Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Lessons and answers from the trenches

CRM Online Across Continents -- Options in addition to data replication

Alex Fagundes - PowerObjects — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 04:20:00 GMT

Today we'll be discussing strategies for deploying crm online where users are across continents. This is a very common scenario in large organizations where certain groups may have teams located in many different geographical areas.

One question I see in the newsgroup quite a bit is if a crm organization can be replicated to a different datacenter in a different location. In order for users in location A access database A and users in location B access database B. This cannot be done out of the box. But there many viable options.

Lets take a real example. Imagine a call center where users are in Singapore and in the USA. Users are basically using crm for tickets, so crm needs to be very quick and speedy.

Option A - Completely separate ORGs

The advantages of option A is that it is a simple approach. All data is separate and users access the crm org near them. The draw backs are clearly that no data is shared. So uses in Org A cannot assist or pickup tickets from Org B. In addition, reporting that needs to take into account data from Org A ad Org B are a bit more complex to write.

Option B - Two separate ORGs - Synchronize some of the data

The advantages of option B is that users in either Org A or Org B can see the same data thus can work on the same ticket. This allows for a ticket to be created in the USA, then later at night a user in Singapore can pickup the same ticket and continue to work on it.

So how is this done? Well there are many options, but we typically recommend 2 options for most clients.

1 - Custom windows service. A custom windows service can be created to synchronize data between the two organizations. This is the most costly in terms of development, but once it is created there are no ongoing costs OR costs related to the number of crm users.

2 - Scribe. Scribe is a 3^rd party data migration and synchronization tool. The beauty of scribe is that is requires no custom code so such integration can be created much quicker than with custom code. However, there are ongoing licensing fees and fees that depend on the number of users.

Option C - A single organization

Option C is to utilize a single organization. This may sound simple, but careful planning needs to be done to make sure all users have an adequate access time. In this example, if users in the USA and in Singapore are in big metropolitan cities, then this is definitely doable.

However, one of the most important decisions will be to measure and test and determine where the single crm organization should be located. In this case, Singapore or the USA or even a middle location such as Europe.

For this scenario we recommend literally testing the latency from the end-users to test Orgs located in the USA, Singapore or an middle location such as Europe.

CRM Online has a built-in diagnostics

YourCRMOnly/tools/diagnostics/diag.aspx

This runs a built-in diagnostic tool that runs a series of tests including a latency test.

The goal is to have most users with a latency under 200 ms.

Well, that's it for today. Any questions feel free to email or ask them here.

CRM 2011 - top 5 email related settings

Alex Fagundes - PowerObjects — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:26:00 GMT

In today’s blog we’ll be discussing the top 5 email related settings that are often over looked and should be evaluated or checked before a crm solution goes live. These are settings that if they are set properly will make for a very smooth go live without any unforeseen consequences.

1. This first setting is often not known. In CRM 2011, the out of the box behavior is that an email cannot be sent to an unresolved address. This means an email can only be sent to a lead or contact or account or other email enabled entity. However, this is changeable and CRM can email unresolved emails.

One example were this is useful is a workflow that sends emails to external parties and there is a valid reason why they are not a contact or lead in your crm.

2. The second setting often is a setting that is often a source of annoying delays. In CRM 2011, when a user is first setup, they cannot send emails from crm. The email must be ‘approved’ by an administrator.

This is a simple step but is often forgotten and can cause email delays.

We always recommend unchecking the option in system settings in the email tab so a new user can be ‘email ready’ without the need to ‘approve the email’.

3. The 3^rd email related setting is related to outbound emails. When an automated process such as workflow sends an email, the email needs to be sent either via the Outlook CRM Client or the Email Router. If either is not defined, the email will sit there and NOT be processed (sent). The mechanism of how an outbound email is sent is defined in the user’s record.

Our recommendation is to set the outbound processing for the email router. This will allow emails generated by the crm system to be delivered right away via the email router. This also means that you do need to install and configure the email router.

The above settings can be set automatically for all users by the use of a simpler out of the box workflow that runs on create of new users.

4. The fourth setting is a setting that is often missed. We all know that the outlook crm client can track an email in crm when we open the email and click track in crm.

But inbound emails can also be automatically evaluated if they are ‘crm related’ and tracked in crm automatically. This is a setting in the outilook crm client options:

5. And now the last setting that needs to be checked or evaluated before going live. This setting is a powerful setting related to email tracking. With the outlook crm client it is very easy to track an email in crm and have the whole chain of emails in crm. But an often overlooked setting is that the outlook crm client CAN automatically created a lead or contact if the email address is NOT in crm.

This is a great way to automatically get more leads or contacts (depending on your business) in crm. And depending on your business can also be a great way to pollute your crm full of contacts or leads that you don’t want.

So, any other email related settings that you think should be part of this blog?

CRM 2011 R8 (Q2 2012) - More than cross browser support - custom workflow extensions

Alex Fagundes - PowerObjects — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:19:00 GMT

As we all know, the Q2 release of CRM 2011 is just around the corner. There are lots of blogs detailing the new cool items such as cross browser support, mobility, and social. Here’s one blog on the cross browser support if you haven’t seen it yet.

However, one other big item that has not had a lot of press will be the ability to extend out of the box workflows in CRM Online. Why is this super neat? Well, it will allow developers to create custom workflow steps. Once these steps are created they can be used in any workflow. Anyone can then use these new steps without additional custom code as if they were already part of the out of the box workflows. Since we have had this ability with on premises crm environments for a while, there is quite a bit already developed.

For example, in codeplex, here are 3 workflows extensions that are extremely useful:

· http://crm2011workflowutils.codeplex.com/
Delete records, share records, quality a lead.

· http://workflowfieldlookup.codeplex.com/

Field Lookup extensions

· http://manipulationlibrary.codeplex.com/
Additional functionality such as calculator

Interested in building your own workflow extension? Start by downloading the crm SDK and looking at the sample. There is also plenty of resources online. Here is a great blog with the code for on such workflow extension.

And last, but certainly not least, please keep in mind that there are certain NON-SDK customizations that will break with R8. These are customization utilizing methods not listed in the sdk. Please see Resolve Breaking Scripts When Upgrading to R8 blog.

So checkout the above solutions and get ready for R8…...it is just around the corner.

Update - July 2012

As you may have read elsewhere, the R8 release has been postponed until the fall 2012. All the features mentioned above will only be available in teh R9/Fall 2012 release.

CRM 2011 Data Import Wizard

Alex Fagundes - PowerObjects — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:27:00 GMT

In today's column I'll be discussing the out of the box data import wizard and specifically talking about 4 of the most common uses for the data import wizard in CRM 2011. The data import wizard has many great features, but it is not a full blown data migration wizard. It is a very versatile tool for importing data.

Set lets dig right in and look at the top 4 uses for the out of the box data import. At the same time we'll discuss some of the best practices.

1. Import data for any entity from a file.
2. Import data and create a new entity and new fields
3. Import attachments
4. Special imports - Sales Force extracts and Business Contact Manager 2010 Exports

Import data for any entity from a file

This is the most widely used feature of the data import. As a best practice, always start from downloaded template. This will save you time and headaches. This is available in Settings / Data Management / Templates For Data Import.

All entities are available so you can download a pre-build csv template for any entity including custom entities.

The process is very simple. Once you download the template, use excel to add data or copy the data from other excel files. In additional to all the column field names, the data template will have field length/type and the description of the fields.

After saving it as a .xml or .csv use the data import wizard to import your new file.

There are a couple things to keep in mind:

There is an out of the box limit of 8 MB per file
This will import new data and will NOT update existing data as we have nothing to match on.
Relationships can be imported, but there has to be a perfect match with the related entity. For example, if importing contacts, the parent customer has to match the account name exactly and there can be only one. Just like highlander.
You CAN import .zip, .csv, .txt, and even .zip with multiple csv files in it. The 8 MB limit applies to each individual file.
The duplicate detection will prevent duplicates from being created by skipping rows that trigger a duplicate detection rule.

Import Data And Create new entity and new fields

Another common use of the data import wizard is to at the same time you are import data also create new fields OR even create a new entity. Lets use a real example. Lets say we quickly wanted to create a new entity called Asset and at the same time import data. We can do all of this with the import wizard.

First create an excel file with the new columns heading and the data. Here's the sample one:

Then save this as a csv file and start the import wizard. Follow the wizard and select the default automatic data map. We'll be creating our own data map.

First we'll set the data import wizard to actually create a new entity. In this case the new entity is called Asset Tracking.

From within the wizard we can then define all the columns as new fields. All CRM data types are supported.

We can even create new relationships to other entities. In this case, the account field should be a lookup to the account entity. This will create a one to many relationship.

The data import wizard will then proceed to first create the entity, fields, relationships, then import the data.

This can take a while especially if you are creating a number of new fields or relationships. After this is done, remember to add the fields to the form and create the views.

A couple items to keep in mind as best practices.

If you are creating a high number of new fields or relationships, first create a data map so it is re-usable in case issues arise
Don't have any special characters in the column headings
Enclose the data in " if it contains commas or special characters.

Import attachments with notes

The next great feature of the data import wizard we'll discuss is importing attachments. This is a question I have seen numerous times in the forums.

Importing attachments works very well, but takes a few steps. Since attachment are stored in notes and only a few fields are required, simply create a new .csv with these fields: Title, Owner, File Name, Description, and the entity the notes/attachments are related to. In this example we are uploading notes/attachments related to accounts. The File Name and Document column need to have the exact file name.

Place all of the attachments specified in the .csv file in a folder called attachments. In order to upload this to CRM we'll need to create a .zip file. This is easily done, but selecting the attachments folder, the csv file, then right click and select send to compressed (zipped) folder. Upload the newly created .zip file and follow the wizard.

There are a couple items to keep in mind.

Remember the maximum attachment size defined in the organization settings. Attachments over this size limit will fail during the import.
The .csv file still needs to be under 8 MBs. Attachments can be larger if the organization setting allows for larger attachments.

Special Imports - Sales Force and Business Contact Manager Exports

The last data import feature we'll discuss are the predefined data maps. The data import wizard has a couple predefined data maps. These are for easily importing an extract from Sales Force and from Microsoft business contact manager 2010.

Using these pre-built data maps is very straight forward. Simply select the file and the select the appropriate data map. However, there are a couple caveats and most deal with file size.

Inside the .zip file each file cannot be greater than 8 MBs
Split the files into smaller manageable files if needed

That's about all for today. Any questions, feel free to post.

CRM 2011 Auditing Best Practices

Alex Fagundes - PowerObjects — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:11:00 GMT

In today's column I'll be discussing the top 5 best practices related to using the new CRM 2011 auditing features. In addition we'll cover some of the most frequently asked questions that are appearing in the CRM forums related to auditing.

Why talk about auditing? Because auditing is one of the most anticipated features of CRM 2011, but also one can cause undue stress (and disk usage) if misused.

To start lets briefly cover the basics on how to enable auditing.

There are 3 ways to enable/disable auditing:

a. Enable Auditing by Common Entities. This allows auditing to be enabled per groups of entities with a single click. To find out what is included in the group of entities, simply hover over the group. This is by far the easiest way to control auditing over the general entities.

b. Enable Auditing for all fields in the Entity. This allows auditing to be enabled or disabled for all fields in an entity.

c. Enable auditing on only certain fields. This allows granular control of auditing. To enable auditing on individual fields, we must first enable it for the entity and then disable it on fields that do not need auditing.

For more details on the basic operations of using CRM 2011 auditing, here's a more detailed blog:

https://community.dynamics.com/product/crm/crmtechnical/b/crmpowerobjects/archive/2010/09/27/auditing-with-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011.aspx

Now on with the top 5 best practices for using auditing.

1. Turn off auditing when doing the initial import of data. Auditing is meant to keep track of user made changes. There is no need to waste disk space auditing bulk load or changes done by the initial bulk import. Enabling or disabling the whole auditing mechanism can be done with a single click. Disable auditing during the initial load can save you quite a bit of disk space. For example, lets say your initial import is 100K accounts and contacts. With auditing turned on all fields, you could literally use almost 30% more disk space if auditing is turned on during the initial load.

2. Do not audit read only entities and fields. The best example of this is invoices. In many CRM systems invoices are imported nightly from an ERP system. When imported from an ERP system invoices should be read only in the CRM system. There is no need to audit it. Turning off audit will not only save disk space, but system resources too.

3. Choose carefully what you audit. As you design the items to audit, examine the fields that could have a business impact and from a financial, process, or regulatory perspective. These are the fields we want to audit. Let me illustrate this with a real example. A client using CRM for sales automation is a steel manufacturing company and one of the entities used is a custom steel plate entity. This steel plate entity has dozens and dozens of fields and logic to calculate the final price. However, the sales reps have the ability to override the system generated price. In this case, don't audit the dozes of fields used for calculations, but do audit the final price field. Why? Because this is the field that has a financial impact on the business.

4. Delete Old Logs entries. Audit logs use disk space. The more activity the system has on audit enable entities, the more logs and thus the more disk space will be used. There is no need to keep audit logs indefinitely. CRM 2011 allows an administrator to delete auditing in batches. Each batch is a calendar quarter. Determine the time frame to keep audit logs and incorporate into a process deleting old entries.

Audit log managed is located in Settings / Auditing / Audit Log Management

Then select the batch to delete.

Currently the only option to delete is by calendar quarter. However, via custom code or potential in future enhancements, deletion of audit log by entity or more granularly can be accomplished.

5. Turn ON auditing. Auditing is a simple, and yet very powerful capability to comply with various regulations and keep track of users making decisions that impact the business from a process or financial perspective. Use it.

Now lets move on to the top 5 questions related to auditing that we are seeing in the various CRM forms and when chatting with clients.