The following post is a guest blog written by CRM MVP Jim Steger of Sonoma Partners . He is also the co-author of the books, Working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 , Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 , and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step...

If you’re new to CRM 2011 you may have imported a sample set of your organization’s data, only to run into the following gray areas: 1. When importing Accounts, how do you map and populate the Primary Contact lookup? 2. When importing...

A sales process is a standardized series of activities that occur during a sales cycle. As the sales cycle progresses and activities are completed, the probability of winning the deal gets greater. In Microsoft CRM v 3.0 the sales process functionality...

CRM 2011 Online was released January 17 th , 2011. The new release delivers a number of new features and has changed the way much of the application data is displayed. In some cases, the new user interface customization capabilities can lead to an increase...

If you’ve worked with Mobile Express in CRM 4.0, then you’re probably used to navigating to Settings –> Customization –> Customize Mobile Express.  In CRM 2011 the navigation has changed so that Mobile Express configuration exists within each...

The CRM 2011 Online Test Drive Guide is a high level guided tour of the application to try and help you get the most out of your 30-day trial experience. This guide will take you through key steps in a methodology that leads to a successful experience...

Setup method #1 § Download the Outlook plug in from within your CRM Online subscription website. ( If you don’t see the option to "download the Outlook Client" available in a yellow bar of your browser move to setup method #2 below.) ...

I came across the details on how to do this when reading a blog posting from Matt Wittemann a couple years back.  I still use it and thought you might be interested.  Another capability to demonstrate the flexibility of the configuration options...

This document is designed to improve your overall experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online (CRM Online), even before your business begins using the solution. This document is a compilation of common configuration settings and tasks to help keep...

Hello out there. Usually our blog posts are not so salesy, so forgive us but we have some really great offers to tell you about to help you get started faster with CRM Online. You can’t ignore this kind of money on the table. These offers start...

Technorati Tags: Mac , CRM , Tips 6/4/2010 – updating a post that was originally published in June 2008 . This update includes the option to access CRM using Mobile Express. - KW While requests to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM and CRM Online...

Technorati Tags: Mac , CRM , Tips While requests to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM and CRM Online from a Mac are not terribly frequent, it comes up every once in a while so it is definitely worth addressing. Supported clients for Dynamics CRM include Internet...

Update : There is an issue with this method not allowing you to save the selection due to the pick list value not being in the entity. This is caused by the jscript only updates the form not the entity data. This some limits your to working with the picklist...

A question came up recently about email versus mail merge templates - when do you use one over the other?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?  In response, I put together a quick grid comparison of different features: Feature...

It's possible to insert images into your Dynamics CRM email templates. The trick is to make sure the content is accessible via public access on the web somewhere. Create the html for the image in a tool such as Office Word or Visual Studio. Render the...

As part of the CRM Online November Service Update, Mobile Express is provided to all CRM Online customers free of charge. To configure Mobile Express navigate to Settings…Customizations…Customize Mobile Express. Select what CRM entities and attributes...

If you’re a salesperson like me, you get a number of email newsletters, webcast invites, etc. all about the business of being a more productive salesperson. Create more leads! Close more deals! Forecast better! And if you’re like me, you scan...

With all the recent questions from customers and partners on CRM Online and BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) integration, I thought it would be useful to provide high-level guidance as to what integration is possible today.  As these S+S...

I wanted to write a quick post to clarify a setting in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM outlook client.  Once you install the Outlook client you can set a number of personal options ( Image 2 ) by clicking on CRM in the Outlook menu bar and selecting Options...

These are exciting times for CRM 2011 Online, in Q2 we will release some great new features for our customers. You have spoken and we have responded, take a look at the release preview guide to see some of the new exciting R8 features to be released in...

Microsoft CRM Online has a built in reporting wizard that allows you to create reports online without any other tools. These reports are persisted in the CRM Online application. This allows you to create reports without any detail knowledge of the report...

NOTE: THIS IS AN UNSUPPORTED MEANS OF CUSTOMIZING THE ENTITY. I WILL INVESTIGATE A SUPPORTED SCENARIO AND MODIFY THIS POST. I have been asked many times, “If I customize this entity can I simply copy the attributes to another entity or do I need to...

Often times I will get asked about options for sending bulk email with attachments from CRM Online.  (Also see Laura’s recent post on email templates). Direct email, email templates and mail merges do not permit attachments.  Workflows are the...

Many organizations may view CRM 2011 and notice that their business does not fit into CRM 2011 how it is out of the box. We understand that this may be a challenge during your time of evaluation of CRM 2011, but o make it easier for our customers Microsoft...

I regularly get requests for assistance with data migration challenges. Data migrations are never easy due to the differences in data values and formats that exist between systems. The easiest way to import data into Dynamics CRM is using the Track in...