Just released: SPI Solution Selling Accelerator for Dynamics CRM 4.0
Accelerators, Administrator, Consulting, CRM 4.0, Developer, Downloads, Salespeople August 14th, 2009
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"
Tags: 4.0, CRM, CRM Accelerators, Dynamics, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Mondo, SPI
Analytics Accelerator R2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 available – now for SQL Server 2008
Accelerators, Consulting, CRM 4.0, Downloads, Salespeople June 23rd, 2009
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
Tags: CRM, CRM Accelerators, download, Reporting
The Business Productivity Workflow Tools Accelerator is now available for download
Accelerators, Administrator, Consulting, CRM 4.0, Customizations, Developer, Downloads, Support, Workflows April 27th, 2009
The 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 )
Tags: CRM Accelerators, download, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Workflow
Download the latest Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Virtual PC Image (April 2009)
Accelerators, Administrator, Consulting, CRM 4.0, Customizations, Developer, Downloads, Salespeople April 21st, 2009
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
This VPC download is available only to Microsoft Partners who have access to PartnerSource. This VPC expires on August 12th, 2010.
- Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM VPC Image (April 2009) [Microsoft PartnerSource]
- Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 – Homepage [microsoft.com]
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.
Tags: CRM Accelerators, Demo, development, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Sales, VPC
CRM 4.0 Analytics R1 Accelerator now available for download
Accelerators, Administrator, CRM 4.0, Downloads, Links, Salespeople December 15th, 2008
And yet another highly anticipated accelerator for CRM 4.0 was released recently, over the weekend. This is part 1 of 3 of the Analytics Accelerator. The other future releases deal with SQL 2008 and other advanced SQL reporting capabilities. Screenshots are below, and the documentation and installation files can be downloaded at the below link to CodePlex.
I’ll post my review of the eService and Analytics Accelerators this week. So far so good!
Release Notes:
This is release 1 of 3 for the Analytics Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. The following future releases are going through final testing and packaging and will be available soon:
- R2 delivers SQL Server 2008 dashboards as well as Sales Pipeline trending capabilities
- R3 delivers more advanced SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) capabilities as well as Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server scorecards
Many customers and partners will be familiar with Analytics Foundation for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 which was a business intelligence feature pack for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Analytics Foundation for Dynamics CRM 3.0 included Dashboards, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and a suite of new reports. Analytics Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (R1) expands on this, and is designed to support a range of business intelligence “maturity” levels for customers and partners. The Analytics accelerator has been built to cater for differing business intelligence skill-sets and experience levels.
Tags: Analytics, CRM 4.0, CRM Accelerators, download, Microsoft
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