Here is a list of a few that I’ve used and pointed others to as well as some that fill a need that I often here people request

SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 helps developer and customizers to configure the Site Map in a graphical way. You’ll no longer have to create solution, add component, export, update Xml and reimport the solution to update the SiteMap.

Metadata Document Generator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Metadata Document Generator makes it easier for Dynamics CRM 2011 integrators to generate documentation about entities and attributes metadata. You’ll no longer have to write “by hand” these awful tables full of metadata information. It’s developed in C#.

CRM 2011 Visual Ribbon Editor

Visual Ribbon Editor is a tool for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 that lets you edit CRM ribbons. This ribbon editor shows a preview of the CRM ribbon as you are editing it and allows you to add ribbon buttons and groups without needing to fully understand the ribbon XML schema.

Diagnostics Tool for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Diagnostics Tool for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 helps CRM developers and administrators to enable trace and dev Errors on CRM server. It also generates an HTML report file with information about the CRM deployment.

View Layout Replicator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

View Layout Replicator make it easier for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 customizers to copying the layout of a view and paste it to the layout of other views in the same entity

If you haven’t visited CodePlex lately, you might want to drop by and spend some time perusing the many useful tools.  If nothing else, add the site to your favorites and drop by monthly to discover what is new.

Cheers

The good news is that the issue was corrected and UR6 is re-released.  There are a couple of items worth noting about the re-release:

• If you installed the initial release of Update Rollup 6 then you should install the re-released version immediately. 
  • If you previously installed Update Rollup 6 you will be able to install the re-released version on top of it.
• If you receive the error message, “Microsoft.Crm.UpdateWrapper.MspInstallAction” when attempting to install Update Rollup 6 or higher, then you need to uninstall the Dynamics CRM application and reinstall using a more recent download of the software package. 
  • Please see KB 2668504 for more information about the error message and resolution.

A few items to note regarding UR6:

• UR6 cannot be removed once installed.
  • Specific database updates are applied in Update Rollup 6 that will not allow you to uninstall UR6.
  • You should back up your databases before you install UR6.
• CRM Online server-side updates are planned for implementation beginning mid-February.
• CRM Online customers should apply the CRM Outlook Client updates at your earliest convenience. 
• You can use the Windows Update service to install UR6.  UR6 will be available from the Windows Update service beginning on January 24, 2012.
• UR6 contains the Dynamics CRM Q4 Service Update features(Update Rollup 5).
  • UR6 is a cumulative update that contains fixes included in UR1 – UR5.

As always, I encourage you to read through the list of fixes included in the UR to see if there are any you need.  There is one I have been waiting on with regard to Dynamic Marketing Lists so I’m eager to test that issue once I install the update.

Cheers,

If you have a desire or need to learn about how to more effectively use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for sales, marketing and service then the “What Works in CRM & Marketing Automation” is the right Webinar for you.  Who better to learn from than a couple of Dynamics CRM MVP’s and a marketing solution expert; Matt Wittemann, Richard Knudson, John Gravely.

The webinar date is fast approaching so get registered today!

The first thing I noticed is the no-nonsense approach.  Beginning with Chapter 1, the authors jump directly into building and configuring Dynamics CRM.  In going through the book you will learn to work with CRM by building a solution for an Airline company. You’ll also gain experience installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM & SharePoint 2010 in a virtual environment.

One thing you’ll want to understand is that the book’s target market is people who want hand’s on experience with configuring and extending the CRM application.

Here are a few key highlights that I think will help you determine if this book is right for you:

• Requires a certain level of technical expertise to setup the environment (instructions provided), ensure everything is working as expected and troubleshoot issues if they arise.
• CRM Project you work with mimics a real-world experience to include objective, scope, and functional requirements.
• Nice mix of custom and out-of-the box entities leveraging relationships and other standard CRM features
• Points out feature improvements and enhancements between versions
  • CRM 4 & CRM 2011
• Walk through of customization steps with screenshots to include:
  • Creating and adding fields to forms
  • Customizing Form navigation
  • custom Entity creation
  • Solution and solution management
  • Site map and ribbon editing
  • Other commonly used customization features
• Learn to use the data import wizard to include:
  • Creating an import template
  • Data map
  • Import file setup
  • Working with duplicate detection
• Client side scripting to include:
  • Using Web Resources
  • Calling Web Resources in forms, form & field events
  • Use of SOAP & Rest Endpoints, and JavaScript
• Server side programming to include:
  • Web Services methods and messages
  • SDK Assemblies
  • Query data
  • Plug-ins
  • Using the Developer toolkit
• Create a workflow and dialog and understand the difference
• Implement and configure SharePoint integration with CRM for document management
• Work with Dashboards and Charts
• Implement the Customer Portal solution with complete steps for configuring, deploying and testing.

I think you’ll agree that this is a pretty amazing list of features and functions to cover in one book. 

If your goal is to get your hands dirty while you learn then this book will definitely meet your needs.   If you use this book the way it was intended then you will learn how to implement, configure and extend the Microsoft Dynamics CRM product.

Hands down, this is a terrific resource for anyone who wants to gain immediate hands-on experience with CRM in a real-world scenario.

Since I’ve been waiting for this feature for several months, I decided to give it a try.  The first thing I did was to clear a 4 hour block of time from my schedule to implement the solution.  I was aware that several articles list a few clicks here and a few clicks there, a tweak here and a tweak there and you’re done.  I also understand that one person’s experience with a new feature can vary from another’s so I decided to allow ample time to deal with any unexpected issues.

The key article I used to understand the steps required to implement the solution is one written by the Microsoft Premier Field Engineers; CRM Online Document Management with SharePoint Online (Office 365).  If you don’t already follow this blog, I encourage you to consider adding it to your list.  The articles are packed full of great advice, helpful hints, issue resolution and more.

A couple of things you need to get started:

1. CRM Online, you can obtain a trial account if you don’t have an account.
2. Office 365, you can obtain a trial account if you don’t have one.

You’ll have two choices with the Office 365 account; Small Business (P1) or Midsize / Enterprise (E3).  Ensure you select the E3 type as P1 does not have CRM Online integration capability.  Once you’ve completed the sign up and activation steps, you are ready to begin the integration. 

• The first step in the process is to download and save the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 to a folder on your hard drive.  I created a folder for the list component so it would be easy to find when I needed it.
• The list component will download as an exe file which you can select to run after the download is complete.  Run the exe and accept the license terms when the screen appears.

• When you select the Continue button you will be prompted to save the extracted files to a folder.  I selected the same folder where I saved the original download.
• You should be able to see the list component file in the directory when the extraction is complete.

Now the fun begins.

• Sign into your Office 365 account and select Team Site from the top navigation menu or select Visit SharePoint Home from the left navigation menu under Team Site:

• Next select Site Actions from the top navigation menu and select Site Settings

• Select Solutions from the Galleries section

• Select anywhere in the Solution page and the Upload button will appear on the Ribbon.  The dynamic ribbon is one of the nice features of SharePoint 2010 and many other Microsoft Office and business application products

• Select the Upload button and browse out to the list component file.  Select the list component file and select the Open button from the lower right.

• Leave the Overwrite existing file checkbox and select Ok. 

• Select the Activate button and select Close

• The SharePoint List component will upload to the SharePoint site.  You should see the component listed with a Status of Activated

• Copy your SharePoint URL to notepad or some other document and save it for the next step.
• You can copy the URL from the address bar of Internet Explorer or go back to Site Settings and it will be in the left window under Site Information

At this point you are ready to configure CRM Online to use SharePoint Online as the document repository.  It’s now time to login into CRM Online.

• Log into CRM Online and select Settings, Document Management from the left navigation menu and select Document Management Settings

• You can now select the entities that you want to allow for document management or leave the default selections.  You should also copy the SharePoint URL into the URL field.

• Select Next and CRM Online will validate the settings to ensure that the SharePoint URL is valid and available.  
  • If CRM Online is not able to validate the URL, you will receive a message asking you to valid the site or correct the entry.
  • If CRM Online is able to validate the URL a dialog window will open asking you to select the Folder Structure

• If you leave the default settings, the folder structure will default to a simple approach; Entity, Record Name, Documents.
• If you select the Based on entity checkbox, the folder structure will be more complex and locating documents from the SharePoint repository could prove more challenging for the end user.  I recommend keeping the structure simple but you’ll need to decide which is best for your implementation.
• Select Next

• Select Ok to continue and the document libraries are created
• Once completed you will receive a status message.

• If all entities completed successfully you can select the Finish button.  If not, select back and resolve issues as needed.
• Next, go to one of the entities that you selected for document management and open an existing record or create a new record as needed.
• For this example, I opened an Account record and selected documents from the left navigation menu.

• The first time you select Documents from an Entity, you will receive a notification that the folder will be created in the SharePoint site.

• Select Ok to continue
• Once the initial folder is created you will be able to add a new document or take a different action.

At this point you are done with the steps required to integrate the systems.  It is now time to get familiar with the new feature.  Adding new folders, changing document locations, uploading new documents are just a few of the actions available.  I encourage you to explore the various options to gain a comfort level with each.  As you will discover, it is very easy to open SharePoint from CRM Online and go back and forth between applications. 

Although I cleared my calendar for 4 hours to ensure I had enough time to implement and troubleshoot the solution, it took less than 30 minutes to complete.  It actually took me four times longer to write this article than it took to integrate CRM Online with SharePoint online. 

Well done, Microsoft, this is about as easy as it gets.

Cheers

Another feature that is new to CRM 2011 is filtered views as they relate to lookup fields. System Administrators & Customizers can leverage this feature to ensure that a lookup field on an entity is configured to effectively target applicable data when end users select the lookup icon.

Here’s an example for reference.  In this example, I have a custom entity named Event.  The Event entity has a lookup field to the Account.  The lookup field is labeled Customer.

When I select the field properties of the Customer lookup field, I see that the Show All Views is selected by default. 

Default Setting

Although having all the Views as options to select provides the highest degree of flexibility for the User, it can also be a bit overwhelming for some and may not be the best option.  The good news is that CRM provides us the flexibility to configure this setting.

In this scenario, we want Users to only see the Customer records that are relevant so we want to modify the filter to display Active Customer records only.  This can be quickly achieved by changing the View Selector from ‘Show All View’ to ‘Show Selected Views’

Modified to Display Relevant Data

Once you’ve made that selection, you can then select the Views you want to display  In this scenario, I selected the Active Account view which equates to Active Customer for this CRM Organization. 

Once you’ve completed your selection, save your changes and publish.  It is that easy and fast.

Now let’s take a look at what the user sees when he or she accesses the Customer Lookup field from the Event form. In this screenshot, I’ve selected the Customer lookup icon from an Active Event record and you can see that I am presented with the Active Account view.

When selecting the View drop down, you can see that the two View options I selected when configuring the field are available.

Having fewer and targeted views to select from improves productivity on several levels.  It’s easy to understand the potential productivity gain when you consider the number of entities that contain a lookup field, the average number of lookup fields on an entity form, the number of users accessing CRM, and the number of times per day the lookup field is selected.

Consider the above variables with an average time-saving of 5 – 10 seconds per lookup field accessed.  Depending on the number of users you have in the system, the time savings to get to relevant data can quickly add up.  Better yet, you will increase user satisfaction which in turn increases User Adoption which results in better data in and better data out. 

I encourage you to explore the option of implementing this relatively quick change when configuring lookup fields as it has the potential to pack a nice productivity punch. It is a win for all.

Cheers

The book is titled “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 New Features” and written by two of my favorite people; Jim Wang and Darren Liu.  I’m sure I am going to enjoy reading the book and learn many new things about CRM as these two have a lot of great product insight to share.

If you would like to join me this month in reviewing the book you can pick up a copy at PAKT Publishing.  Once you’ve completed your review, please feel free to add your comments to this post or send your them to me and I will incorporate them into my final review. 

Cheers

As your CRM users are probably aware, it can take up to 5 mouse clicks to add an inventory line item to an Opportunity, Quote or Order.  If users need to add 10 items, that equates to 50 mouse clicks or more, plus searching through inventory, remembering to add dependent items, doing manual calculations to identify correct quantities, etc.  What if I told you that your users could generate that same Opportunity or Quote in just 5 clicks or less with no manual calculations required, and users do not have to remember to add the inventory dependencies.  Have I captured your attention?  If so, then read on because that is exactly what this product did for the company where I previously worked.

VisionAIR is a software development company for the Public Safety marketplace.  Their Opportunities and Quotes can often be complex due to product / service dependencies and the various calculations required.  Order related CRM records (Opportunities, Quotes, etc.) can contain upward of 50 line items and for more than a year their Sales Team had to manually add all those line items to Opportunity records.  Yes, it is true, the Sales Team generated those records, remembered the line items needed and submitted their quotes for review prior to delivery so calculations could be checked, inventory added if needed, etc.  As you can imagine it was a time intensive task. 

Then along came Experlogix and their Sales Staff now generate the same record in CRM with sometimes 10 or less mouse clicks.  Yes, it’s true, from potentially 250 mouse clicks down to 10 ish.  Talk about a nice return on investment, happy users, reliable calculations, more time available to do what Sales people do best, Sell.

Add to the above, a company whose products are Microsoft Certified, fully integrated with Dynamics applications, and you have a winning combination.  Oh and one more thing, the product support team is responsive and provides outstanding service.

You may be wondering why I took a few minutes to blog about Experlogix.  My reason is that I’ve seen Experlogix in action.  I’ve witnessed times where Experlogix made the difference and was a critical part of the CRM implementation project success.  Over the years, I’ve heard stories from other companies who struggle with generating Opportunities and Quotes from CRM so I wanted to share this information in the event that it might help if you are faced with similar challenges.

Need help improving staff productivity, take the effort out of generating Opportunities, Quotes, Orders and / or Service Contracts, give time back to your Sales and Finance team and significantly reduce the possibility of errors on sale’s related deliverables then Experlogix is worth a look.

Online, Offline, Portals

Cheers

Since there have been some recent challenges with the new CRM Outlook Client installation packages, I thought they might have a bad installation package so I downloaded the latest package and tried that.  Unfortunately, I had the same result.  My next step was to ensure the user had full rights on the explorer directory structure.  I checked that, made a few modifications but the same error persisted.

At this point in the troubleshooting process, I opened the installation log file from C:\Users\<userName>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\MSCRM\Logs.  The log file is usually named something like Crm50ClientConfig.log.  I opened the log file and did a search on the word ‘error’.  I found the following two errors of interest in the file:

Error| Error connecting to URL: https://CRMServerName.crm.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/Discovery.svc Exception: Microsoft.Crm.CrmException: Logon failed due to missing credentials at Microsoft.Crm.Outlook.ClientAuth.PassportAuthProvider`1.SignIn() at Microsoft.Crm.Outlook.ClientAuth.ClientAuthProvidersFactory`1.SignIn(Uri endPoint, Credential credentials, AuthUIMode uiMode, IClientOrganizationContext context, Form parentWindow, Boolean retryOnError) at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.DeploymentsInfo.DeploymentInfo.LoadOrganizations(AuthUIMode uiMode, Form parentWindow, Credential credentials) at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.DeploymentsInfo.InternalLoadOrganizations(OrganizationDetailCollection orgs, AuthUIMode uiMode, Form parentWindow)

Error| Exception : Culture is not supported.

Parameter name: culture 0 (0×0000) is an invalid culture identifier. at  Microsoft.Crm.MapiStore.DataStore.WaitInitialized()   at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.OutlookConfigurator.InitializeMapiStoreForFirstTime() at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.OutlookConfigurator.Configure(IProgressEventHandler progressEventHandler) at Microsoft.Crm.Application.Outlook.Config.ConfigEngine.Configure(Object stateInfo)

These were new errors for me and conducting an Internet search yielded no usable solution.  Fortunately, a Microsoft Support Engineer was able to point me in the right direction. 

The fix for me for this solution was to update the User Security role with ‘Write’ rights on User Settings. 

I hope this helps if you are experiencing this issue.

Cheers

“The installation has failed.  Installation of one or more missing prerequisite components failed.  Click the link below to view the log file.”

I selected the link, “View the Log File” and discovered this error in the log:

“Installation of Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime failed. Exit code: 5100. Result: Asia”

That was a fairly odd error and I had no idea what was causing the problem so I accessed my trusty internet search engine and found the fix. 

It appears that the CRM Outlook Client did not like it that the machine had the runtime version of 2010 Visual Studio C+++  installed.  I uninstalled the file and the CRM Outlook Client installed without error. 

Thanks to the person who posted the fix in the Dynamics CRM Forum!

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/crm/thread/db84d4c3-c58e-4ff9-997f-f4e0116bf043

Cheers

Update Rollup 5

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27820

CRM 2011  Server

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27822

CRM Outlook Client

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27821

CRM Language Packs

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27819

CRM Email Router

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27818

Report Authoring Extension

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27823

Cheers

There are some good fixes and terrific features included in UR 5 that you might want or need.  However, before applying UR 5 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 testing it before installing to production.  Also, before applying to production, ensure that  you create a restore point for your production environment to include database, reporting server, and all application or other servers that are part of  your production environment.  This is even more important for Update Rollup 5 as once installed it can not be uninstalled.  The only remedy for removing Update Rollup 5 is to restore to a point in time prior to when the Update was installed. 

As always, Update Rollup 5 is a cumulative update which means it includes Update Rollup 1, 2, 3 and 4.  Here are a few highlights of the release:

New Features

• New Business Intelligence Capabilities
  • multi-series charts
  • multiple category charts
  • new chart types
• Dialogs & Workflow Enhancements
  • lookup and date field types supported for Dialogs
  • dynamic record hyperlinks for Workflows & Dialogs
• Enhanced Data Management
  • Audit User Access
  • Ignore null values in duplicate detection
  • Exclude inactive records in duplicate detection
• CRM Outlook Client Enhancements
  • reading pane improvements to include hyperlinks to CRM records, compose e-mail and Lync presence
  • Performance Enhancements to E-mail Tracking
• Activity Feeds
  • enable a user to follow important activities related to people, accounts, contacts, leads, sales deals (opportunities) and more
  • new CRM Online Organizations will come with the Activity Feeds installed.  New CRM OnPremise installations that have Update Rollup 5 included in the server download package will also come with Activity Feeds installed.  Existing CRM Online and OnPremise installations need to download the Activity Feed solution from the Dynamics Marketplace and import it.

Included Fixes

• The CRM Server downloads will be updated to include Update Rollup 5.  If you are downloading the package, from this point forward, you do not have to apply Update Rollup 5 after the installation. 
• CRM Online customers will have Update Rollup 5 applied to their environment by no later than October 25, 2011.
• Update Rollup 5 will be available on Windows Update service on November 8, 2011.  You should be able to use the Windows Update service to find and install the update on or after that date.
• You must have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 build 5.0.9688.583 before installing UR 5
• CRM Outlook Client view fields display date and time even though only date is configured to display
• Selecting F5 to refresh a record view creates a new record rather than displaying the current record with updated data
• Custom Option Sets do not display as expected when creating dialogs and attempting to assign values from the Option Set
• Workflows do not behave as expected when upgrading from CRM 4 to CRM 2011
• Some navigation changes cause IE 9 to crash or fail to perform as expected
• Time stamps on reports are one-hour behind the expected time
• Time zones and daylight savings time are incorrect for multiple countries

Visit the November 2011 Service Update site to learn more about the features included in Update Rollup 5.  You can also register and attend the Dynamics CRM 2011 Online “Ask the Experts – New features in Update Rollup 5” session planned for November 1st. 

Cheers

By default, when you install CRM,  the cascading relationship of entities is generally set to Parental for actions like Assign, Share, Unshare, Reparent, etc. where there is an option to modify the relationship behavior.  Some entity relationships are not available for modifications because there are System dependencies.  The “Type of Behavior” will appear as System and you will not be able to modify those relationship behaviors. 

So what does this mean?  Let’s use the Contact entity as an example to understand how cascading behavior impacts CRM data.  

A common action that users might take on a Contact record is to reassign the record.  By default, that means that when a Contact record is reassigned to someone else (ownership change) other related record ownership will also be updated to the new Contact owner.  Ownership for related records like a Case, E-mail, Task, etc. will change to the new Contact owner for those records that are in an Active or Open status.  This can be confusing for the end user when viewing the records because it can appear that someone different from the original owner (created by) created the record.  We can modify this behavior to alleviate the confusion and ensure that the related record maintains its original owner. 

Here are the steps to configure the cascading behavior of the Contact entity relationship with the E-mail entity.  This examples assumes that you know how to open the Contact entity to customize it.

From the Contact entity, select 1:N Relationships.  Find the row named Contact_Emails and open it.  Notice that the default behavior is set to Parental.

After opening the relationship record, select Type of Behavior and change it from Parental to Configurable Cascading.

Change the remaining behaviors from Cascade All to Cascade None.  Save your changes and Publish. 

You can repeat these steps for other entities like Accounts, Cases and their relationships with Activities and other CRM entities.

Generally speaking, when I install a CRM application, I modify the system to set the cascading relationship of related Activities (E-mail, Appointments, Phone Calls, etc.) to System Configurable, change the behavior from Parental to Configurable Cascading, and set the Assign, Share, Unshare, and Reparent behavior to Cascade None. 

Now that we have CRM 2011, this is much easier to manage as we can create a ‘Default Solution’ that contains the default Cascading behavior desired and import that into each new CRM implementations as a starting point for the project.  This is a significant productivity gain.

If you would like to learn more about CRM Customization, check out the 11 Things to know about Customization on the Resource Center.  See # 5 for more information about Cascading Behavior.

Cheers

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,

For additional information regarding other available options and supporting resources, please see my article,

CRM Online E-mail Router – Yes We Do That!

So let’s get started.  To begin, you’ll want to ensure you understand the hardware / software requirements.  These were pulled directly from the E-mail Router Installation Guide:

• Windows 7, Windows Server 2008

Next, you’ll want to consider a few configuration options and make decisions:

• How do you want to handle Incoming mail for each user? 
• How do you want to setup the Outgoing Mail Profile?

Incoming Mail Options

You have a couple of options regarding the Incoming Mail Profile; do you want to have the e-mail router handle both outgoing and incoming or do you want to use the Forward Mailbox for Incoming.  The benefit for using the Forward Mailbox is that you have only one point of failure to troubleshoot incoming mail issues, the Forward Mailbox.  If each user is configured to use the E-mail Router to manage incoming e-mail then you might have to troubleshoot issues at the Outlook user mailbox level.  The downside to this approach for some is it requires an additional mailbox setup for the Forward Mailbox and Rule Deployment to manage the forwarding mail process.  The upside is that it scales well as organizations grow.

Additionally, you’ll need to decide if you are going to setup one Incoming profile for each user or use one Incoming Profile for all.  The most common approach is to use one Incoming Profile for all users.  If that is the choice you make then the Access Credentials you choose to use for this profile must have full access to all user mailboxes.  If you choose to setup one Incoming Profile for each user then you will need to know the Exchange Online password for each user.

Outgoing Mail Options

The option you want to focus on for the Outgoing Mail Profile is do you want to use an Administrator level account for Access or setup each user account.  Generally, you’ll want to use an Administrator level account for Access rather than setting up individual Outgoing profiles.  An Administrator level account assumes full rights to all user’s mailboxes.  There will be some important items to pay close attention to when setting up this configuration to include a required call to Exchange Online support to complete a few configuration steps which I’ll highlight later in the article.

After you’ve identified the best configuration options for your organization and completed the preparation work required for the options you selected, you are ready to install the e-mail router.

E-mail Router Installation

One of the best resources I’ve found for a detailed guide on installing the E-mail Router for CRM Online and Exchange Online is the article written a few years ago on the Dynamics CRM Team Blog,

Configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online E-mail Router with Exchange Online

Although some of this will be a repeat of the above article, the following steps are from a ‘real-world’ installation, so here we go:

First, ensure your CRM users have been configured to use the E-mail Router. 

• Go to CRM Online, select Settings, Administration, Users, select each User and update the E-mail Access Type Incoming and Outgoing fields under the Email Configuration section.
• Also ensure  you’ve that you’ve selected the Approve E-mail button from the Ribbon.

Now we are ready to install and test the E-mail Router

• Download the CRM 2011 E-mail Router and run the installation package.  You can choose from a 32 or 64 bit package depending on your machine setup. 
• Select to Install any prerequisites required

• If you received the error message, the Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI subsystem is not installed on this system, please see this KB article for the fix

• If you needed to apply the fix, select back once the fix is applied and select next.  If no errors were encountered, select finish if the installation completed successfully.  If the installation did not complete successfully, you need to resolve all error before proceeding.

• Next you’ll go to Start Programs, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-mail Router and open the Configuration Manager

• Remaining on the Configuration Profile tab, we’ll create the Incoming and Outgoing profile.  You may not need both depending on how you plan to use the e-mail router.

Outgoing Profile

• Enter a Profile Name, Select Outgoing for the Direction and Select Exchange Online from the E-mail Server Type
• Enter the Exchange Online Web Server URL which can be found in the Configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online E-mail Router with Exchange Online article and documentation.
• Select Other Specified for the Access Credential, select Administrator for the User Type and enter the credentials of an Exchange Online Administrator account
• For Access Type, select the desired option.
  • Note: the difference between Delegate Access and Send as Permission is Delegate Access causes e-mail to display “Sent on behalf of (specified CRM User)” and Send as Permission causes the e-mail to appear as though it was sent directly by the CRM User
  • Note:from the documentation: “The Send As setting is currently not enabled by default for the Exchange Online Administrator. Please call Exchange Online Support to update the setting.  This may change with future releases”

Incoming Profile

• Enter a Profile Name, Select Incoming for the Direction and Select Exchange Online from the E-mail Server Type
• Enter the Exchange Online Web Server URL which can be found in the Configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online E-mail Router with Exchange Online article and documentation.
• Select Other Specified for the Access Credential, select Administrator for the User Type and enter the credentials of an Exchange Online Administrator account

Deployment Profile

• Select the Deployments Tab and select the New button from the right navigation menu

• Select Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and replace <OrganizationName> with Your Unique Org name. 
  • You can find your CRM Online Unique Org Name by going to Settings, Customization, Developer Resources and copy the value found under the first entry, “Organization Unique Name”
  • Do not replace the first part of the URL “https://dev.CRM.dynamics.com/”  only replace this value <OrganizationName> with your unique organization name

• Enter the Live ID in the User Name and related password that is used by a CRM User with the System Administration role to login into CRM Online.  The user name should be in the same format as that used to log into CRM, crmuser@domain.com
• Select the Incoming and Outgoing profile for each of the applicable Default configuration profiles

• Select Ok and select the Publish button in the lower right-hand corner of the Window

Test the E-mail Router

• Go to the Users, Queues and Forward Mailbox tab and select the Load Data tab.
• If all configurations are correct to include passwords,  you should see a list of your CRM users when the action is completed.
• Once the Users are loaded you can select the Test Access button from the right navigation menu

Forward Mailbox

If you plan to use the Forward Mailbox to manage incoming mail, select the Forward Mailbox tab and select the New button.  Enter a Name for the forward mailbox, enter the mailbox address for the forward mailbox and select Incoming. 

• If you choose to use a Forward mailbox, you’ll need to change each User record in CRM to Forward Mailbox for Incoming Configuration and Deploy the Forward Mailbox rule.

E-mail Router Service

In closing, the E-mail Router Service plays an important role in ensuring the everything works as expected.  Therefore, it is important that you set the logon for the E-mail Router service to a logon that has sufficient rights.  To do this, ensure that the user account that is running the E-mail Router Service is a member of the Active Directory directory service PrivUserGroup security group.

I hope you found this article helpful.

Cheers,

No, this is not paid advertising and this post was not solicited.  I am writing this article because I want people to know that there is a Marketing solution, that in my humble opinion, outperforms the other Marketing solution add-on products available today. 

One of the best features from my perspective is the application integration with the Dynamics CRM application.  Most CRM marketing solutions require the user to leave the CRM application to do things like generate rich html e-mail templates, send e-mails and do other Marketing related activity.  Those solutions will then push certain results back into CRM and relate the results in a way that helps with tracking certain events and reports.

Here is where Click Dimensions really separates itself from the pack.  The first thing you’ll notice after deploying the Click Dimensions solution and selecting the CRM Marketing module, is that Click Dimension entities are available directly below the default CRM Marketing entities.   

Aside from the impressive level of integration, the big win from an end user perspective is that users don’t have to leave CRM to do Marketing related tasks.  That’s right, everything is done within the CRM application.  I know of no other CRM Marketing solution that provides this level and depth of integration.  For me, this is a huge productivity gain as users don’t have to learn two application interfaces and can quickly move from Marketing related activity to other CRM activity.  There is no toggling between applications.

As I walked through the first part of the implementation process, one of the first things I did after deploying the application was to create an e-mail template. Per the instructions, I went to the Marketing module and selected E-mail template from the left navigation menu. 

That’s right, users don’t have to go to Settings, Templates but rather they stay within the Marketing section of CRM, where they spend the majority of their time anyway.  Awesome, I love it!  Now if that is not enough, take a look at the e-mail that I created in the time it took me to copy and paste. 

….and for those of you who like design options, did you notice the html editor toolbar, the ability to view the e-mail in Design, HTML and to preview your changes.  If that is not enough, you also have a text version option available from the same window.

Now that I’ve created my e-mail, saved and closed it, I can select the E-mail Sends link directly above E-mail template and send my e-mail. 

So with this feature alone, think about how much time you’ve just saved the end user and company vs. other solutions where you either have to click around in Settings to create e-mail templates, leave CRM to go to another application’s HTML e-mail editor or something different. 

Oh by the way, you can also create and send e-mail directly from Outlook using Click Dimension’s, “Outlook Cast” feature.  Did you catch that, Marketing can generate CRM Marketing e-mails from within Outlook.  From my perspective, the e-mail integration, management and generation features alone are incomparable. 

The above is only one feature of the Click Dimension’s solution.  I haven’t touched on Web site integration, rich and deep tracking, reporting and the many other features available.  If you are considering a Marketing Solution for Dynamics CRM then I encourage you to use Click Dimension as the standard to measure the rest.

Cheers,

Alex Fagundes – CIO, PowerObjects

David Berry – Developer &Consultant, JourneyTeam

Donna Edwards – SeniorConsultant, Tribridge

George Doubinski – Technical Director, Alexanders IT

Guy Riddle – CRM Solution Architect for eSavvy

Julie Yack – Chief Operations, Colorado Technology Consultants

Leon Tribe – CRM Functional Consultant from Australia who likes codeless CRM solutions

Mitch Milam – Independent Contractor focusing on xRM development, architecture, and developer training

Neil Benson – Freelance CRM Architect

Shan McArthur – VP, Technology at ADXSTUDIO Inc.

Wim Coorevits – Senior Consultant at Delaware Consulting

For those of you who joined us for MSDynamicsWorld Decisions Spring 2011, you know we responded to a number of questions and had some great dialogue.  We are looking forward to the same at this CRMUG hosted event.

Some of the items that we hope to find time to chat about include:

• Favorite &most frequently used 2011 features
• Top 5 Wish List features for Vnext
• Tips, Tricks & Advice for deploying, configuring and using CRM 2011
• Excel Export & SSRS
• Licensing

The above are a sampling of ideas that you might hear us discuss.  However, we really  want to hear from you!  We enjoy sharing our Dynamics CRM knowledge with you and encourage you to take this opportunity to ask your Dynamics CRM related questions.  We will do our best to provide an answer. 

The Dynamics CRM MVP’s look forward to hearing from you and participating with you in this event.

Register Today and send us your Questions

Cheers,

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

Select Start, All Programs, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, Configuration Wizard

select the Add button from the right navigation window

Enter the new server URL that you would like to add and select Test Connection.  Enter your server URL and credentials.  I am using a CRM Online server URL for this example so I entered the CRM Online server URL and my Live ID login and password.

Select Ok and the Organization Name will populated.  Give the Organization a new Display name that will help you understand which CRM Organization it is and select the Synchronize with this Organization if you want the CRM Outlook Client to use this Organization as the one to synchronize CRM Outlook related data (e-mail, tasks, appointments, Contacts, etc.).  If no, leave the box unchecked and select Ok and Close.

At this point, the CRM Outlook Client will Initialize the new Organization and you will see the new Organization listed in your left navigation menu folders when you start Outlook.

Cheers!

Here’s a quick walkthrough of the tool.  I’m using the Account entity as my example.

First, I updated the Account entity’s view, “My Active Accounts”, to meet the design requirements and saved my changes.

Next, I opened the View Replicator and connected to the CRM Online Organization.  In order to connect to a CRM Organization, you need to complete a couple of fields in the Connection wizard:

First, give your connection a name and then, for CRM Online, select the Custom Authentication option and select the CRM Online checkbox.  Enter the login live id that you use to access CRM Online, enter your password and enter crm.dynamics.com for the Server Name if your Online Organization is hosted in North America.  You will see the other Server Name options available when you select the Server Name field.

Next select the Get Orgs button and select the Organization from the list returned.

At this point  you will receive a prompt that asks you if you want to connect, select Yes and you should receive a message stating Connection Successful.

You are now ready to Load the Entity you want to customize.  You do this by selecting the Load Entity button.

and select the entity that you want to customize.  In this example, I want to replicate the My Active Accounts View so I selected Account as the Entity and My Active Accounts from the Source View option.

As you can see, the view displayed is exactly as I customized it.  You also get a nice view of the xml as well.  Now to replicate.  In order to replicate the My Active Accounts view to the other Account views, all I need to do is select the Views from the Target View list. 

I selected all of the Views to meet the design requirements then selected Save Views and Publish from the top menu.  I then checked the CRM Online Organization to confirm that the changes were made.

How wonderful is that and what a time saver!  I just updated more than 10 views in a matter of minutes.  Not only is it a time saver, but refreshing as well because if you are like me, updating views one-by-one is tedious.

So give it a try, and while you’re at it, check out some of Tanguy’s other tools.  I’m sure you’ll like them.

• SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
• Ribbon Browser for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
• JavaScript Web Resource Manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
• Searchable Property Updater for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Cheers