This is the first of a two-part post intended to get you thinking about Microsoft Dynamics CRM data migration and integration prior to the start of your project.

Most Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementations require some sort of data migration and/or system integration. The client wants to bring over current and legacy data. Conceptually, it’s a no-brainer as the upside is quite easy to justify. But the path to success in moving and working with data is not always a straight one and there are usually a good number of square pegs that need to be fit into round holes. Have no doubt, when we're talking Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation - data migration and integration deserve respect.

I’ll say it even though it’s obvious: Data is one of the most important assets any company has so it is a KEY deliverable. Moving data from one system to another is a regular part of many CRM projects and there are a number of tools available to help with the ‘mechanical’ part of it. However, a project that includes data migration and integration possesses a higher level of risk than a similar project without it. So we need to have a healthy ‘respect’ for the circumstances and situations we’ll be facing.

On the Client Side

Clients may not have a complete understanding of:

• The level of detail and complexities involved with many data integration and migration projects.
• How the various pieces of their data relate to one and other.
• The condition of their data.
• The differences between migration and integration and which they really need.
• Their responsibility for validating and participating in the data work and the effort it will take.

It’s easy to assume that “it’s just data” and to underestimate that part of the project – this can be a costly assumption.

On the Consulting Side

Consultants need to:

• Work closely with the Client or Prospect in order to educate and help them gain a proper understanding and perspective of the above topics.
• Make every effort to gain as much understanding about the Client and their data as possible, given the limitation of scope of discovery and terms of the project.
• Evaluate expertise and experience with the systems, industries, etc. we’ll be dealing with in the project.
• Given the (usually) limited exposure to the data prior to project initiation, be up-front with the client regarding comfort level and the ability to accurately assess and estimate the level of effort needed, as well as identify possible risks.

Consultants need to nurture the relationship with the Client and to help the Client to help them.

The nature of the ‘beast’

• Data is a ‘beast’ . . . working to ‘tame’ it often takes more time than initially thought as we uncover new aspects of the data models during implementation.
• Without a complete ‘under the hood’ assessment of data prior to commencing work, know that there will be surprises and things that just have to be dealt with.
• The more the Client and the Consultant know about it up front, the smoother the project will go and risk level will decrease.
• It’s difficult to scale back the scope of data work once you are committed – good reason to avoid getting into trouble in the first place.
• Both sides will know the data much better once the work is done – and both will wish they had that same understanding when they started the data work.

Stay Tuned

Integration and data migration are areas certainly deserving of an appropriate level of risk management throughout a project. In the next post we’ll dig a little deeper into some specific things Consultants should consider as they plan and execute systems integration. The same goes for Clients as they look to implement CRM or perform integration for themselves.

By John Clifton, Application Consultant xRM³, a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner focusing on sales and productivity solutions powered by Microsoft Cloud. Based in San Diego County Southern California. For help, contact us by clicking here.

by xRM3

The post Microsoft Dynamics CRM Implementation – Data Migration and Integration Deserve Respect (part 1) appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

Finding the perfect equation to effective productivity can be tough, however, there are some tried and true methods that can enhance the day-to-day operations within your organization. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an excellent place to start. This business enhancement tool can increase productivity no matter what industry you do business in. Read more about some of our favorite tips and tricks to help your organization grow through CRM.

Take it Easy on your Sales Team: Getting a good grasp on your customers' targeted persona is crucial for your sales team to properly make suggestions based on consumer wants and needs. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can facilitate and automate both upselling and cross-selling to increase productivity and revenue. Details about your clients and customers are stored in CRM to provide team members with relevant suggestions so they can focus their energy on fostering positive relationships new and old without having to fumble around searching for potential products that may be of interest.

Healthy Competition: Company competitions, while effective for top performers, can discourage newer or weaker team members and actually decrease productivity within your organization. Luckily, Microsoft Dynamics recently came out with a new platform  to engage in healthy competition company-wide, to ensure that everyone is involved, not just your top performers. Microsoft Dynamics Fantasy Sales Team can help drive revenue and increase participation within your organization. With this module your employees have the chance to compete in a wide variety of tasks and achieve awards. The results have been proven to drive results as seen in this Microsoft Dynamics case study.

Enhance Internal Communication: Lack of communication is one of the biggest culprits of decreased productivity. When your employees are spending all of their time repeating tasks or determining plans of action rather than actually doing the work, it not only limits productivity but also decreases revenue. Sharing important customer data between various divisions of your company makes it easier for everyone to stay in the loop and encourages teamwork. CRM systems like Microsoft Dynamics allow for a much more transparent business process that can be accessed company-wide. Gone are the days where you have to scramble to figure out exactly what data your team members have gathered on a particular customer. With CRM, in-house communication will never be the same.

If you're ready for some more advanced ways to increase productivity within your organization, download our latest complimentary white paper for 24 wildly creative ways to use CRM in your business. These real life success stories are sure to leave you with innovative ideas.

Deciding to invest in a new CRM system is a big decision that shouldn't be taken lightly. Be sure to do plenty of research and preparation to make sure that you find the best fit for your organization. Take into account your company's priorities and goals and once you're ready to take the plunge, find a partner that shares the same goals and values as you do. At Logan Consulting, we are committed to providing our clients with a customized CRM experience. To schedule a consultation, contact your Chicago based Microsoft Dynamics Partners.

by Logan Consulting

The post How to Increase Productivity in Your Wholesale Distribution Organization appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

Throughout my support and maintenance activities for customers, a common request is to look into notifications in CRM that are “not being sent”. There are a lot of components and configuration items involved in the process of having CRM send out messages via email.  This blog focuses on some of the most common user-account-related issues that can cause this situation.

In CRM, you can run an advanced find for Email Messages with the filter StatusReason = Pending Send.

Once you have the list, you can open each email to look for specific errors on the actual email record, and also click on the links to the sender and recipient users.

A few common reasons that your CRM messages get stuck in a pending state are:
1.  The sender or recipient on the email is a disabled user in CRM. Check for status of the user record in the status bar in the lower left and right corners of the user record.

If the sender or recipient of the email is a disabled/read only user in CRM, the only course of action is to delete the email, as the sender or recipient cannot be changed after it is sent in CRM.  When finding this condition, you may want to check across CRM to find and reassign any records owned by the disabled/read only CRM user, so that no further emails will fail with the same error.

2. The sender does not have “send as” privilege.  Error message “User does not have send-as privilege”

The error can be addressed through either, checking the email options items below, either within CRM in a browser or under the CRM options through Outlook:

As an alternative, this setting could be pushed out to all CRM users in the organization with a utility like XRM Toolbox – User Settings Utility. This tool can be found here:  https://github.com/MscrmTools/XrmToolBox

3. Sender’s email address has not been approved in CRM. Open the user’s record in CRM and click the “Approve Email” button:

4.  Either the sender or recipient does not have a valid email address in his/her CRM contact or user record.  Check into both sender and recipient records in CRM to make sure that at least the primary email address on each is populated and is valid.  Note that for customers with both CRM online and Exchange online, and using Server-side sync, the sender needs to have an email address that is provided by the Exchange organization and not from an external mail server.

5. The sender or recipient is a CRM team. This can happen if workflows generate outbound emails and use a variable name (like account owner) to populate the sender/recipient on the message, and act upon a record that is owned by a team. In CRM, a team itself cannot have an email address assigned and so cannot be a sender or recipient of email in CRM.

If the intention is to send the email from CRM to several recipients (like the members of a team) this can be addressed by creating a CRM User named “Accounting Team” for example, with a single email address set in CRM. The email address would be configured as a distribution group on the email server. This approach requires maintenance to keep the distribution list current, but it can allow the notifications to be sent in situations where team ownership is needed for a large/complex account, for example, and all team members need to see updates from CRM.

(A future blog will focus on teams and emails in CRM.)

6. User’s CRM record mailbox is set to use “CRM for Outlook” for message processing, but the user does not have the CRM client in Outlook installed or actively syncing.

Set the users mailbox to use Email Router/Server-side-sync for Outgoing email, then wait to see if the stuck messages are processed.

Beringer Associates is a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and CRM for Distribution. We also provide expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing and Unified Communication Systems.

by Beringer Associates

The post Microsoft Dynamics CRM Pending Emails – Part 1 – User Account Issues appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

I have been fortunate enough to be invited to join a group of small business owners as we meet in Washington DC with Act|The App Association. It’s an annual event, this year in April. The days go so fast, but it’s so worth it. I have been several times, and will continue to return as long as I’m invited. A meeting can be deemed successful based on many different aspects. For me, if I feel that I was heard, it was a good meeting. Even if we didn’t agree or become besties.

Day one is for arriving and exploring DC on your own, then meeting the group for dinner.

Day two is heads down learn learn learn. Learn about what issues are most current and where we might be able to have some influence. What matters to me and my business? Big topics for us this year include funding for STEM education, government access to data and encryption.

So, day three. Lots of meetings. Lots. Learn something from each meeting. Leave a memory and a story. Here’s the rundown of my day three this year.

Started my day with The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. To talk about encryption and privacy. Just a small little meeting to start my day, get off to an easy start. Nobigdeal. No, wait, this is a big deal. A huge deal. There are active cases likely to go to SCOTUS very soon. There’s new legislation proposed that will overreach and impact every single person that makes software. Not to mention endanger the data and protection of our data as citizens. The meeting was great. They asked questions. Lots and lots of questions. They had their lists of arguments and asked for our counter-arguments. It was not at all confrontational, despite every other sentence starting with “not to be devil’s advocate, but…” I honestly felt heard. I feel that I likely had an impact.

I was in a great great mood. I headed to my next meeting, at Congressman Doug Lamborn’s office. It’s easy to say that that Doug and I disagree on most things. But, he is my elected representative and I needed to go and be heard. We had a brief chat with a staffer. The meeting was unremarkable. I had the staffer take my picture at Doug’s desk.

After a quick lunch it was back to the Senate side.

We were supposed to meet with a familiar face at Senator Michael Bennet’s office. We arrived and the senator was in the hallway posing for photos with a group of students. The staffer met us in the hall and we just started chatting as the senator rushed off to a vote. No big deal. Senator Bennet’s office is always receptive and welcoming. A hallway meeting in DC is still a meeting. Turns out I was wrong. It wasn’t a hallway meeting with a senior staffer. It was a walking West Wing style meeting. Walking fast, talking about important issues. Down to the tunnels, on the restricted little train to the Capitol. Yes, there was a vote happening. But we’re going to the reception room to chat with the senator when he finishes the vote. The reception room was this big ornate space, full of other people having there squeezed in meetings. Lots of familiar faces all around. The senator finished his vote and we found a place to stand and chat. He knew about me. He knew about my work with schools. He knew the things that mattered to me. He was either well-briefed or totally stalks my blog and social media.

Next up was Senator Cory Gardner’s office. Last time I was in DC, I emailed and asked to meet directly with the Senator, not a staffer. They said the Senator was busy but so and so would love to meet with you. I said I was busy too, and was getting on an airplane, the least he could do was meet with me. So last year, I met directly with the senator. He was new to office, had his temporary office in the basement of a Senate building. This year I met with a senior staffer and had a good chat about data privacy and STEM education. Was non-remarkable but just fine.

Last up was Congressman Raul Labrador from Idaho. The staff member we were scheduled to meet had a last minute conflict and we met instead with a senior staffer. I didn’t know much about things in Idaho, other than I’ve been there and it’s almost as pretty as Colorado and I have a few friends that live in Boise. So, when you don’t know what to talk about, try something you might have in common. Education! We all want our kids to be well-educated. Right? Well, the Congressman from Idaho feels very strongly that education is a state issue, not a federal issue. I can see that point, but the reality is that we have currently federal involvement in education and the Department of Education isn’t getting dissolved any time soon. That meeting was not very productive and felt like the longest meeting of the day. Don’t get me wrong, they were totally polite. We were welcome to be there. They gave us Cliff Bars (they are made in Idaho)!

The “we” I reference is different for every meeting. The other civilians like me join together for the meetings and for most of the meetings ACT|The App Association sends along a staff member (they are our saving grace if we forget a point, have a hard time saying what needs to be said, great moral support).

Introduction and Post References

The Code

function modifyRibbon(subgridName) {
    try {
        //to store the original function ones
        var originalFunctionAddNewStandard = Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addNewFromSubGridStandard;
        var originalFunctionAddExistingStandard = Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addExistingFromSubGridStandard;
        var originalFunctionAssociated = Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addExistingFromSubGridAssociated;
        //add new standard subgrid
        Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addNewFromSubGridStandard = function (gridTypeCode, parentEntityTypeCode, parentEntityId, primaryControl, gridControl) {
            if (gridControl != null) {
                if (gridControl.get_id() != subgridName) {
                    originalFunctionAddNewStandard(gridTypeCode, parentEntityTypeCode, parentEntityId, primaryControl, gridControl);
                }
                else {
                    originalFunctionAddNewStandard(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                    filterTrainerProfile(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                }
            }
        }

        //add existing standard subgrid
        Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addExistingFromSubGridStandard = function (gridTypeCode, gridControl) {
            if (gridControl != null) {
                if (gridControl.get_id() != subgridName) {
                    originalFunctionAddExistingStandard(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                }
                else {
                    originalFunctionAddExistingStandard(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                    filterTrainerProfile(gridTypeCode, gridControl);

                }
            }
        }
        //add associate subgrid (N:N)
        Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addExistingFromSubGridAssociated = function (gridTypeCode, gridControl) {
            if (gridControl != null) {
                if (gridControl.get_id() != subgridName) {
                    originalFunctionAssociated(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                }
                else {
                    originalFunctionAssociated(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                    filterTrainerProfile(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    catch (ex) {
        alert(ex);
    }
}

function modifyRibbon(subgridName) {
    try {
        //to store the original function ones
         var originalFunctionAddNewStandard = Mscrm.GridCommandActions.addNewFromSubGridStandard;
         var originalFunctionAddExistingStandard = Mscrm.GridCommandActions.addExistingFromSubGridStandard;
         var originalFunctionAssociated = Mscrm.GridCommandActions.addExistingFromSubGridAssociated;
        //add new standard subgrid
        Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addNewFromSubGridStandard = function (gridTypeCode, parentEntityTypeCode, parentEntityId, primaryControl, gridControl) {
            if (gridControl != null) {
                if (gridControl.get_id() != subgridName) {
                    originalFunctionAddNewStandard(gridTypeCode, parentEntityTypeCode, parentEntityId, primaryControl, gridControl);
                }
                else {
                    originalFunctionAddNewStandard(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                    filterTrainerProfile(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                }
            }
        }

        //add existing standard subgrid
        Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addExistingFromSubGridStandard = function (gridTypeCode, gridControl) {
            if (gridControl != null) {
                if (gridControl.get_id() != subgridName) {
                    originalFunctionAddExistingStandard(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                }
                else {
                    originalFunctionAddExistingStandard(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                    filterTrainerProfile(gridTypeCode, gridControl);

                }
            }
        }
        //add associate subgrid (N:N)
        Mscrm.GridRibbonActions.addExistingFromSubGridAssociated = function (gridTypeCode, gridControl) {
            if (gridControl != null) {
                if (gridControl.get_id() != subgridName) {
                    originalFunctionAssociated(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                }
                else {
                    originalFunctionAssociated(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                    filterTrainerProfile(gridTypeCode, gridControl);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    catch (ex) {
        alert(ex);
    }
}

Running On-Demand Workflows on Bulk Records

Updating your personal settings
1. Open up your personal settings.
a. Click on the Settings icon in the top right-hand corner.
b. Select Options > a new window pops up.

2. On the General tab, in the “Set number of records shown per page in any list of records” change the value from 50 to 250 records per page.

3. You will now be able to view up to 250 records in one page, scrolling as necessary, vs. 50 records per page & clicking through each tab.

Running On-Demand Workflows on Multiple Records

1. Access the entity you wish to run the On-Demand workflow on. In this example we will use Accounts.

2. Ensure you have the right view selected – we are using Active Accounts.

3. On the left-hand side of the grid, click the check bar to select all 250 records in the view, this will highlight all the records.

4. With all the records highlighted, click on the “…” in the command bar.
a. Select Run Workflow.

5. A dialog box will pop up, listing any on-demand workflows this entity has.
a. Highlight the appropriate workflow.
b. Click “Add” button.

6. A message window will pop up.
a. Click “OK” to confirm this workflow should be run against all the records selected.

7. A progress bar will pop up while the workflow is running, when this pop up disappears the changes have been made. Refresh a couple of times & open records to confirm the changes have been made.

8. In the grid on the bottom left-hand corner, click the next page arrow. Then repeat this process to update the next set of records. Repeat until all records are updated.

The post Running On-Demand Workflows on Records in CRM appeared first on Encore Blog, by Encore Business Solutions

24 Wildly Creative Ways Companies are Using Dynamics CRM

Get the White Paper: 24 Wildly Creative Ways Companies are Using Dynamics CRM

Microsoft is rumored to be one of a handful of companies in the running to acquire marketing automation software provider Marketo. That's based on speculations from sources like Credit Suisse, and on a Bloomberg report earlier this week that Marketo is working with Morgan Stanley to weigh a possible sale, among other strategic options. Microsoft, as well as SAP and Adobe, have been floated through the rumor mill as potential acquirers, though it is also possible no deal will emerge.

Market...

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