CRM – Outlook reminders …
March 1, 2009 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
If you’re like me, you have many tasks syncing from CRM into outlook … and then finding you may be drowning in reminders, and snooze has become your best friend!
Fear not, as the CRM Team Blog has a great solution for you!
Fortunately, I picked up a neat little registry setting trick from former CRM Product Manager Michael Lu. By adding the registry setting OutlookSyncDisableTaskReminders to your client computer (not the server) at HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/MSCRMClient and setting its value to 1, the Outlook client will not create reminders on activities it syncs into Outlook.
This solution won’t work for everyone, but I find that it works pretty well for me.
WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to re-install Windows to correct them. Only administrators will have the necessary permissions to perform this modification. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use the Registry Editor at your own risk.
‘til next time!
CRM Statement of Direction – February 2009
February 26, 2009 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
Hot off the presses is the latest CRM Statement of direction for February 2009, from Microsoft.
‘til next time.
CRM Administrator - what skills do you need?
January 15, 2009 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
A question that many clients have asked us in the past is, what skills do they need to admin a CRM system?
An interesting article on the Crowe Horwath CRM Blog explains just that!
But what should you look for in a CRM admin? It can be a challenging position to define. On the one hand, you need someone who can handle the business requirements, managing scope, timelines, and user expectations, but also someone who can deliver much of the work or coordinate the various technical departments in order to maintain and modify the system along with the growing needs of the business.
Read the whole article, here.
Who should take ownership?
December 18, 2008 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
One of the things we constantly face as CRM consultants, is the challenge of getting ownership from the client side - they may have dedicated project managers, but what about once the project finishes?
Umar Khan a Microsoft CRM MVP has written an excellent article about this very issue:
It is always a tricky responsibility, who should take the ownership of not only the successful implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM but also making sure that its internal users are using CRM in a way which can ultimately help in achieving the expected goals of CRM strategy.
Just installing and configuring a fine CRM software is not enough. Providing CRM training is also not the last step. It is most important that employees of the company are ready to use CRM even if they are reluctant. People are often reluctant to accept change. But by providing concrete examples of how this product can be used to improve an employee’s performance, the best of your staff will quickly gravitate towards using the new solution set.
’til next time.
Email Tracking for Microsoft CRM
November 14, 2008 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
In the new era of electronic marketing, tracking email statistics, specifically when an email was opened, has become a marketing imperative.
So using Microsoft CRM, how can you track email opens?
The PowerObjects CRM Blog has an excellent suggestion:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not track if a person opens an e-mail or if they clicked on a link. One way to handle this is to pay an e-mail tracking company to send the e-mails for you. This can be expensive and take time to plan and send out an e-mail campaign.
Sounds like a business problem, lets find a solution.
Whenever we solve problems we solve 80% up front then enhance the solution as needed. In my case I wanted to simply know who is opening our e-mails. We send out 5000 e-mail every month, who should my sales people be calling first, the people that have opened the e-mail of course.
A simple way to track who has opened an email is to use an HTML e-mail that pulls an image with a tracking token. Sounds easy. Lets look at what has to be done.
You can read more on their site and feel free to contact us for assistance, if you’d like to implement this solution!
Microsoft CRM 5.0 - What’s planned?
November 12, 2008 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
CRM 4.0 has only been with us for less than a year, but already Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5.0 is being discussed, and the new features being discussed and worked on by the Microsoft CRM development team.
Of course, this is very early in the development cycle, and not all will be released … but at least gives us a nice taste for what is planned!
Microsoft Dynamics CRM UK Blog has a lot of information, which is summarised below:
Ribbon Navigation
Taken from Office 2007 (love it or hate it!) the implementation of the ribbon navigation system is slated for CRM 5.0 to make it easier for users to pick up and find key areas - and this will be completely customisable.
Data Filtering
Navigate to the “DataView”, click the “Filter” command, and perform in-line filtering.
Team Ownership -
Team Owned entities are added in CRM5, which allows for major security benefit
Native SharePoint Integration -
Full, out-of-the-box integration with Windows SharePoint Services for document management
In-line Visualizations -
CRM5 allows you to visualize numeric data using in-line charts. This is not SQL Server Reporting Services currently.
There are many more administration and development features available to read at Microsoft Dynamics CRM UK Blog.
We’ll keep you up-to-date as more information appears publicly available!
Microsoft CRM Accelerators - Release …
November 5, 2008 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
Microsoft have released to market two of their CRM Accelerators, for Microsoft CRM 4.0 and these are:
- Extended Sales Forecaster: enriches the out-of-the-box sales forecasting capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
- CRM Notifications Accelerator: allows users to subscribe to the CRM “business events” that are significant to them, e.g. a salesperson is interested in new leads and opportunities assigned to them whereas a customer service representative is interested in new service cases assigned to them, via RSS.
These accelerators can be downloaded now by existing Microsoft CRM 4.0 Customers - for more details of their location, and how to deploy this to your system, send me an email!
How to Categorise Email in Microsoft CRM
November 3, 2008 by JFerguson · 1 Comment
Joel Lindstrom a Microsoft CRM MVP has written a great article about managing your flood of emails with Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
To quote:
You are a busy professional who sends and receives a large quantity of e-mail messages. Fortunately, you have Microsoft Dynamics CRM, so you track these messages from Microsoft Office Outlook and associate them with the account, contact, or opportunity that they pertain to.
But say that you want to further categorize these e-mail messages, so that when you look through a mile-long list of e-mails on a contact record, you can see those tagged as, for example, “Product Question”.
Learn how by clicking here to read the whole article!
Event: Microsoft CRM - Everyone Gets it!
October 31, 2008 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
Endless meetings. Scattered information. Copy machines that mysteriously jam whenever there’s a deadline. Let’s face it. Work is hard enough.
That’s why we made Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM so easy to use.
Consider this: Research says 46% of people licensed to use business management software never use it. Why? Because it’s too hard. Too unfamiliar. It’s not user-friendly. In short, no one gets it.
But everyone gets Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
It works like and with the familiar Microsoft software your people already know. So if they know Microsoft® Office Outlook® and Microsoft® Office Excel®, they know Microsoft Dynamics. Imagine what they can do, and what your business can accomplish, when you’re using CRM software everyone gets.
Join us in our Perth Office on Wednesday, the 3rd of December for a Breakfast presentation, on exactly how Microsoft Dynamics CRM can easily empower your organisation.
Want to join us?
It’s easy!
Either click here to email us or give Michelle a call on (08) 6250 7900 to reserve your place today.
Microsoft CRM wins #1 Ranking!
October 30, 2008 by JFerguson · Leave a Comment
Recently, Forrester announced the results of its rankings for its CRM Sales and Customer Service Wave reports.
Forrester ranked Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the #1 solution in the Direct Sales Management category, beating out Salesforce.com, Oracle Siebel, SAP CRM, and all others in SFA.
Also, Dynamics CRM was ranked as #1 in the “Record Customer-Centric” category over Salesforce, Oracle, and SAP. This category focuses on complex B2B relationships where customer service is driven from within the CRM solution.
To quote:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Over the past five years, Microsoft has established itself as a major CRM player thanks to deep capital investment, a formidable strategy, and strong branding. The product is strong in SFA, internationalisations, and usability.Arguably its greatest strength is its native Microsoft Office user experience. The solution is set up to look, feel, and function like Outlook. Sales analysis tools, opportunity management, and setup and configuration capabilities are the application’s key SFA strengths. The product also is available in multiple deployment options and is attractively priced below many of the alternative products in the market. The solution is built on the Microsoft .NET framework and integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft productivity tools, like Office, Outlook, and SharePoint.
Read More: Forrester Wave: Q4 2008 (250)
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