consultant this week. After over 4 years spent at <a href="http://www.chorus.co/" target="_blank">Chorus</a> I am leaving to focus my attention fully on our new business xRM Consultant (UK) Ltd. I offer the following services:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3AJzy4Q_3SMS9gttcSJCpAlnhzsUCAWOrtnllnbw3_vl1Ug18tCtyksDQabgndOImIqsf9pMGWNXq2VJ9Vc_ro0ZhaOW9v49P6SIdQ2_5dR-ygqSEiYxQ7DyKhISZe89DCeEPwT_EPKk/s1600/MainLogoJPG+v1.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3AJzy4Q_3SMS9gttcSJCpAlnhzsUCAWOrtnllnbw3_vl1Ug18tCtyksDQabgndOImIqsf9pMGWNXq2VJ9Vc_ro0ZhaOW9v49P6SIdQ2_5dR-ygqSEiYxQ7DyKhISZe89DCeEPwT_EPKk/s200/MainLogoJPG+v1.0.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
- Business Systems Analysis Services<br />
<div>
- Detailed Requirements Gathering & Documentation<br />- Customisation For Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4, 2011 & 2013<br />- Reporting, Dashboard and BI Services<br />- Custom Training Course Design & Delivery including Course Materials<br />- Certified Microsoft Trainer Delivering Microsoft Curriculum<br /><ul>
</ul>
<br />
I love working with clients directly and bringing my business analysis and technical experience to help them <br />
overcome their business challenges, building<br />
innovative solutions that achieve this. I have managed a number of CRM 4 and CRM 2011 projects (looking forward to getting going with CRM 2013 projects asap!) and there is nothing better than the moment when you see users get excited by the benefits that CRM can offer.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilS4167Jbc6vNcKofG1AvIu-sTzy1EJ8SqeEHefklvshPLjZCuGmlT-3HPdyDxQ35VSps6avDZMI0t309Wr0sy75pY-8bSJ15RpFz2lYxQT1zYtkonIg86l-lCML6OlyPreqyvt5nPOEY/s1600/IMG_4502(JoelBK).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilS4167Jbc6vNcKofG1AvIu-sTzy1EJ8SqeEHefklvshPLjZCuGmlT-3HPdyDxQ35VSps6avDZMI0t309Wr0sy75pY-8bSJ15RpFz2lYxQT1zYtkonIg86l-lCML6OlyPreqyvt5nPOEY/s320/IMG_4502(JoelBK).jpg" width="320" /></a>I remember with one project, we delivered CRM 2011 to a team that had been working 3 months behind with their workload for over 2 years. 2 days after go-live the manager came in and told me that they had cleared their entire workload....in 2 days! He walked towards the door, turned around and simply said "I really don't know what to do now?!" Delivering efficiencies like that, seeing the users realise the benefits is why I do this.<br />
<br />
I started out at Chorus really as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 user and no more. Working with my good friend <a href="https://twitter.com/ITKnowledgeUK" target="_blank">Robert Peledie</a> (now Head of IT at <a href="http://www.gdsinternational.com/" target="_blank">GDS International</a>) as a team we built a solid customer base at Chorus and delivered some great projects. Over the last few years the team has grown and we have delivered even more excellent solutions for customers. This has given me excellent experience in all elements of the lifecycle of CRM Project and now i am bringing that knowledge to my own business.<br />
<br />
If you would like to discuss your business needs please contact me on 07414 669307 or email me at Joel.Abbott@xrmconsultant.co.uk. Alternatively please feel free to connect to me on <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelabbott" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://plus.google.com/116447964687598046057/posts" target="_blank">Google+</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/XRM-Consultant/231379417013293" target="_blank">Facebook</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/xrmconsultant" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
And off we go.....<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-24368158414150233662013-10-29T17:29:00.004+00:002013-10-29T19:46:30.309+00:00What Makes A Successful CRM Project?<br />
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How would you measure success in your CRM project?....For many of us <u>that</u>, contrary to what Mr Shakespeare would have us believe, is the question.<br />
<br />
The answer? Well, in truth, this is no single right answer. Often each department, or even individual will have their own idea of what a successful CRM project look like for them.However, what fascinates me is that so many companies often embark on large scale CRM projects without taking the time to truly outline what will be viewed as success. The management team see a business issue, perhaps relating to cost or efficiency, and jump for a quick "fix". "Hey, everybody is using this CRM thingy....we should do that!". The only trouble is that partner's are enlisted, budgets agreed and scope documents signed off before anyone has actually asked "Why do we actually need this again?".<br />
<br />
This probably sounds very much like an odd thing to say for a CRM Consultant who spends his life encouraging people to implement CRM. However, implementing it for the right reasons, with clear business objectives is essential. Only then can you truly define true success, see measurable improvements and significant ROI.<br />
<br />
What does failure look like? Now that's a different story! Everybody has clear in mind what failure is (Going over budget, missing deadlines...) but that too is often very subjective and is often nothing to do with the objectives of the project. So, without getting any more philosophical, what can an organisation who is implementing a CRM solution do to ensure that their project is successful?<br />
<br />
<b><u>Take Your Time</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
I chaired a discussion with over 30 delegates at a UK Housing Association conference last week on implementing CRM. When asked what they wanted to get out of our session, one delegate commented "To get it right first time with our CRM deployment".....Good answer<br />
<br />
The only way to achieve this is to take your time in the first stages of any project. Rather than coming out of the meeting where you have identified your issue, reaching for Google and searching for CRM companies, take the time to really think about what the issues you are facing are. Identify the issues clearly and the solutions become more defined. Then, document what you would like to achieve from deploying a CRM solution, even writing a list of 2-3 key bullets of what are must-haves for the project to be a success.<br />
<br />
Reaching back for Google yet? Hold on! Take the time to think about the wider business. If you are going to invest the time money and effort into a CRM project, why not see what else you can achieve whilst doing it? Can you bring teams that are working in disparate systems together and enable information sharing? Can you drive efficiency in areas that perhaps you would not expect (i.e warehouse, accounts dept...). Doing all of this takes time, time you may not think you have. But take it from one who has seen CRM projects rushed through by managers desperate to resolve their issues, if you don't take your time, you <u>will</u> pay the price down the line.<br />
<br />
The time spent at this stage will save <u>days even weeks</u> of time resolving issues during or even after go-live.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Establish A Project Team</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgFr2iAtdN_bP4HHJXMPDpzfzQjJBr_3-Hh0qFrbSKc5XVxiXGjYfSuR6MtwnAOn8Ws8tCaARWOiyI3JtdEonpoRJLFK08SLdZBFb4aX4Y9GcarCLtwzsT-Mie-Ozs6rDQUHvz61IjtY/s1600/project-team1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgFr2iAtdN_bP4HHJXMPDpzfzQjJBr_3-Hh0qFrbSKc5XVxiXGjYfSuR6MtwnAOn8Ws8tCaARWOiyI3JtdEonpoRJLFK08SLdZBFb4aX4Y9GcarCLtwzsT-Mie-Ozs6rDQUHvz61IjtY/s320/project-team1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Now you have a clear view of your requirements. Ready for Google now? Not yet! Armed with your requirements and project objectives, establish an internal project team. I cannot emphasis enough how important this is. A good, well balanced (we'll come to that in a moment) and engaged project team can literally be one of the biggest factors in the success or failure of a project.<br />
<br />
But who should make up this team? Your first inclination may be to involve all the people who have been involved in your discussions so far, or people who agree with your view on things. This is not always the best selection criteria and really any project team should be balanced. Your project team should have people from all areas and levels of the business with varying experience. Fresh ideas can come from the most unlikely of places. At a high level any project team should have:<br />
<br />
A strong, driven <b>Project Lead</b> - This individual will be the first to read the documentation cover to cover and the last person to leave the night before go-live. They will get to know the system and therefore your business process inside out. They need to have the skills to draw out of people what they need and the strength to say no when asked for things that could derail the project. Clearly, this person is the most important member of the team and wouldn't normally be a member of senior management (trust me, you wont have the time)<br />
<div>
<br />
At least 2 members of the senior management team as <b>Project Sponsors. </b>There is nothing more frustrating for this team of individuals who are working hard to make the system a success if there is no buy-in, perceived or actual, from the people at the top. They need to know that their hard work, often on-top of what they do as a day job, will not be for nothing. The individuals chosen to fulfill the project sponsor role must also have a key quality: They must actually <u>care about and be invested in the project aims.</u> I mean no offence, but there is no point in asking the VP of manufacturing to do this if the project will not impact his area of the business in anyway. In addition, even though as senior management they will be extremely busy, they must commit to attending the project meetings. This is crucial if the project is to be a success.</div>
<div>
<br />
<b>Project Champions</b> from each affected department. These also must be chosen carefully. You are looking for people who are "up for it" and willing to really get stuck in and provide good feedback. These individuals need to know the processes carried out by their area of the business inside out as you need them to bring to the team all the scenario's and "What if's" that everyone else isn't aware of or would forget. In addition, really investing in these people, getting them involved in revisions of the scoping documentation and even asking them to sign-off the relevant parts will give your project a strong presence in each department meaning when things aren't going to plan post-deployment (which always happens no matter how good you are) your project lead isn't running around the building having a meltdown.</div>
<div>
<br />
Getting the right people in place will be a major factor in a successful implementation.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Chose The Right Partner</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
Choosing the right consultant/organisation to handle your project is crucial. This person(s) is going to be your guide on so many things for what could be up to a year, the relationship needs to be strong. You need a partner who will support you through the changes that your business will go through during the project. You need a partner who will take the project as seriously and invest as much of themselves as you will. Obviously this comes at a cost, but a good partner can be worth their weight in gold.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWrsh-XB-7s-wfv17oXWrOpiLwq2XV8qgyC0JLGMLYg1UTOm3pt7M2r6xkkNuvCrOkoNG5NYq1ZlN6usbxxNuIZlJxbzj7ybRVcOmS8XooNNJ19SbPmcGGkr7XaynrTyMtPEzpt2-e1fU/s1600/business+partner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWrsh-XB-7s-wfv17oXWrOpiLwq2XV8qgyC0JLGMLYg1UTOm3pt7M2r6xkkNuvCrOkoNG5NYq1ZlN6usbxxNuIZlJxbzj7ybRVcOmS8XooNNJ19SbPmcGGkr7XaynrTyMtPEzpt2-e1fU/s200/business+partner.jpg" width="200" /></a>What should you look for? A good partner will have a strong track record of delivery and be willing to let you talk to previous clients. They should also be able to assign you a main contact who is technical, who you can bounce ideas off when you need. They should also be easy to get along with. I know that sounds strange, but you will be putting these people in front of a large proportion of your staff. They need to present a positive and supportive attitude and, where possible, be easy to engage with. Your not looking for a partner who wants to make a quick buck and run.<br />
Your CRM partner will get to know your business processes better than you do and going forward as your business develops your solution can do so to with the support of a partner who knows you and your ethos.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Chose The Right Technology</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<br />
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There are plenty of CRM solutions out on the market so how do you chose? Your partner can be helpful in this but of course they may be aligned with a particular vendor. Whatever solution you need to be know firstly that it will fulfill your expectations technical. For example, will you have remote workers who will need mobile capability? Do your process allow for your to fit with what the solution offers or is it crucial that it can be customized to suit your processes? Do you have the infrastructure to host the solution or are you looking to go into the cloud? Are you looking to replace other solutions and bring them into a central solution which may then require integration with other elements? All of these questions must be answered clearly before you can proceed. If your reading this you know that my focus is on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and it truly stands apart in this regard. Sales pitch aside, you will need a technology platform that can deliver not just today's needs but tomorrow's. It needs to be able to be flexible and grow with your business, as you change, it changes. Microsoft Dynamics fits this perfectly and with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 it takes it to a whole new level.<br />
<br />
So, how do you measure success in a CRM project? Actually, only you can answer that. However, what is clear is that answering that question, setting your critical success factors before you do anything else, is almost the answer itself.<br />
<br />
xRM Consultant (UK) Ltd provide consultancy services in all areas of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Projects. If you would like to discuss your requirements please contact us - <a href="mailto:enquiries@xrmconsultant.co.uk">enquiries@xrmconsultant.co.uk</a><br />
<br />
Joel</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-9200609940831652872013-08-31T23:42:00.001+01:002013-08-31T23:52:06.638+01:00MS Dynamics CRM and Supporting Customer Processes - Disabling The Save Button On Duplicate Detection WindowHi All,<br />
<br />
Recently our customers have been looking into additional ways to customize Dynamics CRM 2011 to support the processes of their teams. For certain customers, those who have exhausted all the options of "supported customization's", this requires some creative thinking.<br />
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<br />
Its interesting as this desire for more quirky changes to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is really a product of its own flexibility. CRM 4, while great, was fairly static when it came to processes. A lot of companies used it as a CRM solution in the more classic sense. Then came the big moon step forward that was CRM 2011. This gave organisations so much more flexibility in integrating systems and supporting processes. Trouble is, you give a customer a slice and they want the whole cake! For customers who have now been working with and adapting Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for the last 2-3 years, the desire for configuring Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 to support the ever changing and unique processes of their business sometimes goes beyond what is possible under the heading of "supported customisations". The answer? Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 of course!!<br />
<br />
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<br />
In the meantime, when it comes to these sort of requests, we have to get creative! In line with this we had a customer recently who wanted us to remove the Save Record button on the duplicate detection window. The inbuilt duplicate detection, whilst it has its limitations, nicely gives you the opportunity to not save your newly entered record if a duplicate is found. However, you are also given the option to save the record even if a duplicate is found. This causes a problem when you have a large team of users who, to be frank, you don't trust to allow the to create duplicates. Thanks to a very helpful blog post from <a href="http://dynamics2011.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/crm-2011-disable-duplicate-detection.html" target="_blank">MS Dynamics CRM 2011 Tips</a> we were able to disable the Save Record button fairly simply by taking the following steps:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Navigate to your CRM instance on your app server.</li>
<li>Navigate to \CRMWeb\Tools\DuplicateDetection\ViewDuplicates\</li>
<li>Edit this file in Visual Studio or Notepad.</li>
<li>Add this line to the ShowPage() javascript member or any member that is called by onLoad(): document.getElementById("btn_id_Ok").disabled="true";</li>
<li>Save your change.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
This will disable the button. If you would like to get clever (like we did) you can add some further script to disable this button for users with a certain security role.<br />
<br />
Nice little bit of code that can help with the usability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 in certain scenarios. <br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
xRM Consultant<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-7341246254038660192013-08-29T11:28:00.000+01:002013-08-29T11:28:59.546+01:00Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 – The Next Step<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2013 – The Next Step<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Microsoft
love their "Codenames"....<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However with
"Orion", or what has now been revealed to be <b>Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2013</b>, we can understand the secrecy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Dynamics CRM
has come a long way since the days of version 3.0 and even version 4.0 with
version 2011 being a huge step forward. It brought us dashboards,
JavaScript and resource management as well as dialogues (We wont mention
solution files).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However, in
the last 2 years a lot has changed in the world of Dynamics CRM. Cloud based
solutions have become a huge focus for Microsoft (step forward Office 365) and
this has had an impact on CRM. In addition, Dynamics CRM 2011 achieved what so
many other CRM packages had tried to do and failed.....it took CRM, or even
xRM, as a concept to a much wider audience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">To have an
industry leading line of business applications, completely customised to your
business processes, you no longer needed to have an office in central London.
Anyone, from an international banking group to a small animal charity, could
easily and quickly have these solutions at their fingertips. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This however
presented some challenges. With a wider audience came a wider demographic of
users and with that some resistance to the way a standard user would navigate
through the system. In response, Dynamics CRM 2013 takes this to another level.
The UI has been completely redesigned and is focused firmly on empowering users
to follow the business processes built within the system. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Using the
new Process Bar adminstrators can enter custom steps that match the business
process of the organisation and as such guide users through this process in a
much clearer fashion. Dependencies can be setup so that users will be unable to
progress without completing certain tasks. Your system will still provide a
360-degree view of your business, but for users who need to be focused on the
road ahead, it will achieve this simply and clearly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In addition,
Microsoft is pushing the mobile market. Free custom apps for Windows 8 and the
iPad will be released providing both beautiful and functional methods of using
CRM on the go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This barely
scratches the surface of the changes in <b>Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013</b> and
we will discuss these in future posts here, but one thing is clear: Microsoft
Dynamics CRM isn't just here to stay...it is here to dominate the marketplace.
Microsoft are already releasing details of the Q1 service update
("Mira"...another codename!) and what it includes so watch this
space. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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xRM Consultant</div>
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This blog was orignally published on the <a href="http://www.chorus.co/" target="_blank">Chorus Solutions website</a>. If you have a Dynamics CRM project to discuss please feel free to get in touch on 01275 398901</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08750346115195802741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-41862959604995811322012-04-09T01:23:00.001+01:002013-08-28T23:32:42.084+01:00The Story of the Import & The Inactive RecordHowdy, <br />
<br />
Ok, so i was transferring a bunch of records with lookup field linked to contacts and accounts from an old CRM 4 deployment to our new CRM 2011 deployment. I was trying to do this the quick and easy way……exporting records to excel. <br />
<br />
A large number of the records imported ok but a large number failed due to a “duplicate lookup reference exists". Now, this normally means, especially in the case of a contact record that you have 2 “John Smith” records and the import does not know which one to resolve the newly imported record too. However, i searched and only 1 John Smith record came up?!……<br />
<br />
So, then i remembered that we had recently ran a duplicate contact clean-up job on our contact records using the de-dupe process to find the duplicates and merging the records together. So i searched for John Smith but this time i searched for both Inactive and Active records and voila! 2 records!<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZ8fZb4dewHYBfScmlONbuKsK5rTYRbXjQdrrU7MsSBuOMw8m1KRvOXShv8DFLnpiMODw-k6z3yPbu-1MRiCAfXwGlAPCjD8QyNyqP8OavvgyMLLsyrxVy7Xjt_Ov8i-Xf7_3E2E8QyY/s1600/Contact.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZ8fZb4dewHYBfScmlONbuKsK5rTYRbXjQdrrU7MsSBuOMw8m1KRvOXShv8DFLnpiMODw-k6z3yPbu-1MRiCAfXwGlAPCjD8QyNyqP8OavvgyMLLsyrxVy7Xjt_Ov8i-Xf7_3E2E8QyY/s320/Contact.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
So, first point, by doing this i discovered that the <strong><u>when resolving lookup references, the import process includes deactivated records</u></strong> and as far as i can see there is no way to turn this feature off. So, after being mad at MS for a while, i eventually realised that actually this wasn't a bad idea, especially when migrating historical data. However, my issue was, how do i get around it?!<br />
<br />
I realised that i needed to adjust the inactive contact records in such a way that they wouldn't be picked up by the import process which basically meant, changing the name on all the inactive records. But i also wanted to change it back again. So, i went for the following:<br />
<ol>
<li>Create 2 x new fields on the contact entity (don't have to put them on the form) called “Old First Name” and “Old Last Name”</li>
<li>Wrote an OnDemand workflow that first of all, takes the values of the “First Name” and “Last Name” fields and populates them into the newly created fields above. The workflow will then clear the “First Name” and “Last Name” fields. This thus changes the full name to blank. </li>
<li>Ran an advanced find to show all inactive contact records. </li>
<li>Ran my workflow in step 2. </li>
<li>Carried out my import (successfully as my newly imported records only resolved to active contacts)</li>
<li>Wrote another workflow that takes the values of the “Old First Name” and “Old Last Name” fields and populates them into the “First Name” and “Last Name” fields. The workflow will then clear the “Old First Name” and “Old Last Name” fields. This thus changes the full name back to what it should be. </li>
<li>Ran an advanced find to show all inactive contact records (again)</li>
<li>Ran my step 6 workflow. </li>
</ol>
Some may see this as an ingenious approach whilst others long winded but it did the trick! Couple of points…<br />
<ul>
<li>If like me, you aren't bothered about changing the names of the deactivated contacts back from Blank you can stop at step 5</li>
<li>If you wish to go through this process but only with a relevant sub-set of deactivated records you can obviously define this in the Advanced Finds (steps 3 & 7)</li>
</ul>
Hope this helps and if you have read to this point…..well done for sticking with it!<br />
<br />
Ta<br />
<br />
xRM ConsultantUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-8138669736834609902011-11-29T16:14:00.001+00:002013-08-28T23:42:23.211+01:00CRM 2011 Solutions – Problems & Best PracticeHi, <br />
<br />
As you may (or many not) know i have been working on our largest CRM implementation which also happens to be out first large scale CRM 2011 implementation. As such, we have started working with solution files! <br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
First of all, I would like to say that I really love the concept of solution files. Making changes for either support or development purposes on clients CRM systems in CRM 4 felt very clumsy and poorly controlled. The introduction of solutions dealt with this in a way that feels much more professional. However, the question arose, what is the best practice for using solutions?<br />
<br />
<h2>
The Problems</h2>
Surprisingly, i couldn't see many (if any) articles or details on this. So we started out by, on our development environment, creating a solution file using the client name and using the version number to control this. We added all the existing system components and made changes to these as we went along. However, the problem with this is that development felt a bit cumbersome. You couldn't use the native “Customise” tab on forms as this edited the default solution as well as the fact that all members of the team had to remember to stick to the solution only and not do this. <br />
<br />
We also had major issues when applying the solution that came from the way our solution was interacting with another managed solution. We installed our main solution on one of the clients servers after which, we installed the brilliant <a href="http://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/eCampaign.aspx" target="_blank">eCampaign (great email marketing extension for Dynamics CRM 2011)</a> on the one of the clients servers. The problems started when we subsequently made changes (by creating another solution file) on this server. <br />
<br />
When we tried to export our solution file, we were quite rightly warned that components were missing. So, we added the components. We did this until it appeared that all the required components (including those used by the managed eCampaign solution) were included. When we tried to import the solution into our Dev environment it failed because, you guessed it, we couldn't import components of a managed solution! So, we went back, removed all components of the managed solution, re-exported ignoring the warnings about missing components. When we tried to import it into our Dev environment………it failed because of missing components!!! The only “solution” was to edit the XML solution file, something we were very uncomfortable with at this stage. <br />
<br />
Now, i know what your thinking. Why on earth are you developing on a client server!! And, to be honest your right. It was necessary at the time but bad practice which brings us back to what should be our future practice. For those of you interested, the way we got around the above situation was to ask the vendor (eCampaign) to uninstall the managed solution, export our solution file (which now no longer required the missing components) and reinstall the managed solution after. <br />
<br />
<h2>
The Best Practice (Well…according to me anyway)</h2>
So the moral of the story (or what we have learned so far is…)<br />
<ol>
<li>Create a Deployment for your Client on your development environment</li>
<li>Develop in the “Default Solution”.</li>
<li>When ready to deploy on your client server, you have 2 choices:</li>
<ul>
<li>Export The Default Solution – If this is exported as managed, then when imported it will show as “Default Solution” in the clients list of installed solutions. If it is exported as unmanaged, it will overwrite the existing default solution and as such, wont appear in the clients list of solutions. </li>
<li>Create A New Solution & Add The Relevant Components – When exported either as managed or unmanaged, it will show in the solution list. </li>
</ul>
<li>For small changes you also have 2 choices:</li>
<ul>
<li>Create A Single Solution File With Relevant Components – Create a solution file with a relevant name (i.e. ClientName Updates 2011) and add the relevant components. Every time the client wants changes made, create a solution with the same name but different version number on your Dev environment and when importing as a managed solution, it will update the existing solution. You can of course always do this with your solution file created in step 3 with the same results.</li>
<li>Create Multiple Solution Files For Each Change Batch – Create a solution with a unique name and install on your clients environment. </li>
</ul>
<li>For major changes, i would go through step 3 again. </li>
<li>When working with other managed plugins, always uninstall them from your Dev environment before exporting your solution. </li>
</ol>
Of course, all of the above is only what i have learned so far and my opinion on best practice. It would be nice to see some more on this so that CRM developers can share methodology for the above, but for now, this is the approach i will take. As it changes (as i am sure it will) i’ll keep you up to date! <br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
JUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-36535961407185382762011-11-22T16:16:00.001+00:002013-08-28T23:45:16.475+01:00Set Default Activity Values – Duration, Date & TimeHi All, <br />
<br />
Ok, so first of all apologies for going quiet over the past few months! (Again!). I have just delivered the biggest CRM project that Chorus IT has ever delivered! This has been a huge success (with plenty lessons learned also!). Customer happy, seeing real tangible value and really excited about how MS Dynamics CRM 2011 is going to revolutionise their business.<br />
<br />
As part of the development process, i have come across numerous interesting bits of JavaScript etc. that have helped me overcome certain issues and now we are coming to the conclusion of the project i will be blogging these over the coming weeks. I will also be thanking (if i can remember) those whose blog/tweets helped me come to the solutions i used along the way…<br />
<br />
So, to begin… Setting Default Activity Values – Duration, Date & Time.<br />
<br />
The system we built for our client is being heavily used to record activities for large sales teams. With a target of 100 calls a day in mind, any little pieces of data entry we could shave off would help hugely. One of these was the fact that every time they made a phone call they had to enter the duration (which on average was 2 minutes") and set the date and time to the current date and time. <br />
<br />
<h3>
<u>Duration:</u></h3>
This was no where near as easy as i expected it to be. As you know, the duration field displays as an option set (dropdown) of values. As such you would think it would be easy to add values to this…………not so! This field is in fact a “Whole Number” field!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFMea6zVkCi7FKuTiAsDtg692YacCemrZhEezxDUMG2w9xH-GNLTpwIlXgd38ppUmOQburhe35HMs0XxHWOHNW3x7SF-AGdaAIEB6iiJsLOZimiyhXaCAznOKm8KN1YpRdFklyOBruQlY/s1600-h/image_thumb1%25255B2%25255D.png"><img alt="image_thumb1" border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj07WZsPawTyWc12_6YXOz0x8OPQ_M2F7BMcEXcqQ6yhFMCi5eysoiyCTdf9Qu0iPh1xPjmcB86a5RTBGirRurzvcFM6XOneVeHXVJ5wuqVhWA9I-edtfSQbB_NLptjApK_sdYipJMYgbU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image_thumb1" width="290" /></a><br />
After very briefly considering editing aspx files etc, stumbled across a comment from <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/edwardsdna" target="_blank">Donna Edwards MVP</a> that noted the fact that you can enter a numerical value in here. This got me thinking, rather than add the option to the list, could i simply populate it via JavaScript and allow the field to do its thing and display it correctly? <br />
It worked!<br />
I used the following JavaScript to populate the value (using a Whole Number of course) and had the following results…<br />
<div align="left">
<strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: x-small;">Xrm.Page.getAttribute("actualdurationminutes").setValue(null);</span></strong></div>
<style type="text/css"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre<br />{<br /> font-size: small;<br /> color: black;<br /> font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace;<br /> background-color: #ffffff;<br /> /*white-space: pre;*/<br />}<br />.csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; }<br />.csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; }<br />.csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; }<br />.csharpcode .str { color: #006080; }<br />.csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; }<br />.csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; }<br />.csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; }<br />.csharpcode .html { color: #800000; }<br />.csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; }<br />.csharpcode .alt <br />{<br /> background-color: #f4f4f4;<br /> width: 100%;<br /> margin: 0em;<br />}<br />.csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }</style> <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL_MVQnYTgqWpS-7Hz5GIYtmaIm0Gd8Ph4Az9oiq941LHFQbqA9lVvSp_fqCvY6i12QybN3djy7C1o3ANRgsdoq0HhOvGDTuHCiKSi-7bqg4mijXL0HD-4fr16HgoHetFJu5m7_J-6rVY/s1600-h/image_thumb4%25255B2%25255D.png"><img alt="image_thumb4" border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjubA3mQydocfqU7lpEnyWMzfzmGhEVzWhUqFB-dbsSo69GHzl4I694WGVoLEOvLkC44oEWohubVHpyCpq9JWqLTHg7vaPWTUcogy2aSZRd6GR3OlFkx1oFYr6anl75tQmlxAUUMeLFdcI/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image_thumb4" width="290" /></a><br />
<h3>
<u><br /></u></h3>
<h3>
<u>Date & Time</u></h3>
In contrast with the above, this was much easier than i thought. I found a <a href="http://www.sonomapartners.com/Services/CRM/microsoftcrm4-formonload-example.aspx" target="_blank">post</a> of the website of the legendary Sonoma Partners that dealt with this for the specific circs I was looking for. It utilises the JavaScript Date() function to retrieve the current date and time and populate this in the relevant field as follows with the following results…<br />
<div align="left">
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-small;"><strong>Xrm.Page.getAttribute("scheduledend").setValue(new Date());</strong></span></div>
<style type="text/css"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre<br />{<br /> font-size: small;<br /> color: black;<br /> font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace;<br /> background-color: #ffffff;<br /> /*white-space: pre;*/<br />}<br />.csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; }<br />.csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; }<br />.csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; }<br />.csharpcode .str { color: #006080; }<br />.csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; }<br />.csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; }<br />.csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; }<br />.csharpcode .html { color: #800000; }<br />.csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; }<br />.csharpcode .alt <br />{<br /> background-color: #f4f4f4;<br /> width: 100%;<br /> margin: 0em;<br />}<br />.csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }</style> <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNX5ytrxHKRHf-Avl2RR_U2BdCahKMNAzXjOP4_JIgkF67EYnr_juUYmaUkfdw1m-iTYK4KMiOsydsDb58cnhHuQQ_hJBlRSH3AdpS1vLM7RvncTPtN2xQo8D4_zCQNxeAAF0I74wXS3A/s1600-h/image_thumb6%25255B2%25255D.png"><img alt="image_thumb6" border="0" height="27" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhloKx8lPviDHwkiNDQ9DkMcW7e-fHNUZGmTPWOC7LLRKXOfj6C66BnuofKCie_9kUkkXPw_3i18sh5CKO87N7jrhw16e-5g8f_JK3Bcg4iV6eNYPQXyTn8uGJjvl7MQnhmmvblHgKJ87g/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image_thumb6" width="306" /></a><br />
<h3>
<u><br /></u></h3>
<h3>
<u>Only OnUpdate…</u></h3>
The only drawback to auto-populating these during the OnLoad event is that it will, of course, fire every time the page is loaded. This can be got around by referencing the form type when firing the JavaScript OnLoad as follows...<br />
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-small;"><strong>function datetime() <br />{ <br />var CRM_FORM_TYPE_CREATE = 1; <br />var CRM_FORM_TYPE_UPDATE = 2; <br /> <br />switch (Xrm.Page.ui.getFormType()) <br />{ <br />case CRM_FORM_TYPE_CREATE: <br />Xrm.Page.getAttribute("actualdurationminutes").setValue(null); <br />Xrm.Page.getAttribute("scheduledend").setValue(new Date()); <br />break; <br /> <br />case CRM_FORM_TYPE_UPDATE: <br />// do nothing <br />break; <br />} <br />}</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-small;"><strong><br /></strong></span>
Hey presto! This meant that on creation of a phone call activity the script runs but not on any other occasion. <br />
Hope this helps and stay tuned for some more interesting bits to come!<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
xRM ConsultantUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-44212295640640685352011-09-17T21:03:00.001+01:002011-09-17T21:07:39.124+01:00Minimize Form Ribbon OnLoad using JavaScript<p>Hey Guys, </p> <p>I am currently developing a CRM system in 2011 for one of our biggest clients. One of the requirements is to create editable lists which i have decided is best handled by creating holding entities for this information. For example, creating an entity to hold marketing sources allows easier reporting across selected sources and allows the marketing team to manage the list (adding new ones and deactivating unused ones). The problem with this is that to add a value to this it involves opening a whole CRM form which isn't the best. So, for these entities I don't display the left-navigation options and i wanted to minimize the Ribbon. </p> <p>However, this wasn't as easy as it sounds…</p> <p>First of all, having scoured the SDK i could see plenty of examples of how to add or hide BUTTONS on the ribbon and even (via other blogs) remove the ribbon itself, but nothing that would minimize the ribbon allowing it to be expanded if needed. </p> <p>So after a conversation with the very helpful <a href="http://blog.xrm-services.co.uk/" target="_blank">xRM Mike</a> and reading another <a href="http://bingsoft.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">post by the excellent Rhett Clinton</a> I used the following:</p> <div class="csharpcode"> <pre class="alt"><strong>window.top.document.getElementById(<span class="str">"minimizeribbon"</span>).fireEvent(<span class="str">"onclick"</span>);</strong></pre><br /></div><br /><style type="text/css"><br />.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre<br />{<br /> font-size: small;<br /> color: black;<br /> font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace;<br /> background-color: #ffffff;<br /> /*white-space: pre;*/<br />}<br />.csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; }<br />.csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; }<br />.csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; }<br />.csharpcode .str { color: #006080; }<br />.csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; }<br />.csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; }<br />.csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; }<br />.csharpcode .html { color: #800000; }<br />.csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; }<br />.csharpcode .alt <br />{<br /> background-color: #f4f4f4;<br /> width: 100%;<br /> margin: 0em;<br />}<br />.csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }</style><br /><br /><p>However, still didn't work…..</p><br /><br /><p>Reason being, that the Ribbon seems to be one of the last things to Load in the form, loading after the OnLoad events have fired. So, i needed to add a timeout to wait before firing the script and it worked a treat! Final code ended up as:</p><br /><br /><pre class="csharpcode"><strong><span class="kwrd">function</span> toggleRibbonbar()<br />{<br /><span class="kwrd">var</span> t=setTimeout(<span class="str">"toggleRibbon()"</span>,0);<br />}<br /><span class="kwrd">function</span> toggleRibbon()<br />{<br />window.top.document.getElementById(<span class="str">"minimizeribbon"</span>).fireEvent(<span class="str">"onclick"</span>);<br />}</strong></pre><br /><style type="text/css"><br />.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre<br />{<br /> font-size: small;<br /> color: black;<br /> font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace;<br /> background-color: #ffffff;<br /> /*white-space: pre;*/<br />}<br />.csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; }<br />.csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; }<br />.csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; }<br />.csharpcode .str { color: #006080; }<br />.csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; }<br />.csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; }<br />.csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; }<br />.csharpcode .html { color: #800000; }<br />.csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; }<br />.csharpcode .alt <br />{<br /> background-color: #f4f4f4;<br /> width: 100%;<br /> margin: 0em;<br />}<br />.csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }</style><br /><br /><p>Which gave the following results:</p><br /><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0X5PsWFjlRlHhc4kZud7n3jdnSYOaYy5IcQzm_4fJPp1WPZQOo-sy1KL1chuCkthKGgnH41qdjbCa50tGe_2ZXC5ryAvQ3-VbeIAP5n7Uy4WKLufaJdXPG_yq2nZA3tTUqVdQlOql5Iw/s1600-h/image%25255B27%25255D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7gPPiKopzZBTmLFgwdStoSMZD2GlK0R03JL6eITj0lkYIlDZeLvqKH2_EuZIkhUrPk6x_L8d-tBXl44_j49JQ2PZZCkW7ChtEjBHheeSoWJ0Rkxo0R4TgdZWMXBcaYsWoV3QExWV_jv0/?imgmax=800" width="851" height="360" /></a></p><br /><br /><p>A big thanks to <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/rhettclinton" target="_blank">Rhett</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/XRMMike" target="_blank">Mike</a> and as always the other CRM Legend that is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/RobertPeledie" target="_blank">Rob P</a></p><br /><br /><p>Ta</p><br /><br /><p>xRM Consultant</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-75285511708780128112011-09-04T20:20:00.001+01:002013-08-29T10:28:05.235+01:00At Last!! Hide Tab (Section) in CRM 2011 with Javascript!!!Hi!<br />
<br />
Ok, i realise that , for everyone else, this is not an earth shattering piece of JavaScript but this has been bugging me for Aaaaaaaaaaages!!!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4H1kP0-wziyGVqKXT33qp36BnBr3IHgsRD9RET0RhrHpY7oIiyPkSDfh7V-W3bFAewZmNbfS622OxPTOc8P9afF48tVP5sSUqKVtBVx5cMDzYYOTNw-AzvEEUYeIYRCxMNSyR5lNHTs/s1600/Tabs.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4H1kP0-wziyGVqKXT33qp36BnBr3IHgsRD9RET0RhrHpY7oIiyPkSDfh7V-W3bFAewZmNbfS622OxPTOc8P9afF48tVP5sSUqKVtBVx5cMDzYYOTNw-AzvEEUYeIYRCxMNSyR5lNHTs/s320/Tabs.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I have been looking for the JavaScript to hide Tab (or what is now known as a section) in CRM 2011. Every other blog/SDK/forum post i read suggested the following:<br />
<br />
<div class="csharpcode">
<pre class="alt"><span class="lnum"> 1: </span>Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(5).SetVisible(<span class="kwrd">false</span>);</pre>
<br />
<br />
<pre><span class="lnum"> 2: </span>Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(5).SetVisible(<span class="kwrd">true</span>);</pre>
<br /></div>
<br />
<style type="text/css"><br />.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre<br />{<br /> font-size: small;<br /> color: black;<br /> font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace;<br /> background-color: #ffffff;<br /> /*white-space: pre;*/<br />}<br />.csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; }<br />.csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; }<br />.csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; }<br />.csharpcode .str { color: #006080; }<br />.csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; }<br />.csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; }<br />.csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; }<br />.csharpcode .html { color: #800000; }<br />.csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; }<br />.csharpcode .alt <br />{<br /> background-color: #f4f4f4;<br /> width: 100%;<br /> margin: 0em;<br />}<br />.csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }</style><br />
<br />
No matter how i tried i could not get this to work. However, after some detective work……and reading <a href="http://crmdm.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-hide-show-tab-in-crm-2011-using.html">this blog post</a> (cheers) i realised that the bit i was missing was that in the script, the brackets need to contain the name of the tab (name, not the Label). However, it has to be contained in “”. So my code was…<br /><br /> <br />
<div class="csharpcode">
<br />
<pre class="alt"><span class="lnum"> 1: </span>Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(<span class="str">"tab_3"</span>).SetVisible(<span class="kwrd">false</span>);</pre>
<br />
<br />
<pre><span class="lnum"> 2: </span>Xrm.Page.ui.tabs.get(<span class="str">"tab_3"</span>).SetVisible(<span class="kwrd">true</span>);</pre>
<br /></div>
<br /> <style type="text/css"><br />.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre<br />{<br /> font-size: small;<br /> color: black;<br /> font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace;<br /> background-color: #ffffff;<br /> /*white-space: pre;*/<br />}<br />.csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; }<br />.csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; }<br />.csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; }<br />.csharpcode .str { color: #006080; }<br />.csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; }<br />.csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; }<br />.csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; }<br />.csharpcode .html { color: #800000; }<br />.csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; }<br />.csharpcode .alt <br />{<br /> background-color: #f4f4f4;<br /> width: 100%;<br /> margin: 0em;<br />}<br />.csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }</style><br />
<br />
<br />
Sorted! Hope that helps<br />
<br />
<br />
Cheers<br />
<br />
<br />
xRM ConsultantUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-9260771607356372932011-08-23T09:13:00.001+01:002013-08-29T10:29:56.794+01:00MS Dynamics CRM 2011 Quick Ref. JavascriptHi, <br />
<br />
Just a quick post today to advertise a very very useful post by fellow CRM Blogger Gareth Tucker..<br />
Brilliant list of Javascript basics in CRM 2011 - <a href="http://gtcrm.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/jscript-in-crm-2011-quick-reference-for-the-basics/" target="_blank">JScript in CRM 2011– Quick Reference for the Basics</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6y8o0M4K_lxgaKV-TLX87u1kWWx9vES37OnUYm8RpidHze_99N_LPMNWGBI3NnDVBuwHegMzEugydnHOPfkIKVZQApr7noNQbGIQEW1KPd1fi7qyjJRJ8_vu9uj2odXynB1u3YciXtM/s1600/js.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6y8o0M4K_lxgaKV-TLX87u1kWWx9vES37OnUYm8RpidHze_99N_LPMNWGBI3NnDVBuwHegMzEugydnHOPfkIKVZQApr7noNQbGIQEW1KPd1fi7qyjJRJ8_vu9uj2odXynB1u3YciXtM/s320/js.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Enjoy!<br />
<br />
xRM ConsulatantUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-10694257376709224602011-08-18T11:51:00.001+01:002013-08-29T10:32:20.855+01:00CRM 4 Email Router–Service Wont Start!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9LsMjQzDckaBJWOsUiEnrDXYIPNSb6WdBifisM5j207I_v7IUiHm9ajEtE48w_0UqORDQr5L-byFo0TfVd0R9qBHAUjAab8WQR_YsPaMCFh-4RZgIe6nfOeORy9EXKIDRWenvkxd9Rjg/s1600/email1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9LsMjQzDckaBJWOsUiEnrDXYIPNSb6WdBifisM5j207I_v7IUiHm9ajEtE48w_0UqORDQr5L-byFo0TfVd0R9qBHAUjAab8WQR_YsPaMCFh-4RZgIe6nfOeORy9EXKIDRWenvkxd9Rjg/s320/email1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Howdy,<br />
<br />
I had a customer call this week stating that the email marketing solution they had purchased from us (eCampaign, brilliant solution check it out here) was not sending emails. <br />
<br />
Upon investigation, we realised that the email had been created but for some reason Microsoft Dynamics Email Router was not sending them. The email router service was stoppped and every time we tried to retstart it would immediately stop again!<br />
<br />
After some digging around we found a <a href="http://marcellotonarelli.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/crm-4-0-email-router-starts-then-stops-email-pending-send/" target="_blank">blog post</a> that gave us the solution.<br />
<br />
The Microsoft.Crm.Tools.EmailAgent.SystemState.xml in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Email\Service folder had become corrupt. We closed down email router, removed the file and restated the service. This worked a treat and all the emails started sending merrily. Only problem……27k emails started sending! But at least the customer was happy to be sending emails again. <br />
<br />
Hope this helps<br />
<br />
Thanks<br />
<br />
xRM Consultant<br />
<br />
P.S. Thanks to Marcello for his help!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-52750558814677382662010-10-25T16:43:00.001+01:002013-08-29T10:33:46.810+01:00Email Router Outgoing Email DelaysHi, <br />
<br />
We have a client who uses workflows to guide their sales and marketing process very heavily and relies on certain emails being automatically sent as notifications from their CRM instance. <br />
<br />
When we first set-up their solution we used the Outlook plug-in to send emails but as the minimum polling time for emails using the plug-in is 15 minutes this wasn’t going to work either. So, we set about using the Email Router. It was installed, setup and configured properly but for some reason there was this random delay in sending emails. Sometimes an email would be sent within a minute or 2 and other times it would take over 10 minutes. Sometimes a single email would be delivered and at other times 4 or 5 would come through at the same time?!!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj252N59A6fMP85XBlqjL-q530C4jAiPYhkqWlqhV69z2iqQ6Leg-_fsCmaw3E3SxDjG9Nm2tcG9pHgNLHuQ3OilTd3cA66ohmmSv67W96fM75sjNFqF1IcgKUW7Zzhvc-mHcpMng74mLQ/s1600/er.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj252N59A6fMP85XBlqjL-q530C4jAiPYhkqWlqhV69z2iqQ6Leg-_fsCmaw3E3SxDjG9Nm2tcG9pHgNLHuQ3OilTd3cA66ohmmSv67W96fM75sjNFqF1IcgKUW7Zzhvc-mHcpMng74mLQ/s320/er.png" width="266" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
We found out today what the problem was. <br />
<br />
The issue lies firmly in the XML configuration file for the email router. The polling time for outgoing mail was set within the Microsoft.CRM.EmailAgent.xml was set to 1000 seconds. This polling was obviously based on the system time. So therefore, if the CRM Email Router polled the CRM at 10:00am and someone sent an email at 10:01 it not be delivered until 10:16ish, therefore the user would be aware of the delay. On the other hand if the user sent the email at 10:15, they would think that the emails were sending immediately “as they should be”. The solution was to change the polling time to 60 seconds (we didn’t want to push it!) and it worked a treat.<br />
<br />
To make the change follow these steps:<br />
<ol>
<li>Go to your exchange server (the server where the email router is installed)</li>
<li>Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM Email\Service</li>
<li>Copy the Microsoft.CRM.EmailAgent.xml file to a safe location as a backup.</li>
<li>Edit the Microsoft.CRM.EmailAgent.xml within Notepad (I prefer <a href="http://www.pspad.com/" target="_blank">PSPad</a>)</li>
<li>Find the SchedulingPeriod element</li>
<li>Change the value to 60 (it should be 1000 currently)</li>
<li>Save the file. </li>
<li>Open up the CRM Email Router and publish the changes</li>
<li>Restart the Microsoft CRM Email Router service</li>
<li>Your done!</li>
</ol>
Credit to Michael Cross for a <a href="http://www.techtalkz.com/microsoft-dynamics-crm/396263-message-has-not-yet-been-submitted-delivery-crm-4-0-a-2.html" target="_blank">great forum post</a><br />
<br />
Enjoy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-70538665071926314072010-10-25T15:59:00.001+01:002013-08-29T10:37:02.378+01:00Cannot See Customization In Settings AreaHi, <br />
<br />
Sorry its been a while…..<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXH6rZ97HzrdjyJustec2KHo7_LFJ3DxwLkcDMACGCVPIvJSPGit8IF7DtVfOrKs-y6eREmz8b9Pfo0VlHSeKDQCKnyfG_S5eC2fnl6hEj29unMbPwL3V0d2zP-tzpLlgUzpKquxZE7Q4/s1600/Deployment2011_CustomizeSystem.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXH6rZ97HzrdjyJustec2KHo7_LFJ3DxwLkcDMACGCVPIvJSPGit8IF7DtVfOrKs-y6eREmz8b9Pfo0VlHSeKDQCKnyfG_S5eC2fnl6hEj29unMbPwL3V0d2zP-tzpLlgUzpKquxZE7Q4/s320/Deployment2011_CustomizeSystem.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I have had this REALLY annoying issue on my desk machine for a while. Anytime I accessed our internal CRM system, even though I had the System Administrator security role, I could see everything except for the Customizations navigation option. This was very frustrating as I would have to VPN into our CRM server to do any work.<br />
<br />
However, after a quick search I found the answer today. It relates to the Site Map and having Outlook open when using CRM via the Web interface. <br />
<br />
Apparently, if you have the Customizations navigation option configured to web only, when you run CRM using the outlook interface and the try using the web interface it wont display!!! Weird<br />
Anyway, easy to fix…..<br />
<ol>
<li>First I would recommend that you delete your browsing history, stored passwords, cookies etc as this will clear any stored logon information that may be muddying the waters. </li>
<li>Export your Site Map from your CRM instance. I know this goes without saying but ALWAYS store a backup of your Site Map in case everything goes pear-shaped! </li>
<li>Find the following entry… <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIV9RFEtMjLKvYbUf8GCu09YKe-Ci9Q4Nu_7AUoAGupeT5WlVHJ7_TQIYdMzKE_r9uv2q19ITOLzEMvGnN5eQeywbyEHapOWX1wljqEnoRId3TJhGMRfh3qOQWGDzIKWzJrOtTos_g4U/s1600-h/1%5B10%5D.jpg"><img alt="1" border="0" height="53" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6yqRpq2C5ZoFpXpbkd76bBnTf68-w_jgHKkKHrnNqi_eQV9BY6ckbGsRM3yDhI178TvxOXL020Q-lfw5mvx9F8KRgl2y5NHpVOcQDmb57Dp8KSvyPf5dkLXI0IqUV8MiSeGa48aRHWK8/?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="1" width="775" /></a> </li>
<li>Change Client=”Web” with Client=”All” </li>
<li>Save the changes to the Site Map and import into CRM. </li>
</ol>
Credit to the following <a href="http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/33269582/system-administrator-cannot-view-customization.aspx" target="_blank">brilliant blog post by Peter Gernburd</a><br />
<br />
Enjoy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-26512686512935874922010-09-06T11:56:00.001+01:002010-09-06T11:56:22.010+01:00Resize Form & Hide Left Navigation Area of CRM Form<p>Hi, </p> <p>As much as I like the look and feel of CRM when you are developing a true xRM solution for a client, as we all know, less can be more. </p> <p>With this in mind, whilst developing a solution for a client recently, I wanted to hide the entire left-hand navigation menu to give my form a simpler feel to it. So when setting it up I used 2 handy little pieces of JavaScript. </p> <p>The first resized the window, OnLoad, to the size I wanted for my form:</p> <p><em>window.resizeTo(700,520);</em></p> <p>This gave me the following OnLoad:</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhejbYny0YzHdo9I0ZhnA4VOjL9R3F0BARwXQo287hyrAhtywaUYzuVg3MtcXMqQ4bNvNB-6i0d0zjz1SBKZjvsq53yTlD9VxjyYCX18uA2uaVKGOP9AEjmfp8fuCghp1SbbGJCLrILH84/s1600-h/78%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="78" border="0" alt="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBK0oPh3AfpctUtJQG2NHla9TH-UsYsloH1vD6ntPgiR8EE1Mhu8kvE12dYnxIWyRZt9YqJ6V77EeVpuW0a6RNE24ptxioQyAQaloR73z8YIUAGbff7B9gaCxwZ7-5_kiM-ZJ8G77S1SE/?imgmax=800" width="494" height="345" /></a></p> <p>As you can see though, most of the screen is taken up with the Left Navigation are, which for this form I didn't need.  So, i hid it using the following code:</p> <p><em>document.all.crmNavBar.parentElement.style.display = "none"; <br />document.all.tdAreas.colSpan = 2;</em></p> <p>Which game me the following results….</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT3bMoCTKDpytekiPUwaayhJfYXvW496JoyOqo6hCjeGjL7r2rhrcDR-y2yL7tdSBVru34zTWpr-lBOB_oL9pZfrdmImlES_NnVeIBlo4rFbGG2vQyP72kHfmvIcJRrcY5tR3fOhKxRBQ/s1600-h/77%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="77" border="0" alt="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLmC_dU1WvRsokN04zQRMcMPE6KPGDQqME0TIH8wqcV5DE8wvCPoesB2XS851d8tFwAGMiLdLUt6a29CKWanNmQHqxtIwhgim1JN2WRWLaFT50CAvlXG8P546joq6zCdFZ3Mu4MlveYtY/?imgmax=800" width="503" height="351" /></a> </p> <p>As I said, nice simple JavaScript but I think it makes a huge difference to the appearance of the form and therefore (hopefully) how well the user interacts with it. </p> <p>Enjoy!</p> <p>Joel</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9165628520125224560.post-45145954854278081092010-09-03T16:20:00.001+01:002010-09-03T16:20:12.887+01:00MS Dynamics Convergence Europe 2010<p>Hi, </p> <p>Very pleased to say I have just booked to go to <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/euro10/" target="_blank">Convergence 2010 Europe.</a> </p> <p>Got to be honest, never been before but very much looking forward to meeting different people within the Dynamics Community, exchanging ideas etc.</p> <p>I have been searching for good Dynamics CRM events or even CRM events to keep my knowledge up to date without much joy at the moment. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any recommendations by email (<a href="mailto:xrmconsultant@gmail.com">xrmconsultant@gmail.com</a>) or <a href="http://twitter.com/xrmconsultant" target="_blank">twitter (@xrmconsultant)</a></p> <p>Hope to see you there, </p> <p>Joel</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0