The purpose of this post is to provide some guidance and resources for creating a SMS-based installation routine for the CRM Outlook client.

First and foremost, make sure you are downloading the CRM Outlook client that is specific to CRM Online.  The link is:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e8e6c81a-b7b2-4e57-8599-604967617396. 

Next, review the CRM Implementation Guide sections on deploying the CRM Client for Outlook with SMS. 

Please keep in mind that the Implementation Guide (IG) instructions are geared toward on-premise CRM, which would leverage Active Directory.  As a result, some modifications to the IG instructions will be required.

Ignore any documentation references to “Update Rollup X”.  Update Rollups apply only to the on-premise version of the software.  As of this post the cloud-based service, and the CRM Client for Outlook, are on the latest release known publicly as the “November 2009 Service Update,” and known internally as “R4.” 

Additional considerations:

  1. Client machines will need access to the internet to complete the configuration process.
  2. Users will need to accept an invitation into the service before they can configure their Outlook-based access. 
  3. If SMS allows for it, you may want to add “live.com” and “crm.dynamics.com” to users’ Internet Explorer trusted sites.
  4. The timeout on the SMS job should be longer to allow the bootstrapper enough time to download the rest of the client setup components.
  5. After the silent installation the Configuration Wizard will run in the background upon the first subsequent launch of Outlook.  This may require users to enter their Windows Live credentials to complete their access.  This is a relatively straightforward process.

There’s also a good blog post on installing with SMS located here: http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2008/02/22/how-to-deploy-microsoft-dynamics-crm-client-through-sms.aspx.