It’s a wonderful day in the #MSDYNCRM world. 

Microsoft promised and delivered today the Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta version, available Online and On-Premise!  Check out http://www.crm2011beta.com for videos and highlights, as well as the official announcement to see for yourself.  If you didn’t attend the “First Look at CRM 2011″ webcast on September 7th, I’d [...]]]>

It’s a wonderful day in the #MSDYNCRM world. 

Microsoft promised and delivered today the Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta version, available Online and On-Premise!  Check out http://www.crm2011beta.com for videos and highlights, as well as the official announcement to see for yourself.  If you didn’t attend the “First Look at CRM 2011″ webcast on September 7th, I’d highly recommend you view it.

• If you want to sign up for the CRM 2011 Beta Online, make sure to fill out this form.
• If you want to download the On-Premise bits yourself and install them in house, download the installation files here.
• Be sure to download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta Implementation Guide.
• Make sure you post your questions on the official CRM 2011 Beta Forum.
• At this link you can download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Software Development Kit (SDK).
• The following product keys are available for this release (found in the readme file).
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Workgroup (5 CAL limit): FF2JM-QX9PG-HXT8M-MMHXG-4MF32
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server (no CAL limit): 4FDTK-3HYV2-D9CCJ-4MF9Q-QJ32X
  • Although the application may display a 90-day trial period, these trial product keys will expire after 270 days.
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Professional edition is no longer available with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

This Beta release is also getting some media attention!  Check out a few interesting articles below.

• “Microsoft aims to sharpen its CRM pitch”, CNET News
• “Microsoft to deliver public betas of CRM 2011 and app store in mid-September”, ZDNet
• “Microsoft begins testing new CRM program”, CNET News

In the next coming months, my pledge to you will be to start highlighting all the new Beta features and tips here at this CRM blog.  Feel free to contact me if you have a special request or question regarding the new Beta, and I’ll be sure to cover it for you. 

Hopefully there will be more to come soon. Let me know if you have a specific Dynamics CRM topic you’d like me to address, and I just might make a video walkthrough based on it. Meanwhile, [...]]]> Here’s my brief video walkthrough of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sales Lifecycle, from initial e-mail to closing the sale.

Hopefully there will be more to come soon. Let me know if you have a specific Dynamics CRM topic you’d like me to address, and I just might make a video walkthrough based on it. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to practice on my demo voice.

Looking forward to your feedback!

Download here! Dynamics CRM Statement Of Direction – April 2010 (link to Ross’ CRM website with the PDF)

There [...]]]> Microsoft just released their latest Statement of Direction for Dynamics CRM. It’s typically a must-read for any CRM aficionado if you want to learn what Microsoft has up its sleeve in the upcoming short and long term timeframe.

Download here!
Dynamics CRM Statement Of Direction – April 2010
(link to Ross’ CRM website with the PDF)

There is some exciting information on unifying the Dynamics technologies that will help bring together any challenging business solution, as well as welcome additions to the SDK. Some details regarding CRM 5.0 are starting to be teased out, but in reality most of the information here has been public for some time.

So what did we learn? There are new Accelerators in the pipline:

• Non-Profit Solution for Dynamics CRM Online – now available!
• Portal Accelerators – Q2 2010
  • This release provides new versions of eService, Event Management and Partner Relationship Management (PRM) accelerators that can connect to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online as well as on-premises and partner-hosted deployments.
• Customer Care Accelerator (CCA) – Q2 2010
  • This solution can be used to help customer care and contact center organizations provide consistent customer service experiences by combining data elements from disparate applications such as mainframes, databases or Web sites for display in a single user interface.
  • Some features: Integrated agent desktop, Desktop automation, Computer telephony integration (CTI), and Activity reporting.

New integration tools with other Dynamics software! All the Dynamics technologies are starting to come together very nicely.

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP – May 2010
  • A highly reliable, bi-directional and fault tolerant business document integration between Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Update Rollup 5 and above) and Dynamics GP 10 (Service Pack 4 and above) and the new GP 2010.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics AX6 – 2011
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics NAV2009 – 2011

And for you developers out there, a big fat update is coming to the SDK in May 2010 making it easier to build agile and integrated CRM Web solutions.

• SDK (May 2010) – Advanced Developer Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a set of new tools included in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK that simplifies and accelerates the development of internet-enabled applications that interact with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
• A full list of key features is outlined in the Statement of Direction document.

Regarding CRM 5.0, it is of course scheduled to release “the second half of 2010″, most likely near the end of the year. The outline is below, and as I expected it doesn’t really reveal more than what has already been disseminated. Regardless, it’s still nice to see what we have to look forward to.

• User Productivity and Collaboration
  • Increase accessibility through the Microsoft Office “ribbon” interface
  • Drive user adoption through personalization
  • Enrich business insight through improved business intelligence
  • Balanced workload management for more efficient use of resources
• CRM Capabilities: core CRM investments
  • Contact and Account Management
  • Team-Based Collaboration
  • Call Center and Unified Communications Support
  • Territory Management
  • Performance Management
  • Other areas:
    • Further improving the flexibility of sales opportunity management to incorporate team selling models.
    • Extending the outbound marketing capabilities to allow richer communications via email, including document attachments.
    • Further simplifying and extending marketing list management capabilities.
    • Providing users the ability to schedule future recurring activities.

If you don’t have Windows 7 yet, no worries… I’ve also posted the same wallpapers used in the theme.  Enjoy!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Theme (v1)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM [...]]]> I recently got a Windows 7 upgrade on my work laptop.  To celebrate, I created a couple Windows 7 Themes and decided to share them here.

If you don’t have Windows 7 yet, no worries… I’ve also posted the same wallpapers used in the theme.  Enjoy!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Theme (v1)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Theme (v2)

Some exciting news lately in the Dynamics CRM world, and all are related to lucky numero seven!

First off, the latest Update Rollup 7 was released to the world.  The most noteworthy changes were made to the CRM Outlook Client, and by itself would make this update HIGHLY recommended.  After starting up Outlook, the CRM [...]]]>

My favorite number

Some exciting news lately in the Dynamics CRM world, and all are related to lucky numero seven!

First off, the latest Update Rollup 7 was released to the world.  The most noteworthy changes were made to the CRM Outlook Client, and by itself would make this update HIGHLY recommended.  After starting up Outlook, the CRM functionality now loads quietly in the background, allowing you to immediately access your e-mails without any slow down. There are other additional improvements that make this update a must-have, all outlined in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog.  Get your Update Rollup 7 links below!

• Download: KB Article #971782: Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 [microsoft.com]
• Change Log: KB Article #971782: Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 [microsoft.com]
• Update Rollup 7 [Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog]

Last, but certainly not least: Microsoft announced that Dynamics CRM 4.0 is now supported on the new Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.  There’s no excuse now not to upgrade to Windows 7; this latest OS has been shown to be quite an improvement over previous releases.

Be sure to relate your experiences with CRM and this latest update in the comments section below.

The highly anticipated Social Networking Accelerator was released today!  It was last announced this past July, promising Twitter integration out-of-the-box and future enhancements for other social networks.

Social Networking Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 [CodePlex.com]

To view all the features this new Accelerator provides, review the video below or [...]]]>

Dynamics CRM and Twitter combined. You cannot escape.

The highly anticipated Social Networking Accelerator was released today!  It was last announced this past July, promising Twitter integration out-of-the-box and future enhancements for other social networks.

Social Networking Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 [CodePlex.com]

To view all the features this new Accelerator provides, review the video below or at this link.

Social Networking Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

SPI Accelerator screenshot

A new accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM was released today, and you could say it’s a unique one.  If you go to the CodePlex site, you’ll only be [...]]]>

Update: Mondo had declared itself bankrupt late 2009, but appears to have merged with another Danish MSCRM consulting company called KeyZone.  Here’s the Google translation link.

SPI Accelerator screenshot

A new accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM was released today, and you could say it’s a unique one.  If you go to the CodePlex site, you’ll only be able to download a whitepaper from this page; that’s because this sales methodology is proprietary.  There’s a separate registration page for the actual download.  So, if your firm or client subscribes to the Sales Performance International (SPI) Solution Selling sales methodology, then this one is right up your alley.  Oops, I almost forgot the ®.

What I like about this accelerator is that it incorporates other Microsoft technologies like Silverlight and Windows Workflow Foundation to add value to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  What is not so nice is that it requires a pricey subscription, in comparison to the other free Accelerators.

One option is to deploy it On-Premise.  It’s free for 3 users or less, but as a proprietary sales methodology, you’ll have to start paying to get more users.  This accelerator will be available for On-Demand (hosted by Mondo from Denmark).

Subscription options for this sales methodology:

1. Hosted by Mondo (on-demand), customers pay a license subscription fee per user per month which includes a Mondo hosted subscription to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
2. On-premise customers may download and install the accelerator on their own servers. On-premise customers have two solution options: the basic and professional editions. The Basic edition can be downloaded and deployed at no cost. The Professional edition requires a license to be purchased for each user; this license fee includes a 2-year software assurance (support) package.

To download the free copy of the basic edition, as well as the installation guide and user manual, go to this Mondo.dk link and register.

The SPI "Pain Chain". Ouch!

SPI "Strength of Sale"

According to this Gartner press release, the worldwide market for CRM solutions has grown 12.5% since last year in 2007.  Looks like there’s now solid evidence businesses are catching on to the benefits of a CRM solution… or even better, xRM.

But one of the highlights of this story [...]]]>

The Wayans bros. were the first CRM Consultants

According to this Gartner press release, the worldwide market for CRM solutions has grown 12.5% since last year in 2007.  Looks like there’s now solid evidence businesses are catching on to the benefits of a CRM solution… or even better, xRM.

But one of the highlights of this story is that Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue grew 75% last year.  Much of the success was attributed to the trend in SaaS, with the likes of Microsoft CRM Online and Salesforce.com.

Software as a Service (SaaS) continued to drive the market forward, representing nearly 20 percent of total CRM software market revenue in 2008, up from just over 15 percent in 2007. Interest in social networking and social software also escalated in 2008 as businesses were confronted with the sales, marketing, and serviceability impact of increasing consumer participation in online forums.

SAP continued to be the market leader accounting for 22.5 percent of worldwide CRM software revenue in 2008 (see Table 1), but this is down from a 25.5 percent share in 2007. Microsoft experienced the strongest growth rate among the top 5 vendors, as its revenue increased 75 percent in 2008.

I’ve been busy on a couple projects lately, so I’m predicting there will only be more in the near future!  Let me know if you’ve personally seen more CRM business too.

Analytics R2 Accelerator - Sales Manager Dashboard Report

The future R3 version will add cubes, data mining applications, PerformancePoint scorecards and other great analytical tools.

Be [...]]]> Microsoft recently released the Analytics Accelerator R2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 on CodePlex.  This version adds reporting for SQL Server 2008, as well as enhancements to the older SQL 2005 reports.

Analytics R2 Accelerator - Sales Manager Dashboard Report

The future R3 version will add cubes, data mining applications, PerformancePoint scorecards and other great analytical tools.

Be sure to download this release and give it a trial run on the April 2009 VPC.  Let me know if you like it!

Download Link:

• Analytics Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 [CodePlex.com, 5MB]
• Sample Sales Manager Dashboard Report [PDF]
  

Excerpt from the Whitepaper:

The Analytics Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 will be delivered in three releases – each release will build on the capabilities of its predecessor. Here is a summary of what each release will include:

Release 1 (December 2008):
•    SQL Server 2005 Dashboard reports
•    Simple SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) cube

Release 2 (THIS RELEASE):
•    SQL Server 2008 Dashboard reports
•    Fixes and enhancements to the SQL Server 2005 dashboard reports

Release 3:
•    Simple SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services (SSAS) cube
•    Sales Pipeline trending analysis example (SQL Server 2005 AND 2008)
•    Enhanced SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cube (SQL Server 2005 AND 2008)
•    Embedded data mining applications
•    Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server scorecards
•    Security synchronization plugin (and source code) to replicate the Microsoft Dynamics CRM security model to the SSAS cubes