When working with Contact records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you might find it frustrating if someone asks you to send them the address of a particular contact. You either have to re-type it or copy it line by line. To save yourself the headache, use the ISVConfig customizations in CRM 3.0 or CRM 4.0 to add a button to the Contact form that lets you copy the address to the clipboard. The example below illustrates how to do this for the Contact.

1. In the CRM Customizations area, go to "Export Customizations"

2. Export the ISVConfig.xml file and save this file. Make a copy for backup.

3. Edit the XML in Notepad or Visual Studio. Place the following code between the <Entities></Entities> tags:

---

<Entity name="contact">
   <MenuBar>
    &a ... Read More »

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 has built-in duplicate detection which is great, but in 3.0, which many businesses are still using, the only options for duplicate detection were some third-party applications or a a custom-developed one like the minimally functional example in the 3.0 SDK.

[BEST PRACTICES NOTE: Duplicate detection should be only one of the tools in you data quality arsenal. The best approach is  to have some solid practices that govern data entry, and to train users well on things like searching for a record before entering new data.]

Because of the shortcomings of duplicate detection in version 3.0, a lot of these systems have ended up with some data quality issues. If you're running CRM 3.0 and you'd like a quick way to check your duplicates, here's a simple SQL query you can run to find them.

1. Open SQL Server Management Stu ... Read More »
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Traditional CRM needs to evolve to keep pace with customers who are accustomed to two-sided relationships, a la Web 2.0 social media/communities.

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Here's a good starting point if you're troubleshooting problems with CRM 4.0. Bookmark this link and check it regularly as Microsoft updates the article whenever they have a new fix available.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949256/en-us

I posted previously about my experiences upgrading CRM 3.0 SBE (the Small Business Server edition) to CRM 4.0 Professional. One major area I wanted to address also was the upgrade of the Outlook client. We've dealt with a lot of upgrades of the laptop, or offline, client, and run into some issues.

Basically, you want to uninstall the 3.0 client and then do a clean install of the 4.0 client. Of course, you need to be logged in as the user who will be using Outlook/CRM, and have local admin rights.

The problem is that the uninstall of the 3.0 client is not very clean, especially with the laptop client, because it leaves behind the SQL Express databases, and there's no easy way to see them. Simply deleting the files after the uninstall is not enough. You actually have to delete the databases from SQL using Management Studio. Since most people don't have management studio installed on their machines, and due to networking differences, many computers w ... Read More »

Microsoft has released the much-anticipated CRM Online (formerly called CRM Live), the Microsoft-hosted, SaaS version of Dynamics CRM 4.0. To sign up, go to the website or contact your Dynamics partner.

I recently performed my first upgrade of CRM 3.0 SBE (on Small Business Server 2003 R2) to CRM 4.0 Professional. Here are some important considerations if you are planning for your own upgrade.

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CRM 4.0 now offers the ability to turn off the tracking token and still track most email messages.

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Just got word today that I've been re-awarded the Microsoft MVP award for CRM for 2008. Thanks to Microsoft, Customer Connect, and the CRM community!

Microsoft has announced a name change to their hosted CRM service. The service, now known as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is still targeted for a Q2 release.

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