Two Types of N:N Relationships in CRM

I recently made use of the two types of N:N relationships available in CRM 4.0:

• Native N:N Relationship – CRM automatically creates the relationship between two entities.
• Manual N:N Relationship – A combination of two N:1 relationships that share a common intersect entity.

I created a custom entity to represent network events that I attend at which I meet new or known contacts.  I want to track which events I attend and when, as well as the people I have the opportunity to spend some time with during the event.  For this I used the native N:N relationship.  I just created the custom entity and then created a new N:N relationship with the contact record.

Here’s my simple custom entity.  The contacts list is represented in the details section as “attendees”.

Here is a view of the Network Event from the Contact’s perspective.  If I had met with this contact at several network events, they would all be listed:

Here are the details of the N:N relationship that was created by CRM:

 

I also created two custom entities to track which ISV products our clients own.  I set up a manual N:N relationship for this because I wanted to not only identify which ISV products a client has, but also some specific information about the product registration, e.g. user count, renewal date, etc.

Here is a diagram of the custom entities and the relationships:

Here is an example of the ISV Product Registration that has specific information about the client’s registered products:

 

The product is Mekorma MICR, and the client is A.L. Wizard.  There is specific information about the client’s registration of this product.

This allows me to easily track ISV product registrations and create workflows and views that help manage this part of our business.

Adding Last Activity to Contact in CRM 4.0

I have wanted to have information about the last activity for any specific contact to be displayed on the contact record and in various views, and found an easy way to do it.  I was helped a great deal by this post by Joel Lindstrom.

The first thing to do is create new fields and add them to the Contact form.  I created a date field to display the date of the last activity, and a text field to display the subject of the last activity.

My objective is to show the date and subject of the last activity that was completed for each contact.  So the next step is to create individual workflows for each specific type of activity in CRM, e.g. Task, Phone Call, Appointment, E-mail.

This is how the workflow for Phone Calls looks:

The entity is, Phone Call; and I want to update the Contact.  I chose to have the workflow activate when the Actual End date changes (signifying that the activity is complete).  I also chose to allow the workflow to run on demand so that I could run it against the past month’s worth of Phone Call activities.

There are just two properties I’m going to update on the contact, the date, and the subject of the Phone Call.  I also am going to add a bit of text before the subject to indicate what type of activity it is.

Once I complete a Phone Call, this is what the contact record looks like:

You can create separate workflows for each of the different types of activities that you want to update the record.  I had to experiment a bit in order to determine what attribute(s) I wanted to use to trigger the workflow.

You can also include the new fields in your views and advanced find searches.  It was easy to do, and a good example of how to use simple workflows in CRM 4.0.

Lessons Learned: CRM 4.0 Adapter for GP 10.0

We are excited about this new integration, so we jumped right in, and installed it on our production systems. Our systems engineer is a genius, and what follows are his comments related to his experience. Consider this an experiential addendum:

1. Must have GP 10 SP4 applied. (There are caveats to sp4 so be aware)

2. Must have at least rollup5 for CRM applied. (Rollup6 was out in Oct 2009 so I used rollup6)

3. Must have GPwebservices for GP10 sp4 and Management tools sp4 installed.

- Had issues with the GPwebSerice not showing up in Dynamics Security console.

- Ran a repair on the GPWebServices and the management tools and it resolved the issue.

4. Must have Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update applied to same server GPwebservices is installed. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=766a6af7-ec73-40ff-b072-9112bab119c2#filelist

5. Must have domain service accounts created. You can determine how many you need. Recommend at least 3 svc_gpweb, svc_gpcrmadmin, svc_gpcrm.

6. GPWebservice Account - Permissions granted during install.

7. Installation account – The account that installs the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP.

a. Be a domain user and a member of the Local Administrators group on the server where Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP is to be installed.

b. Be assigned at least the dbcreator and securityadmin server roles on the SQL server where the MSDI database is to be stored

8. Integration account – The account that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter Service runs as. Permissions granted during install of Dynamics GP CRM adapter.

9. Configuration account – The account that runs the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Configuration Utility.

a. This account must be able to modify the membership of the CRM PrivUserGroup Security Group in the domain that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Servers are joined to.

b. If this account is not in the db_datareader and db_datawriter roles for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization databases, you must use a SQL Server user name and password to update the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization databases.

10. Integration GP account – The account that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP uses to connect to Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Services. a. Permissions granted in the Dynamics Security Console

11. Integration CRM account – The account that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP uses to connect to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Services. a. This account must belong to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM User that has organizational-level read privileges for system user on the CRM Organization that you plan to integrate.

12. CRM Deployment Administrator account – The account that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Configuration Utility uses to retrieve a list of Microsoft Dynamics CRM organizations and apply customizations to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organizations.

13. GP Adapter configuration - Had an error: application domain ...... Only way to fix it was uninstall adapter and remove MSDI database. (just removing database may have fixed it but just uninstall did not)

Creating a Simple Workflow in Dynamics CRM

This video shows how to create a simple workflow in Dynamics CRM, attached to a lead, that automatically creates an e-mail message, and an activity to track an initial phone call to the lead.

Using the Outlook Interface with Dynamics CRM 4.0

This video shows the basic use of the Outlook interface for Dynamics CRM 4.0. The Outlook interface helps improve user adoption of Dynamics CRM, and facilitates the use of CRM functionality.

Tracking Customer References

Occasionally a sales prospect will ask for customer references, and we are always happy to comply. But because we value our existing customers so much, we don't want to "wear them out" with repeated requests, so we try to spread the requests around. The problem then is to always recall whom we have already asked to provide a reference.

What we've started to do is to track these requests by setting up Customer Relationships in CRM. For the prospect account record, we create a new Customer Relationship for each contact that has agreed to provide a customer reference. The Party 2 field can be an Account or a Contact. We've added an additional value for Role 2, to include, "Customer Reference".

With this we can track not only who provided a customer reference for any specific prospect, we can also track which of our clients has provided references, and how often.

E-mail Templates and Quick Campaigns in Dynamics CRM

This short video shows you how easy it is to create an e-mail merge with CRM 4.

Enterprise Search for CRM

I just installed the new CRM Accelerator for Enterprise Search onto the standard VPC image for CRM. It was easy to do, and I learned a bit more about MOSS.

This functionality is immediately useful to a client of ours. The client has Dynamics GP and Dynamics CRM. We were either going to customize a search routine, or create our own Business Data Catalog. But now we'll just use this. Perfect.

This accelerator offers these basic functions:

• View and edit any Microsoft Dynamics CRM data such as accounts, contacts, opportunities, sales orders, invoices, service cases and any custom entity data through MOSS.
• Launch a MOSS search which can return documents, emails, web content and Microsoft Dynamics CRM data.

I think the Enterprise Search functionality in MOSS is undervalued. It is huge! It will save your employees hours of time.

The accelerator is available here:

http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=21449

I did have some trouble importing the BDC into a non-standard VPC image because the image has a different server name, database name, and CRM site name. The documentation has directions on how to modify the XML file to handle this, but I could not get it to work. However, I have very little knowledge of XML, so it's not a big surprise.

The documentation is very good for implementing on the standard CRM VPC image.

Try it out. You will be able to set it up in less than 20 minutes.

Analytics Accelerator

I just installed the Analytics Accelerator for CRM 4.0. I installed it on the standard VPC image from Microsoft.

The documentation to do the initial install is excellent.

There are some good reports that show off some SSRS functionality. The Analysis Cube is simple but functional; and a good start. The documentation includes steps on adding a custom entity to the cube. Haven't tried it yet.

Check it out: http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=20449

Steps to Set Up Outlook to Use the CRM Address Book / Contacts

This came from an internal source (Neil Harman, who's too shy to blog) and I thought I'd pass it along:

You might find this useful to resolve CRM to Outlook sync issues. The objective is to see the CRM contacts when you click on the ‘To: button’ in an email. When it works, in the Address book drop down, select CRM Contacts and you should see the CRM list, as below.

To set up -

1. In Outlook, click on the 'CRM' button on the Menu bar 2. Select 'Options'

3. Click on the 'Address Book' tab

4. Select 'Match all contacts in Microsoft Dynamics CRM'

5. Select 'Match all items in Microsoft Dynamics CRM'

6. Click 'OK'

7. Synchronize Outlook.

8. Go into the modify local data groups in the Outlook toolbar under CRM. Make my contacts inactivate by clicking on the red button then select the inactive tab and click the green button to re-enable it. Click OK.

If this fails –

Verify that the address book check box is selected to synch by doing the following

1. Click start Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Diagnostics.

2. Click support mode

3. Make sure that there is a check mark in address book synchronization.

4. Click save.

If it still does not work, apply KB957703, uninstall the outlook CRM client and reinstall – this sets up all the above correctly.

Just Do It - Part 2

Microsoft has a Resource Center that provides a number of videos and articles to introduce you to CRM. In particular there is a video that will give you a brief overview of Dynamics CRM. You should really check it out.

I use CRM every day, and it has been so helpful to me in organizing and planning my work. Please take a look.

Just Do It

Microsoft offers a free 30-day trial of CRM. If you're at all interested, you really owe it to yourself to at least get some hands-on experience with the product.

We're working with several CRM prospects, and we hear a lot of questions and concerns that could easily be answered by using the system a little.

Try it out.

Pushing a contact record to Microsoft outlook client as a Vcard

I was doing some research the other day and found an article that described how a contact from CRM could be pushed to Microsoft Outlook as a Vcard, one by one at the push of a button.

This also can be synchronized to your PDA for ultimate mobility.

This offers an enormous advantage as the offline synchronization would be fast and efficient.

This software tool is available free of charge. Installation is just 6 steps away and is both compatible in CRM 3.0 and 4.0

Check out this link

http://crm.georged.id.au/post/2008/02/11/Exporting-CRM-records-as-vCards.aspx

Campaigns, Champagne, and More

I’m responsible for producing a live prospect event for RBS. I’m hoping to attract prospects with whom we’ve already talked, and have them attend an event to get hands-on experience with Dynamics GP.

I decided to use the Campaign function in CRM to plan and execute my event. Never used it before, but this is what I found:

1.) It allowed me to plan the tasks I needed to do, to draw the attendance I was looking for; primarily sending two e-mail notices to a Marketing List, and setting up follow-up phone calls with each of the prospects.

2.) By designing my campaign with specific tasks and dates, I was easily able to visualize the plan as a whole; detect omissions and errors, and correct. It’s a simple exercise, but it’s easy to do in CRM.

3.) By using a Marketing list I was able to dynamically change its composition as the concept of the event matured; just add or remove the marketing list from specific contacts. Much easier than maintaining an Excel spreadsheet. Plus, in the end, every task is recorded in CRM by contact.

As for the champagne; I’m waiting to pop the cork on that bottle for when the opportunities come rolling in.

Try out the Campaign function in CRM. It will be worth your time.

Another Benefit of Excel Integration

I was putting together a Marketing List in CRM 3.0, and reviewing existing Marketing Lists. I was frustrated by the fact that the Marketing List Membership view only includes the fields: Full Name, Business Phone, and Address 1.

I discovered that this view cannot be modified because it is coded into the application.

However when I exported the view to Excel using the "Dynamic worksheet" option, I had the opportunity to select from dozens of available fields, to also include in the export. This worked fine.

I was able to add the Parent Customer and the E-mail fields that I wanted. I also was able to save the Excel spreadsheet and distribute it to others within my company. Because the connection string is included in the spreadsheet, the data can be refreshed as desired.

Simple and effective.

Pivot Table Integration

We are always asked about the reporting capabilities of MS CRM. Here's a simple and compelling example. From a view, a user can create a dynamic link to an Excel Pivot Table, that provides interactive analytical ability for data in the CRM system. The value is that the link to the data is automatically created, and can be refreshed as desired.

Ed Martinez, Tao Yue, and Ramanathan Pallassana provide a detailed example of this process in their blog article: (Simplified) Pivot Table Integration

CRM and Outlook

This is easy. Access your CRM data within Outlook. There are two reasons I like to access Microsoft CRM using Outlook:

1.) I have Outlook open all day long and if I need to get to some CRM data, my CRM application is already open, and I quickly and easily get to the information or function I want without having to open another application. This is the CRM toolbar in Outlook. All the functionality is available from this toolbar or the Outlook folders:

2.) I can quickly and easily add information about a client, prospect, or opportunity by tracking e-mail messages, I select, in my CRM system. If there is a message I receive or send, and I believe it is important to have that information in my CRM system, I just click on the “Track in CRM” button in Outlook, and the message is copied to the CRM system. Simple.

For specific set-up help see this page:

http://rc.crm.dynamics.com/rc/regcont/en_us/Live/articles/10stepstoOC.aspx