Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog

Importing data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online: – Accounts & Contacts

How to import data from a single file into multiple record types

Microsoft has released Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Delivers the November 2009 Service Update earlier this month. To assist organizations with importing their data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a new enhanced Import Data Wizard is available among other new cool features in this release. This blog is about how you can import your data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM using MSCRM Import Data Wizard and some of the tips to make it a simpler experience. In the first blog Import Data Wizard was introduced.

In this blog, we’ll take a look at importing your contact list – a task that you are likely to try first to get a little data in the system as you try it out. Before we get started, you will need a data file that contains your contact list, usually in CSV format.

Most systems have a way of exporting your data at through some sort of report or similar export facility. For example, in Salesforce, you can export your Contacts using the “Contact Role Report” or "Contacts & Accounts Report".

If you take a look at a typical contact list, you’ll see that it contains information about both people and the businesses that they work for. It is important to know that Microsoft Dynamics CRM treats these as two different record types: Contact for people and Accounts for the businesses.

Why does this matter? Well, the MSCRM Import Data Wizard supports importing one record type data per file. So how do you import such data into two different record types in MSCRM? There is a small trick that makes this possible in MSCRM.

In this blog, we’ll show you how to do this by processing the data file twice, once for Accounts for the account information, then once for Contacts for the contact information contain in the file.

Let’s go over it.

Step 1: In this example the file used has data from Contact and Account record types. In such files, the contacts will be unique but the account data (e.g. Company Name) may be repeated because there may be several contacts for same account. So first make sure duplicate detection rules are published to avoid duplicate accounts in MSCRM. These rules are available out of box in MSCRM, so as a user you do not need to do anything. However, it is a good idea to understand this dependency.

Step 2: Start MSCRM Data Import Wizard and upload the csv file as shown below.

Step 3: In order to map the source data to MSCRM record types and fields, you need to have a map that can be used for your import.

If you are importing data from Salesforce, there are two such out of box maps available:

1. Salesforce Map for Full Export

2. Salesforce Map for Report Export

The first Map should be used if you are bringing your Salesforce that you have obtained by requesting a full export (this is a zip file containing other CSV files). The second map should be selected when you are bringing the data that you exported using one or more Salesforce Reports.

If you are importing data from some other system, you can select another data map that map matches your export or start with Map Automatically.

Step 4: On the next screen, select Account as the target record type. This is important as the contact data will have reference to account data and hence we should bring in Accounts before bringing in Contacts.

Step 5: You should see all Account record type fields mapped, rest of the fields will appear as unmapped. At this stage you will need to do following:

1. If you have Custom account fields, create new attributes for them by selecting “Create New Field” from the drop down and specifying the Field Name and Type as shown below:

Note: these fields aren’t automatically added to the form for the record, so after importing your data, you’ll separately need to customize the form to place the newly created fields where you want them.

2. For the fields that belong to Contact entity and appear as Not Mapped, choose ignore as shown below:

Do this until all the fields are either mapped or ignored.

Step 6: Click next and make sure Allow duplicate is set to No and submit the import.

Go to WorkPlace -> Import and look at the import session details. You may find few accounts have failed due to duplicate account information existing in the file as shown below. Do not worry, this is because the file has repeated account information and the duplicate detection rule prevents duplicate accounts to be created.

Step 7: Now we will import the Contact information. Lets start the import Wizard and point again to the same file. This time choose Contact on the Map Record Types screen as shown below.

This time you will see that all the out of box Salesforce Contact record type related fields will appear as mapped and rest of the fields will appear unmapped. If you have custom Contact fields in this unmapped list, create new attributes as described earlier in the blog. For rest of the fields, choose Ignore. Once you have everything either mapped or ignored, click Next and submit the import.

All the Contact data should import this time, linking to the Accounts you created in the previous pass. It’s that simple!

Now that you know how to bring in your contact list, there may be situations when you run into problems and your data needs additional processing. Let us look at them.

Case 1. In case you get Duplicate Column Header error while importing:

If you get the following error while importing the data, you have one or more duplicate columns:

This is not very common, however if you have Salesforce Enterprise Edition subscription, and the Accounts are Territory enabled, you may end up in a situation where few columns like "Last Modified Date", "Description" and "Skype name" may occur twice in your data file (one from contact and one from territory record types). If this happens, you should open your file in Excel and either rename the duplicate column headers to something unique or delete those columns.

Case 2: Account creation fails with "duplicate lookup reference" error:

Lets walk through an example when this may occur. Consider you have your contact list with following data:

There will be other columns, but I have taken smaller set to explain the situation. Let’s see how import behaves in such a situation. When the Adventure UK account is created, the Parent Account column that has reference to another account (Contoso) fails with error duplicate lookup reference as it finds two entries for account Contoso in the data file. What do you do in such situations? We use our friendly application Microsoft Office Excel to accomplish the task.

Make a copy of your contact list file and open the saved copy in Excel. Go to Data -> Remove Duplicate ribbon menu.

Select Account Name and hit Ok button.

You will see that the duplicate account entries will be gone:

Use this file to import the Accounts. You should still use the original file for the Contact import. This does the trick and your data is successfully migrated.

More tips and tricks on the way. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Arun Kumar

Sonoma Partners’ xRM Socialization Demo @ PDC09

Today we welcome guest blogger Jim Steger, developer, blogger, and writer for Sonoma Partners with this report from PDC ‘09.

On the last day of PDC09, I had the opportunity to present a brief demo of our internal socialization application (code name “SideBar”) with Andy Bybee from the CRM Product Team during his Developing xRM Solutions using Windows Azure.

SideBar started as an internal intern project for us this summer. We wanted to explore leveraging Dynamics xRM to create a compelling Enterprise 2.0 application which provides another mechanism for communication throughout our organization, especially our remote user base.

This is achieved through a combination of user updates (similar to Twitter or Facebook) along with derived system data from our CRM application and other external sources, such as our blog and back-end analytics database.

SideBar is built against Microsoft Dynamics xRM platform (of course) and has multiple interface options, including a couple of Web interfaces, xRM forms, and a nice custom WPF application. Further, we now leverage the Azure App Fabric Service Bus to provide updates without the need for VPN access!

In addition to our SideBar demo, Andy provides some additional insight to the features of CRM 5 and how it can be combined with Azure. The session also has some awesome demos from Shan McArthur and Girish Raja. Microsoft posted the presentation and slides at http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/P09-07 (the SideBar demo starts at 47:30).

So take a look and see how you can quickly combine the power of the Dynamics xRM platform with Azure to provide compelling solutions for your users.

Happy coding!

Jim Steger

Creation of new Record Type and Fields with Import Data Wizard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has recently released November 2009 Service update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM online. One of the key delivered features is enhanced Import Data Wizard. When users are bringing their custom data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Import Data Wizard, they can also create custom record types and fields on the fly and bring in the data into newly created record type. This is a powerful feature of the new Import Data Wizard that our users are going to love.

This blog demonstrates how to create new record types and fields during import using Import Data Wizard. Create new record type/fields operation is only available to users having either System Administrator or System Customizer role.

Create Record Type/Field: When a user wants to import the data from source system to Microsoft Dynamics CRM system and if the source record type is not present in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM, user can create the required record type in two different ways:

• Customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM system by creating new record types and fields before import and use them while importing the data.
• Use Import Data Wizard itself while importing the data.

I will take a sample for explaining how Import Data Wizard can be used for creating new record types and fields. Let's assume you are bringing in a new record type named "Asset" which is not there in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. While mapping the source Asset record type on Map record type screen, you can choose to Create New Record Type as shown below:

Note that the system will automatically fill needed information for you and you can change them if you desire. If you have either mapped or ignored rest of the source Record Types, you should find the Next button enabled. Click Next to proceed to the next screen.

On the Map Fields screen, select the Asset record type to see the details of fields. You should see the following screen with all fields shown as Not Mapped.

Now that we have created a new record type to accommodate the Asset record type, we will create corresponding fields in Microsoft Dynamics CRM to hold the source data. The details of creating a new field are described below.

Creating New Fields

Import Data Wizard allows users to create new fields of following data types:

1. Text

2. Picklist

3. Bit

4. Integer

5. Decimal

6. Date Time

7. Lookup

Import Data Wizard allows users to create new fields for the existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM record types as well as new record types that are created via Import Data Wizard.

Now let's create new fields for newly created Asset record type. We will go over creation experience for the following fields:

1. AccountId : This field holds the values of related Account record for a particular Asset record in the source data file. So we’ll create a Lookup type field. To do this, select Create New Field from the dropdown against AccountId . Select Type as Lookup and Related Record Type as Account as shown below.

2. Similarly we will create new field for ContactId of lookup type and choose Contact as the Related Record Type since this field refers to Contact record type.

3. For Description field we will create new field of type Text as shown below:

4. For InstallDate we will create new field of type DateTime by selecting Datetime data type from the drop down.

5. For Price Type field we will create new field of type Decimal by selecting Decimal from the drop down.

6. For Serialnumber field we will create new field of type Integer for importing the data of type whole number.

7. For Status field we will create new field of type Picklist by selecting Picklist from the drop down.

So based on the type of data you have in your source files, you can create fields of particular data types using Import Data Wizard for importing the data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM. We will now look at how we can relate the new record type

Creating a relationship with new record type

With the Import Data Wizard, you can create reference to a record type that is being created during this import instance itself. Let's say you have the Case record type which maps to Case record type of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and you have a field called AssetId in your source file which is looking up to newly created Asset record type. You will create a new field for AssetId field, of type Lookup which is refereeing to Asset record type as shown below.

Now let's see what happens when you complete the Import Data Wizard by clicking on Submit button.

Following steps are executed when you click Submit button:

1. Customize the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system for new record types/fields if any

2. Publish the customizations if any

3. Save the data map

4. Submit the import jobs

There are few limitations of the record type and fields that can be created with Import Data Wizard:

1. Record Types that are created by Import Data Wizard are of type Ownership="User" only. Users cannot create record types using Import Data Wizard which has Ownership type = "Organization".

2. Fields of all type supported by Microsoft Dynamics CRM can’t be created using Import Data Wizard. Few examples are float, money, Currency and Status.

3. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will not customize the new record type form and views. Users need to customize the form and views to add the new fields.

4. User cannot create lookup field of N:N relationship.

5. Primary field Guid of the newly created record types cannot be mapped during import.

So far we have learned how to create new record type and fields in Microsoft Dynamics CRM using Import Data Wizard. We will have more blogs on Import Data Wizard to help you import your data. Stay Tuned.

Veera Bansal

Owner Mapping/User creation in Import Data Wizard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Microsoft Dynamics CRM online Nov 2009 Service Update has several exciting features. One of that is the Import Data Wizard that allows rapid Import of data from within the Webapp or Outlook client. This blog covers how record ownership is resolved and how the users are created as part of data import.

Introduction

To whom the records are assigned gets affected by mainly three factors:

1. Ownership information in the data files, there is a column in data file which contains information about the owner to whom the records should be assigned.
2. Information provided during mapping of fields in the attribute map page of the Import Wizard and owner mapping information in the map.
3. User selected in “Review Settings and Import Data “page of the wizard

*When the user specified on the Review Settings and Import Data page does not have sufficient privileges then the imported records get assigned to the user running the wizard. Refer to section “How Privileges Affect owner mapping” at the end of the blog for more details.

Let’s look at this in more details. The following examples illustrate different scenarios.

Scenario 1

If you want to assign all records being imported in different files to a single Microsoft Dynamics CRM user.

Description:

Let us assume you are importing the following data file.

• For this scenario, you do not have to map any source file to User record type.
• Also, no mapping is required for Owner field of the record type. (here account.csv).

All records in this case would be assigned to the user selected in the “Review Settings and Import Data” page of the wizard. As per screenshot above all records will be assigned to “User 1”.

Scenario 2

If you want to assign different records to different existing Users in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. For this scenario, your data file should contain ownership information in form of Full Name of users already existing in CRM.

Map the owner field of account.csv to Owner field of the Entity in which you are importing data (e.g. Account)

In this case the value in the Owner field is checked against the Full Name of the existing users in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and if there is a match then the record is owned by that user. e.g. if there is a user with Full Name “User 1“ in Microsoft Dynamics CRM then Account 1 will be assigned to User 1.

In case if there are two matches or there is no match with existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM users then the record gets assigned to user selected in “Review Settings and Import Data” page of Import Wizard.

If none of the above two scenario fit according to your requirement keep reading ahead. Scenarios covered below details out ways in which you can both resolve as well as create new users.

Scenario 3

The data file (Account.csv) has a field which contains the Id of the user to whom the record should be assigned and the User.csv has details about that owner.

Example: Owner field in Account.csv has ids of users for each account, Account 1 should be assigned to 1111. Further 1111 record in user.csv has other information about the First Name , Last Name and Email of the user .

There are two things that can happen for above data

• Resolve users in the data file with existing users in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• Create new users

Let us go first go through about how users are resolved with existing users based on information in the map.

Import Wizard uses 3 nodes in the data map to resolve ownership information of the existing user. Here is an example of the nodes in data map for owner resolution.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Map Name="Example Map" Source="Example Map">

<Description />

<UserIdentifier>

<SourceUserIdentifierForSourceDataSourceUserLink>UserId</SourceUserIdentifierForSourceDataSourceUserLink>

<SourceUserIdentifierForSourceCRMUserLink>Email</SourceUserIdentifierForSourceCRMUserLink>

<TargetUserIdentifierForSourceCRMUserLink>internalemailaddress</TargetUserIdentifierForSourceCRMUserLink>

</UserIdentifier>

<EntityMaps>

----------

Let’s see how information in the data map is used to resolve ownership information with existing users. In the above example of source data file and data map, Owner value in source data file Account.csv is mapped to value of “UserId” in the User.csv and further the value of email in user.csv file is matched against the internalemailaddress field of User record type in CRM and since it matches with User 1 , Account1 is assigned to “User 1”. Similarly Account2 will be assigned to User 2 and Account 3 to User 3.

Create Users

Besides Resolving users if you want to create users you need to map the fields of the user.csv to the User entity. e.g. In above scenario if you map the First Name , Last Name and Email with the corresponding fields i.e. First Name , Last Name and Email of User record type in CRM , then users would be created in disabled state with that info and records will be assigned to newly created users.

Newly created users are assigned Salesperson Role. Users are created only if the user limit has not exceeded.

Example: In above scenario User4 does not exist in CRM, So User 4 will be created in disabled state and Account 4 will be assigned to User4.

Mapping is displayed in screenshot below also.

While creating users only information for following fields is imported

• First Name
• Last Name
• Primary Email
• E-mail2
• Mobile Alert E-mail

It is recommended to map First Name, Last Name and Primary Email attributes. These attributes are mandatory if you create users from the new Users Form in CRM.

In the above scenario the information about how to resolve owners against existing users in CRM is provided in the map itself. There is a way by which you can skip specifying this information and Import wizard will infer the owner information with the mappings that you provide for user.csv. Next Scenario covers that aspect.

Scenario 4

When there is a file named user.csv in the Zip File and no owner mapping information is provided in data map in the form of above mentioned nodes.

In this scenario also, wizard first tries to resolve owners in data file against existing users in Microsoft Dynamics CRM depending on how you have mapped user.csv. If users could not be resolved against existing users, then wizard tries to create new users with the information given in user.csv.

Let us take an Example,

In the above example you need to map the Owner Field in Account.csv to Owner Field of Account entity.

Map The UserId of User.csv to Primary key.

Map First Name, Last Name, Primary E-mail, Email 2 and Mobile Alert E-mail to corresponding fields of User Record Type in CRM.

Mapping for user Entity is depicted below.

The field mapped to User (Primary key) {UserId in User.csv} helps to resolve ownership information in data file (account.csv) with the user.csv file. The same information was captured in SourceUserIdentifierForSourceDataSourceUserLink node in above scenario.

Then the information in user.csv is used to resolve users with existing users.

First import Wizard tries to match the values for following fields against CRM fields:

Primary E-mail

or

E-mail2

or

Mobile Alert E-mail

If we get a unique match with some existing user then the entity record gets assigned to the user with whom wizard found a match.

If there is no unique match then the value of fields mapped to First Name and Last Name (both) is checked against value of First Name and Last Name fields of Users in CRM. If there is a match then corresponding records is assigned to that user.

Examples of How User Resolution happens for above data files

• Account1 is assigned to 1111, corresponding to 1111 the value of Primary E-mail matches Primary Email Address of User 1 therefore Account1 will be assigned to that user.

• Account2 is assigned to 2222, corresponding to 2222 the value of Primary E-mail is not matching but there is a match with Email2, therefore Account2 gets assigned to User2.

• Account3 is assigned to 3333, corresponding to 3333 neither Primary E-mail address nor Email2 is matching but Mobile Alert E-mail matches, therefore Account3 gets assigned to User3.

• Account4 is assigned to 4444 , corresponding to 4444 none of the values in Primary Email , E-mail2 ,Mobile Alert E-mail field matches with values in CRM for any user , then the values of First Name and Last Name are compared and it matches therefore Account4 gets assigned to User4.

If there are more than two matches or no match for the same entry in user.csv then records gets assigned to the user selected in “Review Settings and Import Data” page of the Wizard.

Example of User creation

None of fields of User 5 matches with existing users in CRM so this User gets created in disabled state and Account5 gets assigned to this user.

How Privileges Affect Owner mapping

Owner resolution: If the User who is running the wizard does not have sufficient level of create privilege to create records of an entity with a user who should own the record as per the resolution during import, then records would be created and assigned to user running the Wizard.

Example: Let us assume Nancy is running the Wizard and as per the information provided in user.csv and account.csv, Account1 should have been assigned to Kevin but Nancy does not have sufficient create privilege on account record type to create accounts setting Kevin as the owner, then account1 will be assigned to Nancy.

User creation: User must have privileges to create users for him to be able to create users through import data wizard.

Cheers,

Dinesh Kumar Garg

Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Silverlight Duo

This post is from CRM MVP Julie Yack who is at PDC ‘09.

Today at PDC Scott Guthrie announced not only loads of cool new features for Silverlight 4, but also the release today of the Beta. So, what in the world does that have to do with CRM? Glad that you asked. We’ve got a quick demo of Dynamics CRM 4 with a Silverlight 4 tool. First a little about new Silverlight functions that allow access to web camera and microphone, then using that in CRM.  Be sure to check out Silverlight Jumpstart for extensive (over 50 pages of new content) for Silverlight 4 updates, available only from the publisher. (in case anyone is wondering, no I didn’t write the code samples, my hubby did)  This is an excerpt from the new content of the Silverlight Jumpstart book.

Web Camera / Microphone Support

Silverlight 4 now allows developers to access to the raw audio and video streams on the local machine from applications running both in and out of the browser. Using these capabilities developers can write applications including capture and collaboration using audio and video. This is built-in to the core runtime and no other special downloads are required on each machine. When the audio or video is accessed for the first time by the application the user will be prompted to approve the request. This ensures that audio and video is never accessed without the user’s knowledge preventing applications that capture silently in the background.

Read more…

Cheers,

Julie Yack

Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Append Vs. Append To – What’s the Difference?

Today’s guest blogger is CRM MVP Joel Lindstrom who blogs at CustomerEffective. Thanks for this security 101 overview.

This post is CRM security 101, but I get asked this question fairly often, so it seems that there is some confusion about what the difference is between “Append” and “Append To” security permissions.  I find this confusion comes from the similar sounding names of these permissions, and also because configuration of relationship security requires permissions to be applied to two separate entities—both sides of the relationship.

Let’s take the example of Accounts and Opportunities.  In this relationship, “Accounts” is the parent and “Opportunities” is the child.  There are multiple Opportunities per Account.  Say a user needs to be able to relate Opportunities to Accounts, either through the Potential Customer lookup field on the Opportunity, or through the “Opportunities” navigation bar area on an account.

In this example, a user must have “Append” permissions on Opportunities (child) and “Append To” permissions on Accounts (parent).  I think of it this way—I’m APPENDING the opportunity, and I’m APPENDING it TO the account.

The next consideration is what permission level the users should have.  As with other permissions in Dynamics CRM, you can grant a role “User,” “Business Unit,” “Parent/Child Business Unit,” and “Organization” level security permissions for both append and append to.  It is important to think through what records a user should be able to append, and to which records that user should be able to append those records.

In our example of Accounts and Opportunities, if a user should be able to associate any Opportunity with any Account, you would give that user’s role Organization level Append permissions on Opportunities and Organization level Append To permissions on Accounts.  Easy enough.  What if you want to give a user permission to associate only opportunities that they own to any account in their business unit?  In this case you would give that user’s security role “User” level Append permissions on Opportunities and “Business Unit” level Append To permissions on Accounts.

Now that you have the relationship permissions set, there is one more wrinkle you need to consider.  If you want a user to be able to create related records from a parent, the user needs to have write permissions for the parent entity.  For example, if you want a user to click the Opportunities navigation bar link from an Account and create a related opportunity, that user’s security role will need to have write permission for Accounts.  If they don’t, the “new” button won’t be available from the Account.  They would be able to go to the Opportunities entity and create a new opportunity and relate it to the Account, but without write permissions on Accounts they will not be able to create related records from an Account.

Cheers,

Joel Lindstrom

A World Without Choice, Part 2

“Technology must be able to adapt to unique business processes and changing strategies. Organizations that invest in flexible, proven CRM solutions will position themselves for success both today and tomorrow.”  - Rebecca Wetteman, vice president, Nucleus Research

As the saying goes, the only constant is change.  Fundamentally, Microsoft believes that as business conditions change, software should flexible enough adapt easily.  Our most recent Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online release, the November 2009 service update, gives organizations more choice in how they consume, use, and set-up CRM for their own businesses – and we’re pretty excited with how the market has responded to it. 

We’re looking for more customers to tell their story about how they were able to overcome obstacles with Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Online or on-premise) to achieve their goals.  To inspire the though process, consider these Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers:

• Barclays Bank PLC, a consumer banking division in the United Arab Emirates, has seen a 15 percent improvement in customer satisfaction and has attributed Microsoft Dynamics CRM for a 22 percent drop in service costs per customer incident.
• Booz Allen Hamilton, a strategy and technology consulting firm that licensed the 1 millionth Microsoft Dynamics CRM seat, is standardizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a platform to deliver relational line-of-business applications across the organization.
• The City of London in the U.K. uses the power and flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics CRM as an xRM development platform to enhance the services such as event planning and voter management it provides to citizens, businesses and visitors.
• Hard Rock International, a world-renowned hotel and restaurant group, uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM to reduce its customer inquiry response times from four days to just a few hours. This efficiency has enabled it to add new venues (casinos and hotels) around the world without having to add additional customer care staff.
• Maccabi Healthcare Services, a healthcare organization located in Israel, has implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft Office SharePoint as the service application to provide quick response and accurate information to its members.
• Polaris Industries, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of all-terrain vehicles, deployed a dealer self-service portal and realized efficiency gains up to 35 percent compared with previous processes.
• Vodafone Iceland, a telecommunications company, has exceeded its own first-time call resolution rates expectations of 95 percent while also increasing sales by 20 percent since implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM for its sales and service teams.

Let us know if you have a story that you’d like to share.  We’re excited to learn more about the challenges you’ve faced and solved!

And, for those interested in learning more about the six months free offer referenced in the image above should click here to get more information.

A World Without Choice, Part 1

A world without choice, for some organizations, would be more reality than fiction.   

While many organizations have made CRM investments with other vendors because they were led to believe that they were “cheaper,” these same organizations are learning first-hand about the tradeoffs with those purchases.  Interface restrictions.  Deployment restrictions.  Integration restrictions.  And extreme pricing or nickel and diming that forces them into uncomfortable payment terms.

Last week’s announcement of the latest Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online release, the November 2009 service update, was an important release for the market in two ways.   First, organizations can get started quickly, easily, and for less money.  Second, Salesforce.com and Oracle CRM On Demand customers can switch to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and get the first six months free. 

Considering Microsoft Dynamics CRM has over 1 million users and 20,000 customers, has achieved sub-second response times for 50,000 concurrent users, and been recognized with industry awards for product innovation and customer success, it has become one of the fastest growing products in the CRM industry.

We’re excited about last week’s announcement, the interest it’s generated, and how the market is questioning competitive approaches.  What do you think? 

Field-Level Security in Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Options and Constraints

The CRM E2 team is pleased to announce the release of the white paper Field-level Security in Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Options and Constraints, a component of the broader CRM E2 Nuts and Bolts article on Security and Authentication in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=471f8670-47b3-4525-b25d-c11a6774615c

This document provides selected aspects of the conceptual application of the Dynamics CRM security model, with details about the various options and constraints that are associated with using supported custom logic to control of access to data at a more granular level than is provided by Microsoft Dynamics CRM out-of-the-box.

The CRM E2 team especially recognizes the efforts of Roger Gilchrist, Mahesh Hariharan, and CRM Product Development for contributing to and reviewing this paper to help ensure its completeness and accuracy.

Thanks,
Jim Toland

Using Data Pre-Filtering in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Reports

Have you been looking for a way to retrieve and view query results faster?  Pre-filter the data!

Data pre-filtering in Microsoft Dynamics CRM reports lets you retrieve and display result sets quickly, makes reports context-sensitive, and allows reports to be filtered using the Advanced Find feature. Data pre-filtering complements data filtering supported by Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, which limits the data returned by reports.  There are two ways that you can enable data pre-filtering:

• Automatic Pre-Filtering:  Automatic data pre-filtering, which is suited for simple queries, can be enabled by aliasing entity tables in the queries. The alias name should begin with "CRMAF_". When you enable automatic data pre-filtering using the "CRMAF_" prefix, Microsoft Dynamics CRM modifies the query to include a parameter (for example, P1), and then passes a query to the P1 parameter depending on how the report is being filtered. In other words, automatic data pre-filtering acts as a sub-query within an existing query.
• Explicit Pre-Filtering: For complex queries such as queries using UNION statements, you might need to use explicit pre-filtering. Unlike in automatic pre-filtering, Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not rewrite the report query by passing values to the parameters during explicit pre-filtering when a report is uploaded to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. You have to explicitly make the required changes by adding the pre-filtering parameter to the report, and then reference the parameter in the query. You can then execute the query using dynamic SQL.

For detailed information about enabling data pre-filtering on reports, including query examples and the limitations of using automatic data pre-filtering with complex queries, see Using Filters in a Report .

Cheers,

Inna Agranov

Installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 on Small Business Server 2008

This is commonly asked question in the MSDN forums so the CRM Support Team decided to create a post that could become the defacto FAQ.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 on Microsoft Small Business Server 2008.

• Install the Windows Server 2008 Indexing Service Role
• If you do not install Indexing Service Role you will see the following error during the installation.
• Exception_Access_Violation

1. Click Start - Click Administrative Tools - Click Server Manager

2. Expand Roles

3. Right click the Files Services Role and choose add Role Services

4. Check the Indexing Service Role and then finish the wizard.

5. Start the Installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and the Indexing Service required component should not be listed anymore.

• Install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise

Note: SBS 2008 installs SQL Express for monitoring, but that cannot be used to store the CRM 4.0 databases. You can install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on the Small Business Server or on an additional server.

• If you try to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and use the SQL Express install on SBS you will see this Error in the EDW.

• If you install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on the SBS 2008 Server and use the default configuration for SQL Server Reporting Services it sets SSL to be required.
• If this is the case then you will need to use https when you enter the SRS server url during the installation of the Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server.
• The second option would be to configure SRS to not require SSL. You can update the rsreportserver.config file to set the secureconnectionlevel = 0

1. Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10.MSSQLServer\Reporting Services\ReportServer

2. Open the rsreportserver.config file in notepad

3. Update the secureconnectionlevel = 0

• Once Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is installed you will need to install the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services to run reports.
• If the Data Connector is not installed you will see this Error when running reports

Execution 'xxxxxxxxx' cannot be found.

Installing the Data Connector

1. During the install of the data connector make sure to click the check for updates. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950100

2. After the Data connector install you may need to give permissions to the SQL Service Account on the MSCRM_Config database if you are seeing the following error when running reports within CRM.

Reporting Error: The report cannot be displayed

If you check the SRS logs or run the report in SRS you will see the permission error “Cannot open database “MSCRM_Config” requested by login. The login failed.”

3. After adding the permissions in SQL make sure to restart the SQL Server Reporting Services service.

4. Run an IISReset

a. Click Start, Click Run and type in IISReset

b. If you have UAC enabled and you are not logged in as the admin.
Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories and right click command prompt and choose Run as administrator

c. Type in IISReset and hit enter.

Hope this helps you get Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed successfully on Small Business Server 2008.

Thanks,

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Support Team

Automating Task Notification

CRM MVP Mitch Milam returns as our guest blogger today a tip based on workflows. You can read more from Mitch at his blog.

If you have ever assigned a task to someone and wondered when or if they completed it, this workflow process may help. This workflow is based the Task activity, but you can perform the same process on other activities as well. The workflow will execute when the record’s status changes. Here is a quick picture of how it is configured.

Our first check is to see if the Task was closed with either a Completed or Canceled status. If so, then we check the owner. Is it the same person who created it? If not, then we will send an email to the creator of the Task, using the following email:

When published, the workflow will generate an email that looks like this:

Cheers,

Mitch Milam

Supported file types in Data Import Wizard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online November 2009 Service Update encapsulates many new cool features and improvements. One of such features is the much-much improved Import Data Wizard.

The new Import Data wizard no longer restricts user to import one data file at a time. You can do Import of multiple files containing record types that are related to one another in single Import session. Such as accounts with related contacts, import of notes and attachments along with their associated records in different files, etc.

Apart from this, the new Import Data wizard also supports different formats of input source data file:

1. XML Spreadsheet 2003 (.xml) – The data file can be in Microsoft Excel format stored as an XML file. You can open the XML spreadsheets with Microsoft Excel.

You can also download the pre-created XML Spreadsheet 2003 templates for any record type of Microsoft CRM for doing easy Import with auto mapping. More details on this will be coming in shortly in a separate blog post. So stay tuned!

2. Comma-separated values (.csv) – This is Comma-delimited format file. You can have different field (comma, colon, semicolon, tab) and data delimiters (quotation, single quotation) in this kind of source file.

3. Text (.txt) – This is delimited text format with columns separated by commas, tabs, semicolons, or other characters.

4. Compressed files (.zip) –If you want to Import multiple files in one Import session, you can .zip them together. A .zip file can include files of .csv, .xml, or .txt file types. All files in a single compressed file must be of the same file type.

The .zip file must confirm to one of these folder structure:

• .zip file having the files and optional attachment folder directly in it:-
• Attachments (Folder)
• <File1>
• <File2>
• <File3>
• .zip having a folder which in turn is having the files and optional attachments folder in it:-
• <Folder1>
• Attachments (Folder)
• <File1>
• <File2>
• <File3>

Note: By default, the maximum size of the files you can import is 8 megabytes (MB). This means:

• Any .csv, .txt, or .xml file must not exceed 8 MB.
• Any individual file inside the .zip file must not exceed 8 MB and the total size of the .zip file, including the Attachment folder, must not exceed 32 MB.

You can choose any of the above file formats and give it as an input to the Import Data wizard. The delimited .txt, .csv, or XML Spreadsheet 2003 format files can be easily created by using Microsoft Office Excel:

1. If your file uses only ASCII characters, save the file as a comma-delimited values (.csv) file:

• In Excel, click Save As, and select CSV (Comma delimited (*.csv).

2. If your file uses non-ASCII characters, save the file as a Unicode or UTF-8 text (.txt) file:

• In Excel, click Save As, and select Unicode text (*.txt).

Cheers,

Nitin Mukhija

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Resource Center

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Resource Center has had a makeover. It’s been completely redesigned to:

• Move the things users look for the most (downloads, support, and training) front and center.
• Highlight the different types of resources available in a way that’s easier to see.
• Reduce clicks.
• Be more visually appealing.
• Add the new Dynamics Connect gadget. (The gadget displays support and training content to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online users.)

We completed the work for the English sites and will have the sites for the other languages rolled out in the coming months. We’d love to hear what you think of the Resource Center and the changes.

Cheers,

Renee Wesberry

CWR Mobility and Microsoft Dynamics CRM on the Zune HD

John O’Donnell, one of my fav Microsoft technical evangelists, is at it again with his traveling camera. Today he talks with Erik van Hoof from http://www.CWRMobility.com who stopped by at the CRMUG Summit to show John his company’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM product called CWR Mobile CRM running on his new Zune HD. Here’s the video.

It’s interesting to see how a Zune HD can be used for business applications as well as consumer applications. Most of us have a Zune and this opens new ways of getting to our CRM platform and apps. The last time I talked to Erik (2008 at WPC) I got so excited about improvements in the Mobile hardware and technology that I went out to buy a phone like his.

I’m now using an HTC Verizon Imagio with the WinMo (Windows Mobile) 6.5 platform and everything just works. You can beat the drop from Microsoft Outlook of over 200 contacts in seconds. And the calendar just works both from work using Outlook and home using Windows Live.

The battery life is a little better too. I’m not sure how the OS helped there because the battery is the same kind I’ve been using for a while now. But I’m happy with the extended battery life.

Cheers,

JaAG