XRM Services Dynamics CRM Blog

IPad and Yammer Capabilities for CRM Online Announced

2013-02-27T12:36:00.001-06:00

I noticed that most of my CRM Online customers have been receiving this update over the past few days. I will have to check this out – I started using Yammer last month in anticipation of this integration so I am looking forward to this!

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/crmconnection/archive/2013/02/26/announcing-ipad-and-yammer-capabilities-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm-online.aspx#.US5QcUtnqiE.twitter

Yammer, Skype functionality Added to MSCRM

2012-11-02T14:18:00.001-05:00

Click here to Read the Full Article

“Meanwhile, the Yammer integration represents "the first phase of integrating Yammer as a social layer" within Dynamics CRM, Patton said. Users will be able to post messages from Dynamics CRM to Yammer, and vice versa.

Rival CRM vendor Salesforce.com has included the Chatter social software within its CRM system for a couple of years now, but Microsoft isn't necessarily playing catch-up, according to Patton. "We're looking to take advantage of the fact that [Yammer] has broad viral adoption," and Microsoft will make it "super-seamless" to use Yammer with CRM, he said.”

ANother Test

2012-11-01T11:58:00.002-05:00

THis is a second test

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Brings Customers a Reimagined User Experience

2012-11-01T11:24:00.001-05:00

From the Microsoft News Center – Highlight paragraph:

“Delivering on the Microsoft Dynamics commitment to rapidly innovate, and help businesses attract, win and retain customers through solutions that delight users and proactively help them do business, the next service update will reimagine the way sales, customer service and marketing professionals work with CRM. Moving away from the traditional data-centric approach, this service update will add new experiences that simply and visually guide users through their business processes. New application capabilities in this service update also include pre-defined best-practice sales and service business process definitions, which are highly configurable and will accelerate time-to-value for organizations; deeper connection to Yammer and Skype; embedded Bing maps; Microsoft Office 2013 compatibility; and cross-browser support enabling new levels of communications and collaboration for customers.”

MSCRM CRM News Update–Internet Lead Capture dropped from CRM Online

2012-10-30T14:15:00.001-05:00

Just posted on PartnerSource:

Please be aware of changes to a free Microsoft service called Internet Lead Capture that is being used in conjunction with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. This notice is to inform you that Microsoft will discontinue offering Internet Lead Capture as part of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online effective February 15, 2013.
Please keep this change in mind during your sales and service communication with new and existing customers. Microsoft continuously receives feedback from our customers and partners that we use along with other market information to continuously improve our products and services. Because of input from these channels and due to limited demand, we have decided to discontinue Internet Lead Capture.
What are the alternatives?
Several Microsoft partners offer similar lead capturing services that are compatible with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. In order to mitigate disruption to your customer’s business, we recommend you consult with the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace as soon as possible for alternative solutions and work with your customers to evaluate their needs. Please inform your customers that there may be costs associated with these alternative solutions and services.
What do customers need to do?
Prior to February 15, 2013, customers will need to cease usage of the Internet Lead Capture functionality. To do this, any landing pages that have been created will need to be turned off. After February 15, 2013, when the service is retired, customers will not be able to import any leads that have accumulated. Prior to this, any leads that have accumulated from active landing pages will need to be imported.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause to you or your customers. Thank you for your continued support of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

CRM Team Blog–Creating Heat Maps

2012-10-30T12:35:00.001-05:00

Geoff Innis – A Microsoft Bing Maps Technical Specialist posted this interesting article on the CRM Team Blog.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2012/10/29/creating-heat-maps-with-bing-maps-and-dynamics-crm.aspx

Yammer Announces Deeper Microsoft Dynamics CRM Integration

2012-10-30T10:18:00.001-05:00

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2012/Oct12/10-29YammerDynamicsPR.aspx

“Yammer, Inc., a best-in-class Enterprise Social Network and part of the Microsoft Office Division, today announced a native integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Leveraging the power of the Enterprise Graph, this new integration allows Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers to extend Yammer’s social functionality into the application by embedding Yammer feeds, as well as Follow and Like buttons into specific CRM records. In addition, once someone takes an action on a record, a Page is automatically created in Yammer where employees can discuss, follow and collaborate on that record.

For example, when a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user updates an opportunity, a Page and activity story are created in Yammer, alerting colleagues to the status of the deal. These interactions are not only available in Yammer but also embedded in the customer record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM itself, so that anyone viewing the opportunity details will have access to the social content surrounding it.

“This new integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is just the first example of how you will see enhanced social experiences across Microsoft products and services,” said David Sacks, Yammer founder and corporate vice president, Microsoft Office Division. “Our platform seamlessly connects the relevant people, conversations and data across an entire organization, making Yammer the enterprise social standard and a way for companies to build a truly connected enterprise.”

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2012/Oct12/10-29YammerDynamicsPR.aspx

Video–MSCRM on Surface RT Tablet

2012-10-30T09:35:00.001-05:00

Ron De Giusti has posted a video of his experience using MSCRM on a surface tablet – Take a look here:

MSCRM on RT

I am looking forward to getting one of those soon for my birthday in November.

Follow up on my previous post–Read Optimized forms come to CRM Online

2012-06-20T00:08:00.001-05:00

So a few days ago, I posted an image as part of a blog post speculating on a scheduled update to our CRM Online system. Of course, I was hoping that this update would bring CRM Online to the summer 2012 update – including all of the great features that we have been promised since February including multi-browser support, workflow activities, and Mobile CRM

Well, tonight the update was applied to our CRM, and while the process took substantially longer to apply than the 30 minutes advertised, it was not the summer release. However, CRM ONline now has a new build number - 5.0.9690.2174 . The previous build number was 5.00.9688.1533, which meant that CRM Online had all Update rollups through 5 applied.

Now 5.09690.2174 does not directly correspond to any of the existing update rollups out there, but by looking at this chart on TechNet I do see that this puts me between Rollup 7 and Rollup 8.

As I remember, the most significant change introduced in Rollup 7 was Read Optimized forms. Read Optimized forms are a major improvement for MSCRM, as they allow users to view forms in a Read Only format, and click on the edit button if they require modification. Read Optimized forms are one tool to speed user access to view customer information. I have used these in a couple of new on Premises deployments and am looking forward to experimenting with them on my CRM System.

So I fired up CRM/Settings/Administration/System Preferences. I clicked on the Customization Tab – and there was the new option for Read Optimized forms. Set the Default to Read Optimized, and your users will default to Read Optimized forms when they look at existing records.

The CRM Team Blog has a great article to explain more in depth – including the gotchas. Read the article here.

So we did not get the major upgrade we were hoping for. We did however find a great new feature that we can begin to explore.

Meet the Experts–Live–Tomorrow

2012-06-19T12:11:00.001-05:00

I’m looking forward to attending this event tomorrow.

Please join Microsoft® Central Region Vice President Janet Kennedy and Microsoft Dynamics® CRM Expert Matt Keenan as they share insights, experiences and challenges in running a multi-billion dollar sales business in a highly matrixed organization.

Six initial thoughts on Microsoft Surface

2012-06-18T19:28:00.001-05:00

Like many of you I followed CNET’s excellent coverage of MS announcement this afternoon – and I have to say that I am very excited – I have been using my iPad for almost a year now, and it for the most part replaced my laptop for web surfing on the couch . However, it has numerous shortcomings – External keyboard is an extra cost, smart cover is an extra cost, no multitasking or file system access. And the idea that you are succumbing to the Apple Borg whenever you use it. We have seen Android tablets come and go and make no appreciable footprint in the market. So for Microsoft to succeed, they had to present a tablet that was a game changer. From what I saw today, I am impressed and am looking forward to pre-ordering these.

Microsoft Marketing has figured out how to excite the market – I dreaded the idea of the tablet having a name like “Microsoft Office Live Communicator Tablet.” A simple name like Surface fits into what people expect their products to be named. Microsoft has to learn that simplicity is key. Wouldn’t you be happier if Microsoft called it’s upcoming CRM update “Athena” rather than Q2 2012 Service Update?”
Really happy about two full sized USB port in such a small form factor. Make connectivity simple and seamless
A kickstand? Awesome!!
A smart cover that integrates a keyboard, track pad, and lights up when connected? Super Awesome!!!
Both ARM and Intel Versions – I can see purchasing the Intel version and replacing my laptop entirely. I am guessing the Intel version will retail in the $800 price range, while the ARM will be in the $500 price range.
Ability to run true desktop apps on a tablet. This will be huge. I am so looking forward to running CRM on this machine!

Questions I still have – and I will probably look at spec sheets later to find out -

Battery Life
Video Out – HDMI
Expandability
App availability on Release date. This will be a key – with the announcement that Netflix app will be available Day 1 we can see some traction. But how about Instagram, Facebook, Words with Friends?

Time will tell – I am hoping to see these release in the October time frame so I can buy one as an early Christmas present for myself. I am impressed with what Microsoft has shown us. For a V1 of a Microsoft product, I should probably be stunned!

Surface at Microsoft.com

Should I get excited about this CRM System Notification?

2012-06-16T15:55:00.001-05:00

Could this be at last the fabled Summer 2012 CRM Update?

ClickDimensions Daily

2012-06-15T11:58:00.001-05:00

If you are not already familiar with ClickDimensions, the ClickDimensions solution is seamlessly embedded into your Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution whether you are in the cloud or on-premise. Basically, ClickDimensions provides email marketing, lead scoring, social discovery, form capture, and surveys. The email marketing allows you to create professional emails and newsletters. ClickDimensions goes a step further by capturing the activity of your sent emails and newsletters including the links in your email which have been clicked. You know if someone has opened your emails, clicked on links, bounced and unsubscribed. Just knowing what links your customers have clicked allows you to know your customer’s interest in particular products and/or services. This allows you to take appropriate action to engage with a Lead, Account, Contact and subsequently close potential opportunities.

So what is this ClickDimensions Daily? ClickDimensions Daily is a a free service which sends you an email daily of changes in career positions of your LinkedIn Connections. Two reasons why this might be important. First, if your customer contact leaves his or her position at Company A, then you are going to want to know who your new contact is at Company A. You want to be in front of that new contact at Company A immediately. Don’t give them the chance to search through their Microsoft Dynamics CRM for someone new. Secondly, if you have an established relationship with the contact who has moved onto Company B, then you have the opportunity to maintain that relationship and they will want to keep sending you business from Company B. ClickDimensions Daily gives you immediate information so that you can react appropriately.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has always been about enhancing the customer experience and ClickDimensions is the icing on the cake. XRM Services is a ClickDimensions Partner. I have been excited about ClickDimensions for a while which is why I have recently become certified in ClickDimensions.

Check out ClickDimensions at www.ClickDimensions.com. Please call XRM Services for your ClickDimensions solution at 402-598-0927. You can have ClickDimensions TODAY!

Microsoft Big Easy Offer Ends June 30th

2012-05-29T13:18:00.001-05:00

Free cash from Microsoft is always a good thing, especially when you can use it to purchase CRM or Office 365 services from the experts at XRM Services.

Customers receive 15% rebates on annualized Office 365, Intune and CRM Online subscriptions. You will receive a a check made out to the partner to be used for professional services or software to assist/offset partner deployment costs. This promotion can also be used for incremental purchases with existing Office 365 customers.

Big Easy Rebates are also available for server hosted products too.

For more details visit https://www.microsoftincentives.com/BigEasy/Default.aspx

And don’t forget to contact us too!

June 2012 CRMUG Events

2012-05-29T08:50:00.001-05:00

XRM Services is a member of CRMUG and is looking forward to launching CRMUG in Nebraska in June 2012. In addition to local in person events, they have a full schedule of virtual training opportunities.
Try to attend a couple of these events next month, and consider joining CRMUG today!
6/1/12 @ 12:00pm (ET) - Academy: CRM Administration for the Part-time Administrator
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/CRMUGAcademyCRMAdmin060112?date=2012-06
6/5/12 @ 3:00pm (ET) - Partner Showcase: Click Dimensions
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugPSClickDimensions060512?date=2012-06
6/7/12 @ 1:00pm (ET) - Academy: CRM Dashboards for the Non-Developer
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/CRMUGAcademyBI060112?date=2012-06
6/7/12 @ 1:00pm (ET) - SIG: Public Sector - Education
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugSIG060712?date=2012-06
6/12/12 @ 2:00pm (ET) - SIG: Professional Services
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugPSsig061212?date=2012-06
6/13/12 @ 10:00am (ET) - SIG: Financial Services
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugFSsig061212?date=2012-06
6/13/12 @ 2:30pm (ET) - Summit 2012 Preview
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugsummit2012preview061312?date=2012-06
6/14/12 @ 2:00pm (ET) - Administration "Wizard for Outlook Client Configuration:
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugADMIN061412?date=2012-06
6/19/12 @ 2:00pm (ET) - SIG: CRM Administration - Advanced Dialog Creation
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugADMINsig061912?date=2012-06
6/20/12 @ 2:00pm (ET) - Partner Showcase: Scribe
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmug-ps-scribe062012?date=2012-06
6/21/12 @ 12:00pm (ET) - SIG: Non-Profit
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugNPsig062112?date=2012-06
6/26/12 @ 2:00pm (ET) - SIG: Marketing
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/CRMUGMarketing062612?date=2012-06
6/27/12 @ 2:00pm (ET) - CRMUG User Group Information & Orientation
Register: http://www.crmug.com/events/crmugUGIO062712?date=2012-06
As always, for any questions or comments, please contact us today!

Nebraska’s first CRMUG Meeting to be hosted by XRM Services LLC

2012-05-27T15:21:00.001-05:00

Nebraska's CRMUG Meeting: XRM Services LLC is excited to sponsor Omaha's first CRM User Group on June 12, 2012 at the Microsoft Office on South 67th Street, ste 100, Omaha, Nebraska 68106. Driving Directions. The event begins from 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Lunch will be provided by XRM Services LLC.

Join us for the inaugural meeting of the CRMUG Nebraska Regional Chapter on Tuesday, June 12th from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm CST. This is a prime opportunity to troubleshoot your most pressing Dynamics CRM issues, learn from the experience of other users in your area, share your knowledge and experiences, and make valuable connections with local users who share similar goals, priorities and CRM objectives.
Preliminary Agenda

10:30 - 11:00 Registration/Networking
11:00 – 11:15 Welcome and introductions
11:15 – 12:15 Educational Presentation
12:15 - 12:30 Break/Lunch
12:30 – 1:00 CRMUG News & Upcoming Events
1:00 – 1:45 Member Showcase
1:45 – 2:00 Chapter Business

HAVE FUN …. While LEARNING something new! We look forward to meeting you!

Welcome Lisa Burgesser!

2012-05-07T16:30:00.001-05:00

XRM Services would like to welcome Lisa Burgesser to our XRM Services Team as an Organizational Support Manager. We are very excited for Lisa to join our team. Lisa will be located in our Colorado Territory. Lisa will help us continue to provide superior service to our clients.
XRM Services is having an outstanding year as we continue to grow steadily due to our outstanding reputation in customer service. We have added two new clients this month! If you need assistance with implementation and/or support for your Microsoft Dynamics CRM software On-Premise or On-Line, give us a call TODAY!
If you are interested in a career with XRM Services, please send your resume and references to careers@xrmservices.com.

Ready, Set, GOALS!

2012-01-29T21:12:00.001-06:00

Take advantage of Microsoft Dynamics 2011 CRM Goals Area to set Short and Long Term Goals for your Sales and Service. You can track In-Progress and Actual Revenue Goals against target, as well as, statistical Goals for Individuals, Teams, and Organization. Almost anything you enter into Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 can be tracked in the Goals area. You can stop tracking your goals manually and utilize the robust functionality of your Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

Below is a quick start “simple” demonstration to set-up Revenue Goals for a team.

Select Sales on the left-hand navigation pane. Select Goals about half-way down under Sales Pane. In the top ribbon of your screen, select new to create a new Goal.

The first goal we will create is the Parent Goal. This Goal will be the Team or the Organization Goal. If you have individual goals, you could have three different goals. One for the individual, One for the Team, and One for the Organization. The Organization Goal is the Parent Goal of the Team. The Team Goal is the Parent Goal of the Individual. We will start with the Organization Goal, such as, “Jan 2012 Total Sales”.

Type into the Name Field Jan 2012 Total Sales. Since this is the parent Goal, you will not select a Parent Goal.

The Goal Owner should be the individual who is tracking all the goals for the organization, such as, the Sales Manager’s user name.

The next field is the Metric field. Your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is already set-up with some basic metrics for tracking Goals. For this example, we will be utilizing the Revenue. Select Revenue.

The next tab on the goal is the Time Period. Select Fiscal Period. Select January. Select Fiscal Year FY2012 Fiscal Year. If any of the fields look different, your Fiscal Period System Settings are set-up differently then the example I am demonstrating to you. You do not need to change the system settings to configure the goals. Your selection criteria may just be a little different that this view. If you need to change the system settings, see your system administrator.

Just below the Time Period Tab, there is a Tab titled Targets. In the Field Target (Money), type in the Target Revenue Figure of $2,500,000. At this point, your screen should look like the below screen.

As you scroll down the Goal, disregard the Child Goals for now. They will be automatically added to the Parent Goal when we set up the Child Goal. You can also disregard the Actuals Tab.

On the Goal Criteria Tab, select Yes on the field titled Roll Up Only from Child Goals.

As for the other fields, we will not use those fields for this demonstration. They are used for more advanced Goal Setting.

On the top Ribbon of the record, select Save and Close.

We will now set-up two Child Goals. We will want to repeat the steps above to create a new Goal except we will change four fields.

You will select New in the ribbon. Repeat steps above except for below fields should be as stated below.

Child Goal #1

1. The name should be Jan 2012 Deborah Burgesser Sales Goal.

2. Select the Parent Goal using the Lookup. The Parent Goal will be Jan 2012 Total Sales Goals.

3. In the Field Target (Money), type in the Target Revenue Figure of $1,250,000.

4. Leave NO selected on the field titled Roll Up Only from Child Goals.

Child Goal #2

1. The name should be Jan 2012 Brian Begley Sales Goal.

2. Select the Parent Goal using the Lookup. The Parent Goal will be Jan 2012 Total Sales Goals.

3. In the Field Target (Money), type in the Target Revenue Figure of $1,250,000.

4. Leave NO selected on the field titled Roll Up Only from Child Goals.

Once you have created these three goals, your My Goals for this Period should look like the view below. Remember, if you are not the Goal Owner you will not see it in the view below. You will need to change your view to Active Goals.

The next step will be to Select the Goal Name Jan 2012 Total Sales Goals. Scroll down to the Child Records to confirm the two Goals are listed.

At this point, you can Recalculate the Goal. Select Recalculate in the top ribbon of the record.

Once you Recalculate, you will see figures in the fields below on the the Parent, Team and Individual Goals respective to their figures.

These records will be automatically recalculated based on your system settings. Below are the default system settings in your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. You can change it if you so desire.

You can see progress on your goals on the All Goals View. Below is an example, utilizing Goals for Teams. You can see the Target, Actual, and In-Progress side by side in this view.

I would love to help you set your Goals for 2012 so you can monitor your monthly and annual Revenue and/or Statistical Target, In-Progress, and Actual Goals.

If you have questions about setting up Goals within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, please do not hesitate to give me a call at 480-318-5860. Deborah Burgesser, XRM Services or you can reach me by email at dburgesser@xrmservices.com.

What I did this summer…

2011-09-26T21:50:00.001-05:00

It has been a busy summer at XRM services, and now that autumn is here, we want to let you know what we have been up to.

Brian has been engaged on a six month project in Omaha, assisting an organization with upgrading their CRM system from 4.0 to 2011. It has been a great experience to work within an Agile project structure. Completing your work in three weeks sprints has been a great way to keep from biting off too much of the apple at a time.

Debbie has been working on a couple of our larger clients in NYC. Adding new features and functionality to an existing CRM 4.0 system has proven to be a bit disheartening, as we see all the benefits that CRM 2011 could bring to the client, but at this point they are not ready to move forward with the upgrade.

In addition we have identified two new resources who will be joining us to ensure that we provide our customers with the high level of support they deserve. One will be an additional Business Analyst with several years of CRM experience. The other will be a .net developer who will assist in the development of plugins, Silverlight controls and custom workflow activities.

On the certification front, we continue to work towards obtaining Silver Certification for Microsoft CRM. We are plugging the few open holes in our certifications – several of our exams were of the 3.0 flavor and are no longer relevant. So it is off to CRM 2011 exams with their new formats. Thanks to Neil Benson for posting this valuable follow-up to Richard Knudson’s blog post of last week. I am planning on taking MB2-867 later this week. In the meantime, Debbie and I have both passed MB5-858 “Managing Microsoft Dynamics Implementations.” That was a tough one, but learning and using Sure Step has increased our client’s satisfaction.

Another certification was earned recently by Debbie – She is now an MCT – a Microsoft Certified Trainer. If you are looking for classroom training on Dynamics CRM, give us a call!

Finally, Brian is attending ExtremeCRM next week in Las Vegas – looking forward to renewing friendships with other CRM Partners.

So it has been a busy, busy summer here. We look forward to the Autumn. More blog posts, more clients and building a better CRM partner to server Nebraska and the rest of the United States!

Independent Study details extensive quantitative savings and efficiencies from implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

2011-06-16T09:57:00.003-05:00

The Microsoft News Center is reporting that it has released the results of a Microsoft-commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, “The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011,” which captured and quantified the voice of the customer relative to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Investments. Forrester Consulting identifies several measureable benefits of implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 in areas of personal and process productivity. These benefits include the following:

Multiple deployment options with cloud, on-premises and partner-hosted deployment models.
Increased sales productivity of 5 percent resulting from ease of use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and interoperability with Microsoft Outlook.
Streamlined processes and operations leading to lower cost of sales, which enables technical consultants to shorten time spent on the proposal process by 10 percent.
Acceleration of sales conversion cycle by 50 percent and corresponding revenue gain as a result of improved collaboration and connections across systems, processes and geographies.
Marketing cost savings of more than $200,000 due to more real-time insights and improved campaign management from better analytics.
Productivity savings of 16 man-hours per month due to the better reporting tools, data consolidation, reporting automation and richer dashboard capabilities.

Forrester Consulting point out in their study notes that “companies looking to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 can anticipate significant productivity gains and cost savings.”
For more information on the study, click here. The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Please email us at getXRM@xrmservices.com for your free 30-day Trial and a complimentary demonstration using your own information to test the system. You can reach us at 480-318-5860. Subscriptions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 start at just $34 per user.

CRM 2011 Update Rollup 2 is available - Build Number 5.0.9688.1155

2011-06-02T11:09:00.000-05:00

Go Here for the bits:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466086

Build number and file names for this update rollup

The build number of the update packages for the following components is 5.0.9688.1155.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Server
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-mail Router
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Report Authoring Extension
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Language Pack
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting Extensions

The file names for the 32-bit versions of the update rollup packages are as follows:

CRM2011-Client-KB2466086-LangID-i386.exe
CRM2011-Router-KB2466086-LangID-i386.exe
CRM2011-Bids-KB2466086-LangID-i386.exe
CRM2011-Mui-KB2466086-LangID-i386.exe

The file names for the 64-bit versions of the update packages are as follows:

CRM2011-Server-KB2466086-LangID-amd64.exe
CRM2011-Client-KB2466086-LangID-amd64.exe
CRM2011-Mui-KB2466086-LangID-amd64.exe
CRM2011-Router-KB2466086-LangID-amd64.exe
CRM2011-Srs-KB2466086-LangID-amd64.3exe

Download the 2466086 package now.

Issues that are resolved in Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Update Rollup 2 is a cumulative update rollup that includes all the fixes for the issues that are documented in Update Rollup 1.

For more information about Update Rollup 1 and the issues that it resolves, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

2466084 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466084/ ) Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is available

Update Rollup 2 contains the following additional fixes. None of these fixes are documented in a separate Knowledge Base article.

Assume that you perform a POC migration on a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organization. A multiple auditing error occurs when one of the following scenarios is true:
- You create a new record for an entity when the auditing setting is enabled.
- You change an existing record for an entity when the auditing setting is enabled.
- You disable the auditing setting.
Assume that you browse to the Accounts page. Then, you click Accounts on the navigation bar. In this situation, an increase in memory usage occurs.
If you create a workflow that has a wait condition, the workflow is delayed incorrectly in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
When you upgrade Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 by using a non-English base language, you receive the following error message:
'XPKLocalizedLabel'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'MetadataSchema.LocalizedLabel'.
If you open the Resource Group Creation page by using Internet Explorer 9 in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, you cannot close the page as expected.
Assume that you have many custom entities that have relationships to activities in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 deployment. When you try to set the Regarding field for an activity, you receive the following error message:
Page Not Found.
Additionally, when you click the Regarding lookup button, the Lookup dialog box does not open successfully.
When you install or delete the sample data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, an unhandled exception error occurs.
Assume that you install Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. If the update fails, the version information in the registry is updated incorrectly.
When you use Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for the Japanese language, the Dynamics marketplace is not localized to Japanese language.
No throttling mechanism exists for send requests that are sent from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 clients for Microsoft Office Outlook in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Therefore, too many background send requests can be sent to the server at the same time. In this situation, you experience reduced server performance.
Consider the following scenario in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011:
- You create a new email message template that has an unsubscribe link.
- You create a new email message in Microsoft Office Outlook.
- You insert the template into the email message.
- You send the email message.
- You click the unsubscribe link in the email message.
In this scenario, the To field and the Subject field are populated incorrectly.
Assume that you customize the Access Mode attribute for the SystemUser to have a default value of Read or of Administrative. When you add a user by using the user invitation wizard, the wizard fails with an exception error.
Assume that you enable Verbose tracing in an organization in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. When you run the UpdateContractStates job, the async service fails with an exception error.
Assume that you create a sync task that reports to you when a job is finished in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. When the job is finished, you receive an email message that contains an incorrect URL. However, the URL should link to your organization.
Assume that you have multiple organizations in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Each organization has different custom entities. In this situation, if each organization has the same object type codes, an error occurs with the parameter filtering.
Assume that you have multiple entities that have identical display names in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and that duplicate detection is enabled. In this situation, you cannot open the duplicate detection rule form.
Assume that you have an entity that has duplicate detection rules that are published in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. When you save a record in the entity, you receive some unhandled exception error messages.
After you install Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, "Update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011" instead of "Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011" is displayed in the Add or Remove Programs list.
After you install a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 client for the Finnish language, "Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5.0 for Microsoft Office Outlook" and not "Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook" is displayed in the Add or Remove Programs list.
The French translation of the form preview is incorrect in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for the French language.
There is no batch load mechanism for loading ribbon caches in the caching infrastructure in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
The client API cannot access subgrids in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.
The French translation for the Referential, Restrict Delete type in the Behavior option in the "1:N Relationship" form is incorrect in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for the French language. The type is translated as "delete restriction" instead of "restrict deletion."
Assume that you have some roles that support multiple record types in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. When you create a connection that uses the roles, you receive the following error message:
Record types are not defined for use with the selected connection roles.
After you upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, some old Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 files are not deleted as expected.
When you add users in a multiple-site domain in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the save process takes longer than expected.
When you upgrade or import a database whose name contains a hyphen in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the upgrade or import fails.
Assume that you have a subgrid that has an autoexpand control set in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Another autoexpand control is set for the subgrid side-by-side. In this situation, the size of the container of the subgrid does not respect the size that is specified in the form editor. A white space is displayed unexpectedly under the data in the subgrid container.
Assume that you create a record that is a duplicate of another record but without accent symbols in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. In this situation, the duplicate record is detected. However, the duplicate record is not displayed.
After you uninstall Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the version number of the product is incorrect.
Assume that you install Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Then, you start the uninstall process for Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. When you cancel the uninstall process, an empty dialog box appears unexpectedly.
Assume that you import and update an organization from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. If the length of a system attribute exceeds a value of 100, the import fails.
When you publish a rule in the Duplicate Detection Rules dialog box in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for the Japanese language, the Status Reason field is displayed incorrectly.
The Severitycode field and the Prioritycode field are translated to the same Japanese words in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for the Japanese language.
When you delete the sample data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, an unhandled exception error occurs.
Assume that you create a new mail merge template in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 by using Internet Explorer 9. Then, you reopen the mail merge template. In this situation, when you save the mail merge template, you receive an error message that states that the name field has to have a value.
If the Data field in a bulk delete async operation is null, the async service crashes.

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Hotfixes and updates that you must enable or configure manually

Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 contains the following hotfixes and updates that you must enable or configure manually. To enable or configure these hotfixes or updates on the server that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, follow the instructions in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article. The article contains steps that you can follow before you install Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 if you want to maintain the functionality of the release version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011:

2535245 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2535245/ ) You experience slow performance when you perform RetrieveMultiple queries on large datasets in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?

2011-05-24T13:00:00.001-05:00

Recently several clients have asked for help with this warning window:

While not strictly a CRM Issue, it does affect usage of CRM as it is one more click of the mouse.

The good news is that this warning message can be prevented in three easy steps.

Go to security tab of internet options
Choose Custom level
Change “Display Mixed Content” from Prompt to Enable

Click OK to Restart IE. Problem Solved.

Mark your calendars–ClickDimensions Webinar June 1

2011-05-18T15:19:00.002-05:00

Our friends over at ClickDimensions are hosting a different kind of webinar on June 1. ClickDimensions is our favorite tool for integrating CRM with Web Analytics and E-mail marketing.
This live workshop will include examples of real world campaigns where Microsoft CRM was used to:

Double a newsletter list in two weeks using a unique approach toward email marketing and lead scoring
Develop an easy way to improve web traffic by understanding the quality of visitors by traffic sources
Implement a strategy for creating great content that positions your firm as a leader
Apply simple tips for search engine marketing and search engine optimization
Provide sales with easy to use automated prospecting and marketing tools to make them more effective and efficient
Identify how to best use the right social channels to drive business value

In order to make it easy for anyone in different time zones to attend, the webinar will be offered four different times – 8AM, 11AM 2PM and 7PM (all times ET). So no excuses – sign up today.
Register Here to attend

Microsoft to Acquire Skype

2011-05-10T12:05:00.001-05:00

Exciting news out today regarding Microsoft’s announcement to acquire Skype. For more information, click here for the official Microsoft Press Release.

CRM E-mail Setting Deep Dive

2011-05-09T15:45:00.001-05:00

I was looking for one place to answer several questions about the various email settings within the CRM application. I couldn’t find one blog entry that met all of my needs, so I took it upon myself to put the following together in the hopes that it helps others.

System Settings:

Configure Email Correlation

Tracking Token:

Example = CRM:00010001

This tracking token is appended to the subject line of all emails tracked by MSCRM. The Token has four components, all customizable:

Prefix: This prefix can be changed to something less noticeable – i.e. –“ref” or “YourCompanyInitials” or “Application”

Deployment base tracking number: This value appears to change the initial value of the Initial digit for the user number.

Number of Digits for User Number: Each CRM user is assigned a tracking number. CRM administrators would want to ensure that the number of digits would be more than enough to handle the.

Number of Digits for Incremental Message Counter: Specifies the number of emails that can be tracked per user before duplicate tracking numbers will be created. For example, if the value is set to two digits, the user would be able to create 100 emails before a duplicate tracking number occurs. If the number of digits is set to 5 (00000) The user could send 100,000 emails before a duplicate tracking number would occur.

Risks of Tracking Token

· Recipient may delete tracking token when responding to email

· Tracking token may be off-putting to recipient

· Duplicate Tracking Tokens may cause records to be mis-associated if not used in collaboration with Smart Matching.

Smart Matching:

Smart Matching is an additional method of correlating emails in CRM 2011. Smart Matching relies on the similarity between emails. Two fields are used – the Subject and the recipient field. Hashes for each field are generated, after removing “noise values” such as Re: and FW: These noise values can be customized.

Smart Matching can work in conjunction with tracking tokens to increase the success of correlation.

Smart Matching Options

These options were previously set by creating a registry key at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSCRM. With CRM 2011, thee settings are now available to be modified within the application System Settings.

· Filter subject keywords

o This sets additional noise values in incoming emails.

o The default value is ^[\s]*([\w]+\s?:[\s]*)+

§ This means that any word that begins a subject that are followed by “:” i.e. “FW:” will be removed from the hash calculation.

· Maximum number of subject keywords or recipients

o This is the max number of hashes that will be generated for any subject or recipient list. The default value is 20 – therefor if the subject – after previous noise cancellation has more than 20 words, then only the first 20 words are considered.

· Maximum difference between allowed subject keywords

o This is the maximum number of words allowed between subject hash counts of the emails to be correlated.

· Minimum number of recipients required to match

o Minimum hash count matches required on the recipient list for emails to be correlated.

Risks of Smart Matching:

Emails with matching subject lines can cause confusion – i.e. two customers respond to emails with matching subjects – “Your application was approved.” Both emails are addressed to the same recipient at BCBSNE. The incoming emails may be incorrectly tracked against a particular opportunity.

This risk would be mitigated by the use of tracking tokens along with smart matching as this would create unique subject lines for each email.

“Your application was approved CRM:00010002” is different than “Your application was approved CRM:00010003” Each one should be tracked against the proper related opportunity.

Set Tracking options for e-mails between CRM users

If this box is checked all internal emails sent and tracked between CRM Users will create two CRM activities – and outgoing email and an incoming email.

Set Email Form Options

Use secure frames to restrict e-mail content

Generally leave this value set to No. I have searched the internet and can find no user who recommends setting this to Yes

Allow messages with unresolved e-mail recipients to be sent

Setting this value to No will prevent CRM users from sending CRM emails to users who do not already exist in the CRM database. The email can be created but will not be sent until all recipients are created in MSCRM.

Set File Size Limits for attachments

This setting allows the CRM administrator to set the maximum size in kb of email attachments. Emails that exceed the maximum size will not attach into CRM.

Personal Options

These are options that can be set differently for individual users or that can be modified by individual users

User Record

Email Access Configuration

Incoming Options

· None

o No Incoming Email through CRM

· Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook

o Use CRM Outlook Client to receive and process emails into MSCRM. Option does not require Email Router component be installed for user to receive emails

· Email Router

o CRM Email Router is configured with each User’s email address – Increases complexity for larger organizations as new

· Forward Mailbox

o Use CRM Email Router Forward Mailbox (If so configured)>All emails are processed through a single dedicated mailbox. Rule Deployment Wizard is configured

Outgoing Options

· None

o No Outgoing Email from CRM

· Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook

o Use CRM Outlook Client to send and process emails through MSCRM. Option does not require Email Router component be installed for user to receive emails.

· Forward Mailbox

o Use CRM Email Router Forward Mailbox (If so configured)

From User Options (File>>>Options)

Select the email messages to track in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

1. All Email Messages

a. Automatically copies all emails sent and received by the user into CRM.

2. All Email Messages in Response to CRM email

a. Automatically tracks received email if it is in response to an outgoing CRM email.

i. Example – Brian, a CSR, sends an email to Joe, a prospective customer. When Brian created the email, he selects “Track In CRM” and “Set Regarding.” Brian sets the email to be regarding Joe’s Blue Essentials Opportunity. When Joe responds to Brian’s email, a copy of the email is synchronized with CRM, and set regarding Joe’s Blue Essentials Opportunity.

ii. Probably the most common scenario for deployments

3. Email messages from CRM Leads, Contacts, and Accounts

a. Any emails that come into the CRM user’s mailbox are scanned against the email addresses stored in Leads, Contacts or Accounts. If a match is found, a copy of the email is synchronized in CRM against the related Account Contact or Lead. There is no automatic tracking against opportunities or other records

i. Example – Melissa, a prospect, sends Bob, a CSR, an email asking for an update on the underwriting status of her application. As Melissa is in CRM as a Contact, the email is synchronized with CRM against Melissa’s contact record. NO synchronization occurs against the Opportunity record; however Bob can later go back and manually track the email.

4. Email Messages from CRM Records that are email enabled

a. A new option in CRM allows Custom Entities to be email enabled. This allows

When an email is tracked in CRM for the first time, The Regarding field is not set. The email will only be tracked against the related Contact, Account or Lead. It is not automatically set to be regarding a particular opportunity. The user would have to then use the “Set Regarding” button to set the email against a particular record such as an opportunity. Once this Set Regarding option has been set, all future emails on the thread should automatically be added to the Closed Activities for the record.

Automatically Create records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Create (Contacts, Prospects) from the sender or organizer of tracked e-mail messages and meetings.

If this option is selected, a new contact or lead will be created in CRM if the email address does not currently exist in CRM.