Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Daniel Mitchell

365

We are evaluating CRM, as we may consider leaving Salesforce.com. Before that we used Goldmine PE.

I have Primary contact as a related field within the account entity.

I have a mail merge template that retrieves data from the account including the primary related contact. What I also need on the merged document is data that pertains to the primary contact. i.e. Title, Phone, Email, Home address, SSN, DL, DOB, etc) to be merged into my legal contacts.

As we all know, the point of an index is to compare two objects to find related data. So, What is the point of having a related contact on an account, if you can not get any data from the related contact?

PS. Did i read correctly that we can only mail merge a grand total of 64 fields, from one MS product to another MS product? I'm sorry, but of the 20 mail merge documents I have (mostly contracts) they all have 90-110 mail merge fields... Salesforce.com merges all of them to Word, and they are not a MS product. Goldmine has a limit of 120 fields to Word. and they are not a MS product. Why would MS limit the number of fields that can be merged, especially to such a low count.

*This post is locked for comments

I have the same question (0)

All responses (9)

Answers (1)

Suggested answer

alf 17,915 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

HI Daniel,

You can get fields to merge from the entity you are creating the doc on and related entityes (one level up). SO for example, if you create the contract from the account, you can get fields from teh account and get fields from the related primary contact.

As for the limit, correct. You can only do a maximum of 65 fields per mail merge document.

However, a better method for your contract is probably an sql reporting services report. The advantage is that you formatting can then be perfect, there is no limit on number of fields, and you can create your own query for getting the data. These can also be generated With two clicks.

However, they do take someone technical to create the report initially.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

Daniel Mitchell 365 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

I'll need to investigate this "sql reporting services report" that you mentioned. do you have any support documtation on that subject that you can share with me. or any more detail. This one limitation would bring our evaluation to a screeching halt, so any help is welcome. Thanks!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
alf 17,915 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

Here are a couple blogs on it:

www.powerobjects.com/.../reports-with-fetch-xml-cool

blogs.msdn.com/.../how-to-creating-custom-report-with-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-bids-fetch-extension.aspx

Depending on how many users you have with SFDC and how many contracts you have you can switch to crm online, pay a profesional services company to develop the report(s), and still save money :-)

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Daniel Mitchell 365 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Fetch Extension is not available under my resource center. This may be because I'm in the trial period... In any event, If I can't resolve mail merging more than 64 fields of data, then definitely, CRM 2011 will not be a viable CRM solution for my company. Is there any way we can test if this will work the way we need it to, without having to commit to a license of CRM online

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
CRMInnovation.com on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

Microsoft CRM has a rich set of extensions. For your particular needs you might want to take a look at the Documents solution from MSCRM Addons.

http://www.mscrm-addons.com/Products/AddonsforMSCRM2011/DocumentsCorePackforMSCRM2011/tabid/170/Default.aspx

Their product works with CRM 2011 Online and has a trial program.

Jerry
CRM Innovation
Need a solution for CRM to help you manage Events or Email Marketing?
Follow me on Twitter

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
alf 17,915 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

Hi Daniel,

Yep - take a look at the DocumentsCorePack addon. It may do what you are looking for.

As for the Fetch Extensions, you can download them from here:

www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx

I think MIcrosoft chagned the resource center a bit and the link is not as apparent now, but your crm 2011 trial has all the features as a paid organization.

thx,

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Daniel Mitchell 365 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

I'm sorry, Am I to understand, that in order to mail merge a document, that has more that 64 fields of data, I'm required to purchase Visual Studio 2008, so I can create reports to extract data from CRM 2011.

I guess the next question is, does this imply that the built-in reporting tools will 1) not allow me to produce a report that consist of more than 64 columns and/or 2) not allow me to export the results of a report. or 3) if both statements above are incorrect, then what is the advantage of using Visual Studio to produce a report to be exported, as opposed to the above (minus the overwhelming cost of Visual Studio)

PS. MSCRM Addon appears to be a company that operates outside of the United States Of America. Since the bulk of my clients are in the public sector, we are reluctant to associate with foreign companies. So is their a legitimate company within the continental United States that has the ability to offer similar services.

More Important: What is the motivation to fragment a CRM Solution like this. Wouldn't it make more since to have a complete solution

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Daniel Mitchell 365 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

I followed the links provided by Alex

www.powerobjects.com/.../reports-with-fetch-xml-cool

blogs.msdn.com/.../how-to-creating-custom-report-with-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-bids-fetch-extension.aspx

These appear to address how to do this when running CRM locally with SQL. Our primary intent following our evaluation of CRM would be to use the Online version. So I must ask, how does this work for that environment. Again the key here is the ability to mail merge more than 64 fields into a mailmerge template.

A question (not answered here yet) was: Does the suggestion of using the external report imply that the native reporting tools in CRM are also limited to only 64 fields too. If not, would I be able to produce a report that contains more than 64 field (up to 110) which could be exported to excel as *.dbf, *xls, *.xlsx, *.csv, etc

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Related Entities field values / Mail Merge Limitation

Hi Daniel,

We (MSCRM-Addons.com) have an office in Austria(Europe) and Atlanta(US).

I think DocumentscorePack and also AutoMerge (which can generate documents in Workflows) are the perfect solutions for what you want to do and with our office in Atlanta it should be no problem for you to work with us:)

br,

Christian

Was this reply helpful? Yes No