crm-dynamics-logo_smallThe Business Productivity Workflow Tools Accelerator may be a mouthful, but it might have the extra options you’ve been needing for workflow customization.  Note:  this release is only intended for On-Premise deployments of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

This accelerator was just released today, so I’ll be sure to post some feedback once I get a chance to install it and play around.  If you beat me to the punch and have already reviewed it, let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Download Link

Release Notes

The Business Productivity Workflow Tools Accelerator provides additional workflow step actions for customers to configure their workflow processes. Each custom action provides additional capabilities around string handling, mathematical functions and HTML hyperlink creation. Once this accelerator is installed workflow designers within Microsoft Dynamics CRM have more flexibility in terms of the processes they can manage through workflows.

Documentation Excerpt

Once installed, the Workflow Tools Accelerator provides the following new step actions in your workflow designer:
1. Retrieve the record ID (Guid) of the record that is driving the workflow.
2. Generate an HTML Hyperlink for a link to the CRM record which can then be used in outbound emails. The hyperlink can display a user-friendly label rather than a long complex url, e.g. Click Here to Open CRM Contact rather than http://server:port/organization/sfa/conts/edit.aspx?id=20f89e5c-4833-de11-bd89-0003ffc4b483
3. Generate an HTML Hyperlink for a link to any URL which can then be used in outbound emails. The hyperlink can display a user-friendly label rather than a long complex url, e.g. Click Here to Register for this Event rather than http://server/register.aspx?campainid=20f89e5c-4833-de11-bd89-0003ffc4b483&firstname=Reuben&lastname=Krippner
4. Generate an HTML Hyperlink for an Email link which can then be used in outbound emails. The hyperlink can display a user-friendly label rather than a long complex url, e.g. Email Us! rather than mailto:your@email.address?subject=Sales Enquiry
5. Join (concatenate) two strings together for use elsewhere in your workflow.
6. Use mathematical functions on two numeric values in crm in your workflows, e.g. calculate a weighted revenue amount on a sales opportunity. You have the following math functions at your disposal:
a. Add (Use the “+” symbol for the Math Operator parameter )
b. Subtract (Use the “-“ symbol for the Math Operator parameter )
c. Multiply (Use the “*” symbol for the Math Operator parameter )
d. Divide (Use the “/” symbol for the Math Operator parameter )
e. Mod (remainder) (Use “MOD” for the Math Operator parameter )

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UPDATE:  Check out the below link with an updated version of this VPC.

 Description: The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Integrated Contact Center Demonstration VPC has been released for Dynamics Partners to use. This VPC is built upon the April 2009 VPC and has significant features around a Contact Center including CTI Bar and Ribbon for Contact Agent.

 https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/methodology/vpc/msd_crmiccvpc.htm

Make some room on your hard drive because this latest virtual image of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is chock-full of new features.  Dive into the latest CRM Accelerators, SharePoint tools, PerformancePoint Dashboards, Communications Server 2007 integration, mobile development  and much more.  Bonus: new sales demo scripts also available! 

Microsoft CRM VPC- Sales Dashboard

Microsoft CRM VPC- Sales Dashboard

This VPC download is available only to Microsoft Partners who have access to PartnerSource.  This VPC expires on August 12th, 2010. 

Update: Menno posted a quick fix here for Office Communicator 2007 that wouldn’t sign in.   

See the full list of software available to you in this Virtual PC image after continuing below. 

Read the rest of this entry »

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The MS CRM Team Blog announced the release of a new Visual Studio plug-in that will ease your customization and development tasks in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  After the installation steps, start up Visual Studio 2008 and you’ll see several exciting new tools available.

  • crmdevtoolkit-1The CRM Explorer allows you to view, create, modify and publish CRM entities and business units, all from within Visual Studio. 
  • Ability to generate Wrapper Classes on those entities to facilitate software customization.
  • Generate Plug-In Code to speed up your deployments.
  • Register your customizations and deploy them across multiple servers.

Be sure to carefully read the installation instructions on the documentation first.  This toolkit is available for free!  Download at the below link.

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