Unitek Microsoft CRM Blog

Unitek’s CRM Team periodically supplies FREE, useful tools for the CRM community! There is no charge to download and use these tools, either for yourself or your clients, but we do require that you complete a simple contact information form so that we can track the popularity and use of the specific tools.

We developed a method that gives users the ability to search Leads and Contacts simultaneously, with a single search. And as is our way, we want to share with the rest of the CRM community.

Here’s how it works.
Download your FREE CRM Add-On

We are interested in hearing your input on the Add-On, please feel free to comment below.

What other Microsoft CRM Add-On’s would you like to download?

I was shocked to learn that a local Bay Area elementary school had recently looked into adding Microsoft A+, Net+, and Security+ to their list of elective courses to take during their school year. I was aware that this was being implemented at the high school and community college levels, but ELEMENTARY! That’s simply incredible.

It was reported by Daniel Margolis of certmag.com that, educationally speaking:

• 33% of IT Professionals with certifications have obtained a Bachelor’s degree
• 21% have a Master’s degree
• 10% percent have received some technical training (no college degree)
• 13% of you have earned a high school diploma

That’s 23% that don’t have college degrees and are actively working in the industry. Imagine 10 years from now… all these new “whipper snappers” will have a leg up on that 23%. Of course, that’s the beauty of educational evolution. With the inclusion of IT education and certifications to elementary, middle, and high school students, these numbers relating to Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees should be on the rise in the coming years.

So what do you do if you don’t already have the BA or MA degree? Take a certification course that gives you those missing college credits. Take a class with Unitek because we can now offer college credits for completing our Microsoft CRM 4.0 Boot Camp!

Aside from information about college credits and applicable degrees, I’m repeatedly asked about what certifications are the best to obtain? Industry experts say that Microsoft CRM certifications are on the rise and it’s quickly becoming the most popular avenue for new and experienced consultants, IT pros, and systems administrators. But how do most IT professionals decide on a particular certification? Cost, cost, and, oh yeah… how much does it cost?

If you base a certification on price, the cheapest certification would seem to have the most value and asking for a low budget approval is usually easier than the alternative. However, certifications have continued benefits like:

• Opening doors to new jobs, careers, and opportunities
• Adding value to your resume
• Solidifying your position as a certified professional in an area that the company holds near and dear to their hearts, like Microsoft CRM.

But having a certification isn’t typically enough to land the perfect job. Reaching your professional goals require:

• Microsoft Training
• Microsoft Certification
• Converting certification into jobs…jobs into experience…and experience into a career!

One of the most important things to consider when choosing an area of study is the link between certifications. Thankfully, Microsoft Dynamics’ offers certifications for Applications, Installation, Customization, Extending CRM, and more. These are also partnered with other certifications under the Dynamics and Microsoft Corporate umbrellas. (VB.net, C# development, MCSE/MCSA, etc…)

Jonathan of certmag.com was quoted as saying, “Each training and certification decision helps to build capabilities and flexibility in your areas of interest and opportunity. Vendor-neutral certification gives breadth, while vendor-specific certification provides depth. In a multi-vendor environment, the mix of neutral and specific certifications offers flexibility. A mix indicates that you have carefully built a foundation of strong competencies. You should especially consider attractive add-on certifications, such as project management, that show employers you are multi-faceted.” I say…”Well put, Jonathan!”

So, what’s important to you? The degree? The certification? Boss told me to get it done or get lost? All of the above? If so, call Unitek’s CRM team NOW so we can help drive you, AND your career, in the right direction.

JH
Microsoft CRM Consultant
Unitek Microsoft CRM Services

It happens often that a sales rep wants to send an e-mail to a lead that has been deactivated and they either don’t want to or don’t have the permission to activate the Lead. As you know once a Lead record is deactivated you cannot log an activity against it including sending an E-mail.

As a CRM consultant, recently I had a client request to provide a way for their sales rep to be able to send Emails to deactivated Leads. What follows is the steps required to make this happen.
The solution involves providing a button on the Tool Bar of the Lead record. This button once clicked will open up an E-mail activity record for the deactivated Lead.

This blog entry assumes that the reader already knows how to customize the Tool Bar by adding a custom button. If you don’t know, please let us know and we will provide the instructions.

Here is the custom code to accomplish the above:

Two points to remember:

1. Please know that copying this code as is might be problematic with the use of quotations. Once you copy the code, you will need to go through and replace the single and double quotes using your keyboard.
2. In http://crmsvr/activities/email/edit.aspx?pId=, you have to replace “crmsvr” with the name of your Micorosft CRM server.

Code

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>

<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” >

<head>

<title>Quick Email</title>

</head>

<body>

<h1 align=”center”>Please Wait</h1>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var oOpenLead = window.dialogArguments;

var oLead = oOpenLead.document.crmForm;

var FirstName = oLead.firstname.DataValue;

var LastName = oLead.lastname.DataValue;

var GUID = oLead.ObjectId;

PA = window.open(“http://crmsvr/activities/email/edit.aspx?pId=” + GUID +“&pType=4&pName=”+FirstName+“%20″+LastName+“&partyid=”+ GUID +“&partytype=4&partyname=”+FirstName+“%20″+LastName+“&partyaddressused=&contactInfo=”,”,‘menubar=0, status=1′);

window.close();

</script>

</body>

</html>

RM
Microsoft CRM Consultant
Unitek Microsoft CRM Services

Direct from the Microsoft Dynamics Download Center, this guide contains comprehensive information about how to plan, install, and maintain Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide consists of the following documents:

• Planning Guide: This guide gives you the information and tools that help you get your organization ready for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. It includes two main aspects of planning for a customer relationship management (CRM) system:
  • Technical: These topics focus on such areas as the supported topologies, system requirements, and technical considerations to address before you install.
  • Implementation methodology: These topics cover the business management, CRM requirements, and project management aspects that are needed when you deploy a CRM system. Additionally, there are several documents included that you can use as tools to plan the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. These tools are in the planning tools folder where the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide is located.

• Planning Tools: The planning tools are 43 template, project, and worksheet Microsoft Office documents that can be used to help plan your implementation.
• Installing Guide: This guide provides the information that you need to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, such as step-by-step instructions for running Setup, command-line installation instructions for silent installations, and guidance about how to remove Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
• Operating and Maintaining Guide: This guide gives you information about how to back up, restore, and provide data recovery for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Additionally, this guide provides troubleshooting steps for known issues.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003

Other Requirements: Microsoft Office Word 2003 or later version, or a compatible viewer

Download Here [Microsoft Download Center]

Good Luck!! And as always, feel free to leave comments if you need any further assistance!

JH
Microsoft CRM Consultant
Unitek Microsoft CRM Services

After doing a number of upgrades of Microsoft CRM 3.0 to CRM 4.0, which went off without a hitch, one of our customers was anxious to get their system on the newest platform. This customer had a number of customizations and 3rd party add-ons that we needed to plan for. The customizations fell into the category of both “supported” and “unsupported”. The 3rd party software was from a well known vendor who had updated their products to support Microsoft CRM 4.0. Things were looking good!

After carefully backing up servers and also making disc images, we began the upgrade process. The story gets ugly at this point…

The customer had about 40,000 items in Workflow. Each and every one of these needed to be upgraded. This process took about 18 hours! But it finally did complete and we breathed a sigh of relief. “At least it finished!”

Next we worked on the unsupported customizations, mostly Jscripts. These were fairly easy as we knew exactly what we needed to change.

“We’re cooking now!”

Now we installed the 3rd party add-on software. This was accomplished fairly easily, even though the install documentation often referred to CRM 3.0 and directories within 3.0. But the upgrade did complete and the functionality seemed to be working.

Finally it’s time to install the Microsoft CRM 4.0 Outlook client. And now we come to a screeching halt.

No errors during install but not a single client can get CRM functionality! How can this be?

During the conversation with Microsoft Dynamics support, they asked if we had installed any products from the 3rd party vendor, mentioned earlier. Yes we have, but how can that effect the Outlook client?

No real explanation was given but Microsoft says they are working on a fix with the 3rd party vendor.

Thankfully we had backup images of the CRM 3.0 server and SQL server so the retro-grade wasn’t nearly as painful as the upgrade attempt!

How did your Microsoft CRM 3.0 to CRM 4.0 upgrade go?

DG
Microsoft CRM Consultant
Unitek Microsoft CRM Services

Throughout my experiences instructing and consulting with Microsoft CRM, the majority of CRM implementations that I’ve seen and worked with, all look exactly alike! It doesn’t matter what industry they are in, or what they sell, or how they operate… the layout, look, and functionality are typically the same. Not all are setup this way; but the vast majority seems to struggle with deploying CRM to fit their needs. I like comparing it to walking into any Home Depot – it’s this huge open space that’s filled with potential and you have access to any tool you would need; but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’ll just end up walking the aisles, wondering why the ceilings are so high and why you can’t find anyone that knows what they’re doing. The only thing you’ll accomplish is buying that hot dog on the way out.

Sometimes, I’ll ask my students… “Imagine that you are working for Microsoft and you’ve been assigned the task of developing a CRM solution. The only catch is that the entire application must be universally applicable to all users.” So, how do you design an application that provides organizational management, produces measurable data, and has the ability to grow with the company…all the while, making it unique and personal to each organization?

Answer? You design it so that every facet, feature, add-on, plug-in, field, form, view, and entity can be customized. Using customization to its fullest potential allows those like “Mom & Pop Liquors” or “Wholesale Distribution Centers-R-Us” or even companies like “Hewlett Packard” to all use the same application and apply it directly to their business model. In my opinion, Microsoft nailed it with CRM 4.0.

I was recently asked to consult on a Microsoft CRM 4.0 implementation for an organic food distributor. They had only been working with CRM for a few months and were struggling with user adoption, overall functionality, and the knowledge of what could be done “outside of the box.” There were some custom forms, tabs, and other modifications being used, but the missing features were those that were specific to their unique business policies and procedures. After analysis of their situation, I gave my recommended customizations and they were excited to see that they were merely scratching the surface of what CRM could provide.

They wanted to have Microsoft CRM work for them right out of the box, but their willingness to recognize the infancy of their initial deployment allowed them to take a step back. Realizing that CRM would be ever evolving, (nothing is customized overnight) they were able to prioritize their “Critical Needs” vs. “Critical Wants”, which gave them a starting point for a successful implementation. Sometimes we just need to know what’s possible … and why we need it in the first place!

Statistics show us that over 50% of ALL CRM implementations FAIL. It’s not surprising, considering that most managers and executives tell me they are tired of hearing their employees complain that they won’t work with Microsoft CRM because CRM isn’t working for them. I truly believe that the majority of these organizations just aren’t shown how dynamic Microsoft CRM can be! It’s not anyone’s fault… it just wasn’t clear as to what they should have done back at Step #1.

I’m sure that most of us have either experienced or worked with Microsoft CRM setups like this, correct? Is the “out of the box” version so great that there’s no reason to tinker with it? NO! Are the default settings good enough to get the job done? Maybe for some, but probably…NO! Does it take time, thought, and some self-analysis to understand what you should do with CRM? YES! So take the time and make it yours. Or if you are the one making these customizations; make sure the priorities are set and you know exactly how CRM is going to work within their needs. Otherwise, you’re just going to end up leaving Home Depot…only to buy ANOTHER hot dog.

JH
Microsoft CRM Consultant
Unitek Microsoft CRM Services

Guess what? I will be co-teaching our 6 day Microsoft CRM 4.0 boot camp here in Fremont week of April/28. I look forward to meeting some of you face to face.

My main focus is on Microsoft CRM consulting so teaching is always a welcome change. I am excited to be able to share some of my field experience with you.

Here is some info on our Microsoft CRM 4.0 boot camp

• Award-winning boot camp was recognized by Microsoft (Northern California) district for contribution to customer and partner readiness
• 6 days of intensive readiness training & cert prep for MS Partners and Customers; covers 9 days of training
• 12-hours a day of Instructor-led training
• Hotel stay, shuttle and all meals for all participants (with the subsidized travel package - select locations only)
• Microsoft subsidies are available to U.S. and Canadian partners. Please call to get exact details of subsidy for your location.
• Read our outstanding student reviews for this event

Here is a list of dates and locations for our upcoming Microsoft CRM boot camp

For more information or to register please click here to visit our Microsoft CRM website.

RM
Microsoft CRM Consultant
Unitek Microsoft CRM Services

Hello fellow Microsoft CRM 4.0’ers – today’s blog entry involves an issue that at least 3 implementations that I’m aware of are suffering. This issue sometimes appears when you import customizations and subsequently attempt to change the default public view for that entity.

In this scenario, I’ve renamed the “Accounts” entity to “Company” (a common customization) and according to the business requirements I attempted to change the default public view to “Active Companies.”

When this is completed we see two default public views for this entity: Continue Reading »

Unitek’s Microsoft CRM Practice not only specializes in CRM Certifications, but also has a large force related to CRM 3.0 & 4.0 Consulting Services. With that in mind, I’d like to talk a little bit about some of the issues that we have seen with other clients and the following topics will specifically address the Mail Merge Wizard within Microsoft CRM 4.0.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Mail Merge was created to work only with Accounts, Contacts, and Quotes. The overall functionality was there, but the tool had some limitations and complications that Microsoft obviously felt needed to be changed.

• It did not allowing the user to easily create email templates or other letters, faxes, documents.
• It did not support Mail Merge for the Web Client.
• It did not support Quick Campaigns.

Just a few of the improvements made to the Microsoft CRM 4.0 Mail Merge tool includes:

• Automatic upload of templates from MS WORD. (all versions) MS WORD 2007 even includes a section dedicated to CRM Mail Merge E-mail templates!
• The ability to run with both the Outlook and Web Clients.
• The creation of Activities associated with the Mail Merge and upon completion, the listing of those completed activities in the History view.
• The ability to run Mail Merges for Quick Campaigns, which is very helpful for those quick email blasts and newsletter distributions.

Continue Reading »

Another great feature of Microsoft CRM 4.0 is the Create Record option in the reworked Workflow. Being able to utilize this functionality opens the way to some interesting possibilities. The first one that we’ve utilized is an ownership audit trail for Contact records. We’ll also be using one of the new entity relationship options that have been added in Microsoft CRM 4.0.

The steps are pretty easy so let’s get started.

First we’ll create a new entity. This will be the entity that holds the ownership history so let’s name it “Ownership”. Additional info about the entity:

Organization Owned:

• Uncheck “Notes” and “Activities” (optional)
• Uncheck “Enable Duplicate Detection”
• Uncheck all the items in “Areas That Display this Entity”
• Under the Primary Entity, change the display name to “Details”

Continue Reading »