CRM E-mail Tracking: Part 1

I will be covering standard e-mail tracking as a series for the next few Outlook client related blog posts. The first, here, will be the basics of e-mail tracking and the next few will get more in depth about the inner workings of the configuration options.

So, in this post, I am going to give a brief overview of the CRM for Outlook client tracking functionality.

Basics:

If a user that wants to track e-mails automatically with the CRM for Outlook client, they need to make sure this is installed and that the option under Settings| Administration| Users | E-mail Access Configuration is set to Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook. This selection does not have to be set to Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook if you want to track e-mails manually.

Once the CRM for Outlook client has been configured, you can go into Outlook and open an e-mail you want to track. Here you will see two options for tracking; Track in CRM and Set Regarding

Track in CRM allows you to take an existing e-mail from Outlook, make a copy of it (promote) in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and synchronize it with the original Outlook record. While synchronization is generally two-way between Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, e-mail tracking is one-directional from Outlook to CRM.

Manual Promote\Tracking:

A common way to track an email for many users is to do a manual track by opening an e-mail via Outlook and clicking either the Track in CRM button or the Set Regarding button. When relying on this method to track, it requires a lot of user interaction to ensure it is in CRM and is tracked to the appropriate CRM record.  The Track in CRM button is a toggle button that displays Track when untracked and Untrack when the record is currently tracked. Set Regarding is a lookup option that allows you to associate an e-mail to a specific CRM record that is e-mail enabled such as Accounts, Contacts, Leads, etc...

Automatic Promote\Tracking:

Now, it is possible to have the CRM for Outlook client track these e-mails automatically with the proper configuration. There are a few different settings/configurations that need to be set before the CRM for Outlook client will track emails automatically.  These settings/configurations include the Diagnostics utility for the CRM for Outlook client, Personal Options within CRM for a CRM user, and the System Settings within CRM.  We are going to cover this more in detail in the next post of this series.

Configuration locations:

Start | All Programs | Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 | Diagnostics
-Outlook Synchronization
-Background Send E-mail
-Background Track E-mail
-Automatic E-mail Tagging

Personal Options:

-In CRM, go to File | Options under the e-mail tab
-In Outlook, go to File | CRM | Options for Office 2010 and CRM | Options for Office 2007

     a. Allow Microsoft Dynamics CRM to send e-mail using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook

     b. Check incoming e-mail in Outlook and determine whether an e-mail should be linked and saves as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM record

     c. Select the e-mail messages to track in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

     d. Automatically create records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

     e. Display Icon

System Settings:

In CRM, Settings | Administration | System Settings
     a. Configure e-mail correlation (Tracking Token and Smart Matching)

     b. Set tracking options for e-mails between CRM users

     c. Set e-mail form options

This post established the basics of tracking emails within the CRM Outlook client.  You should know that we can track emails manually or automatically with the CRM for Outlook client.   In order to do it automatically, we need further configuration within Microsoft Dynamics CRM which we will go over next.