What’s happening at Convergence 2012

I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m pretty excited about Convergence 2012.  The line-up of Microsoft Dynamics CRM sessions alone is pretty amazing:

• CRMUG Day One sessions
• CRM MVP Chat Sessions
  • One with a Developer focus
  • One with a System Administrator, Power and End User focus
• Birds of a Feather lunch sessions
• Microsoft Solutions Experience
  • Wow, if you haven’t looked at the description for this then you should, its pretty amazing
• Hands-On Labs
• One-on-One with Microsoft Support Engineers
• Product demos from Microsoft Product Managers
• A huge variety or product sessions from 100 through 300 level

The above is just a taste of the terrific content available. 

I am definitely getting the feeling that this is going to be one of the best Convergence experiences yet.  I’m also looking forward to meeting up with my fellow Dynamics CRM MVP’s and having the opportunity to chat with the community and hear and respond to your questions. 

Oh, and I would be remiss to not mention the parties.  Oh Ya, we work hard at Convergence but we also play hard.  I’ve already registered for the big bash on Monday night, Convergence Party by: Scribe, Experlogix, ExactTarget, InsideView and CWR Mobility.  What a great lineup of Dynamics CRM Solution providers and attendees.  You know we are going to have some serious fun.  If you are not already registered, I recommend registering today.  If you are attending, look for me and stop by to say hi.

If you would like to look me up during Summit or have a question, you can find me in the MVP Chat sessions on Sunday, Birds of a Feather lunch sessions on Monday and Tuesday, and in the Microsoft SharePoint kiosk on Tuesday morning.  I also plan to help out in the Hands On Lab area throughout the conference.

I’ll be packing my bag in a little over a week, trying on my Cowgal attitude and heading to Houston.  I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone, reconnecting with friends and fellow MVP’s and making new friends this year.

Even if you are not able to attend this year, you have to visit the Convergence 2012 site and check out Cowboy Rodney.  He is a hoot and a kick.

To coin a popular phrase, “Houston, we have a  Go”!

CRM 2011 Update Rollup 4

Update Rollup 4 is released for use.  There are some good fixes in UR 4 that you might need.  However, before applying UR 4 to your production environment, you will want to note that once installed, you can not uninstall.  As with all Updates, you should first apply this Update to a test environment, after backing up your database, and fully test it before installing to production.  This is even more important for Update Rollup 4 as once installed it can not be uninstalled.  The only remedy for removing Update Rollup 4 is to restore to a point in time prior to when the Update was installed.

As always, Update Rollup 4 is a cumulative update which means it includes Update Rollup 1, 2 and 3.  Here are a few highlights of the release:

• You cannot open Microsoft Dynamics CRM after you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 in an environment that has Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 Prerelease installed.
• When you open a service activity, click Schedule, and then click Find Available Times, incorrect available times are listed.
• Consider the following scenario:
• You create two unmanaged solutions.
  • You export the solutions as managed.
  • You import the managed solutions.
  • You import the first solution again by using the Overwrite setting
  • In this scenario, an unmanaged layer is generated and some original fields are missing.
• When the duplicate detection is enabled, you cannot convert a lead to an opportunity.
• Records are visible regardless of the security role unexpectedly. This problem occurs because of the cascading in the POA table.

There is a long list of issues that are addressed in Update Rollup 4 so check it out and see if this Update Rollup is one you should apply.

Cheers,

CRM Online Deployed – Not Until the Checklist is Completed

So you’re all set to take a new Company live on CRM Online.  The users have been added to the CRM Online Organization, the system is fully configured to meet the company’s needs, users have tested the system and given you the thumb’s up, Outlook Client’s are installed and today is the day you take the system Live right? 

Well, maybe not, unless  you have completed the CRM Online checklist?  If you haven’t gone through the checklist then you might be missing something that could contribute to end-user frustration or missed an opportunity to fully prepare your users for their new CRM Online experience. 

Things you might have missed but that could negatively impact the user experience:

• Common IE settings & configuration
• Simultaneous download capability
• Anti-Virus settings
• Common CRM Outlook Client settings

That’s right, you get all of the above and more in the CRM Online Checklist.  I encourage you to take a little extra time to go through this valuable checklist as part of your pre-go live routine.  It may save troubleshooting time on the backend as well as spare your clients / users unnecessary frustration.

Cheers