Girish Raja's Dynamic(s) Thoughts : CRM

Check out the Dynamics CRM Twibe

girishr — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:36:58 GMT

I was really surprised when my twitter account http://twitter.com/girishr had a large number of new followers over the weekend. Now I know why.

After I caught up with my RSS feeds, I realized Menno did a great job of compiling the “influential” Microsoft Dynamics CRM people on twitter. You can see the list of people in the Dynamics CRM ~~tribe~~ twibe here

http://www.tekoppele.com/Blog/post/2009/07/17/20-Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-Twitter-Users-You-Should-Follow.aspx

Menno,

Thanks for the honor. You’re now the official keeper of “List of twitter addicts in the CRM community”!

Time to get back to CRM evangelism, 140 characters at a time!

Dynamics Duo: Wide World Importers Demo

girishr — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:25:26 GMT

Ben and I took some time to chat about this really neat demo that shows how you can combine the Microsoft Web Platform with Dynamics CRM to quickly build and deploy self-service solutions. This is a 5-part “Dynamics Duo” video series and you can view the full set of videos below and also be sure read more about them on Ben’s blog .

Dynamics Duo Rides Again

Dynamics Duo: Everybody needs an Identity

Dynamics Duo: Wide World Importers Code

Dynamics Duo: Composition with Third-Party Web Services

Dynamics Duo: Silverlight and Jazz Hands

As Ben put in his post, both of us enjoyed recording this series. We hope you enjoyed them as well. If you have comments or suggestions for other topics, feel free to add comments below or email me or (Ben) directly.

Dynamics Duo Rides again

girishr — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:40:17 GMT

I’m sure many of you will remember the “conference” demo that we showed in the Business Action Virtual Tour and also from the demo that Ben did in Convergence keynote last year.

Recently Ben and I had the opportunity to sit down in B20 and chat about the demo in much detailed fashion. We figured that we might as well turn on the camera so that you all can watch it as well and perhaps maybe learn a thing or two about CRM & Cloud platform from Microsoft!

Cross-posting from Ben’s blog. Enjoy!

Dynamics Duo Rides again

Make sure you have the new CRM 4.0 VPC

girishr — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:02:54 GMT

The CRM VPC available on download.microsoft.com has been a wonderful resource for not just demos but development as well. I’m sure many developers are using it for building their prototypes and in some cases active product development.

Note that the CRM VPC on MS downloads will expire tomorrow (June 11th 2009).

Make sure you download the new CRM 4.0 VPC from the PartnerSource link below:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Virtual PC Image (April 2009)

We are also working on modifying the CRM Developer Rampup Kit to be based on the new VPC. The new content will go live within a few weeks.

Phillip Haase has worked hard in building this VPC and has put together a nice article about this VPC on the CRM blog.

How do I know when my VPC expires?

Many have asked me how to find out the expiry of the variety of VPCs they have in hand. To find this out, simply type winver in command line or “Run” prompt within the VPC and it’ll tell you when the VPC expires.

Now try this on the new CRM VPC. As you can see the new CRM VPC also has an expiry date.

I know this can be frustrating for some of you but I wanted to explain why we keep doing this over and over again. We (as Microsoft employees) have legal obligations to release only time-limited or evaluation copies of software when we release them as a public VPC. That said, we definitely want to make things easier for you to begin your development or show a demo. Please let us know if you have any specific feedback or suggestions.

XRMUG Presentation on Using CRM 4.0 & Windows Azure

girishr — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:48:17 GMT

Tomorrow Shan McArthur, Ben Riga and I are presenting a webcast for XRM virtual user group. It is a basic 100-level session with some interesting demos on using CRM 4.0 and Windows Azure in the context of self service portals.

When: May 28, 2009 (Thu) 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM (PST)

Self-Service Sites: Proactive and Effective

More than ever applications built for the web connect customers (or partners, employees, or citizens) directly to systems running behind the firewall. Whether for informational or transactional solutions like customer portals or loyalty program sites, it is imperative that information gathered is acted upon as soon as possible while keeping costs way down. In this session we’ll explore how building on the XRM platform and taking advantage of Windows Azure, Live Services, and SQL Data Services provide a great platform for building proactive self-service web sites that effectively manage the end-user experience.

You can find more details about this event at http://www.xrmvirtual.com/events/self-service-sites. If you wish to attend this session, please sign up for free at XrmVirtual.com and also check out a number of upcoming presentations in the events section.

See you tomorrow in the webcast and come prepared with your questions!

CRM Customizations compatibility across Update Rollups

girishr — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:53:19 GMT

Today, I had a simple question. Are the customizations schema (the exported .xml file) compatible across different update CRM 4.0 update rollups? Meaning, if I export a set of customizations (.xml) from a server that has UR2 (Update Rollup 2) installed, can I import that on a server having UR4? And how about the other way around?

Turns out that update rollup 2 and beyond are actually compatible with regards to customizations schema. Note that the only exception to this is UR1.

This KB article has lot more details about this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968176. Below is an excerpt from the KB article.

Notes about exporting and importing customizations

You can export customizations from a server that has Update Rollup 2 or Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed and import those customizations to a server that has Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed. You can also export customizations from a server that has Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed and import those customizations to a server that has Update Rollup 2 or Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed.
If you export customizations from a server that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 server, do not import the customizations to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 server in the following scenarios:

The server from which you are exporting the customizations has no updates installed or has Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed. However, the server to which you are importing the customizations has Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed.
The server from which you are exporting the customizations has Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed. However, the server to which you are importing the customizations has no updates installed or has Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed.

Business Action Virtual Tour On Demand

girishr — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:32:32 GMT

Last week I had the opportunity to present four webcasts as part of the Business Action Virtual Tour (BAVT) wherein we discussed about building line of business applications using the CRM (XRM) platform and how you can extend it to create compelling experiences (using WPF & Silverlight), reuse familiar skills (using Office Platform) and how to provide the power of choice to your customers (using Azure platform).

If you missed any of these events, don’t worry; we recorded all of them and have it available for you free of cost. Ben Riga was handling the Q&A during the session and has also posted a nice summary of the Q&A as part of his blog post. I’d encourage you to view the high fidelity version of the Live Meeting replay.

1- XRM, the Line of Business Application Framework

2- Compelling experiences (WPF & Silverlight)

3- Familiar Skills (Office, SharePoint & UC)

4- The power of choice (Azure Services Platform)

So set aside just four hours of your time, get the projector, crank up the volume and gather all your colleagues around . It’s show time!

ISV & Partner awards at WPC09

girishr — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:37:07 GMT

Seems like WPC08 was just a few weeks ago but WPC09 is already upon us. This year WPC is at New Orleans from July 13th through 16th.

Every year, top Microsoft partners are recognized and honored with “WPC Awards”. There are several categories of awards includes the coveted awards

ISV/Software Solutions Partner of the Year
ISV/Software Solutions Innovation Partner of the Year
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year

Partners can nominate their solution/company for these awards and do so immediately as the nomination ends April 9, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific Time.

If you don’t know what WPC is, it is a partner event that provides a fantastic opportunity to connect with Microsoft folks and other ISVs or Partners just like you.

I also noticed that registration for WPC 09 is now open and you can register here: https://partner.microsoft.com/global/trainingevents/wwpartnerconference

These days unborn babies and even plants start to socialize early enough through social networking sites! So check out the below links to “socialize” during WPC this year :-)

http://twitter.com/wpc09

http://www.facebook.com/pages/WPC09-July-13-16-2009-New-Orleans/50554356818

Action Packed Business Applications Coming to US

girishr — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:06:35 GMT

In a series of world-wide events called Business Action World Tour, we’re showcasing how Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) can build serious line of business applications without a lot of effort. To add to that, if you could create a rich & compelling UI (with WPF & Silverlight), make it familiar to your users (with Office system), and give a choice of on-site or cloud deployment to the customer (with Azure Services), wouldn’t that be a wonderful opportunity for more business.

If you think so, all you need to do is spend half a day at one of our free “discover” events. The next upcoming one in the US is on May 4th at Chicago and we have another one coming up in Silicon Valley on May 6th.

For more information about the event and links to register, check out John O'Donnell blog article below.

http://blogs.msdn.com/jodonnell/archive/2009/04/01/discover-a-new-way-to-build-line-of-business-applications-at-chicago-may-4th-and-mountain-view-ca-may-6th.aspx

Videos from first CRM Incubation Week

girishr — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:57:29 GMT

Recently Nikhil Hasija pointed me to the videos that were recorded during the 1st CRM Incubation Week.

DubMeNow: A very cool contact management mobile solution that integrates with Dynamics CRM. I was their advisor during the week and very impressed with them. A very professional startup company.

Highland Martin: A customizable portal solution sitting on top of CRM with some cool Silverlight work.

Channel Blade: An online solution for the Marine (Boating) industry.

Prime Time Software Solutions: Sales methodology solution targeted towards the media industry. They have vast industry experience and I was surprised by their fantastic progress with limited technology background.

Support4U: A social collaboration solution that tightly integrates with CRM and produces excellent analytics around documents. A good example showing how Silverlight can light up the UI.

The next CRM Incubation week (Part2) is coming up shortly and I’m betting it’ll be even more fun and productive for the participating companies.

CRM Incubation Week – The Sequel

girishr — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:04:56 GMT

Every blockbuster in this world has to have a Sequel coming up. The mega hit CRM Incubation week is no different either :-) That’s right, 2nd CRM Incubation Week is coming up soon and will be starring your favorite CRM stars.

The 2^nd CRM Incubation Week will be held at Microsoft Technology Center, Boston, MA from Mon 4/20/2009 to Fri 4/24/2009. There’ll be half a day of CRM training, three and half days of active prototype/development time, and a final day for polishing your solution and presenting to a panel of judges for various prizes.

If you’re part of a startup company and would like to participate in this, please submit your nominations to Sanjay Jain. You can find more details about submitting your nominations here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sanjayjain/archive/2009/02/25/startups-announcing-2nd-microsoft-dynamics-crm-incubation-week.aspx. If you’re nominated, all you have to do is just show up with your brightest minds.

The show is on us and we’ll even get you the popcorn and soda for free :-)

CRM Incubation Week – Roundup

girishr — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:22:41 GMT

It is not usual to see pouring rain in Virginia and heavy snow fall in Seattle at the same time. The CRM incubation week happened during this same time and like the weather, the event was definitely extraordinary.

As I blogged earlier, the CRM Incubation Week was conducted on a very simple idea. The idea of startups using Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a Rapid Application Development Platform for building business applications.

Five startups were chosen from over 50 applicants. There were given a short training on the CRM platform and from there on, the teams worked feverishly for the next four days and nights putting their solution together. The focus was not just the technology but we had lunch presentations on business aspects like how startups can pitch their ideas and how they can validate their business model, etc. This is very critical for startups as it is not just good enough to have a great idea but you need to be able to convince others and gain the backing to make your ideas successful.

Each startup team was assigned an advisor and I was honored to be advising DubMeNow who had an innovate mobile based solution for business cards.

The advisors were not all from Microsoft. Jim Steger from Sonoma Partners and Dan Blake from CourseMax sacrificed their revenue generating hours and volunteered to be advisors to help the community. Their presence clearly thrilled the startups. We gave 3 CRM development books to every team and Jim co-authored 2 of the 3 books. When you have a question while reading a book, walking next door and clarifying it directly with the author is not something you get everyday and when you can do that at 1AM in the morning, that is when startups realized that Incubation week is special. Dan Blake was in the same situation as every other team couple of years ago when he started CourseMax. Dan’s insights and experience as a startup was sought by every team.

You can see me twittering different activities of the week here http://tinyurl.com/9q7g8u but with the amount of white boarding and development we were doing, you can imagine why we hardly had time to even go out for dinner. Nevertheless, with Xbox 360 console and the nice food arranged by MTC, we had plenty of fun.

Day 5 was the climax with all teams presenting their solution to a panel of Venture Capitalists (VCs), Angel Investors and CRM experts such as Paul Greenberg who also happens to the CRM blogger for ZDNET.

I can keep going for another 3 pages of content but I’d rather point you to Sanjay’s excellent blog coverage of the event. On closing, I’d like to quote Paul Greenberg on his thoughts about the CRM Incubation Week.

“I have to hand it to Microsoft here. This kind of program not only encourages and supports emerging businesses - small and new or even established and moving in other directions - but also showcases their platform in a good way. As a far better development tool than I thought it was.”

CRM Accelerators: Analytics

girishr — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:13:52 GMT

Reuben decided to take control of things on this channel9 video as we discuss about the Analytics accelerator. <Alert> We recorded this video really early in the development cycle for this accelerator. There are far more cool capabilities and reports in the final version of this accelerator than what we see in this video. </Alert>

CRM Accelerators: Analytics

The analytics accelerator provides a set of Performance Dashboards and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for analyzing the data residing within the CRM platform. It utilizes SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) for creating OLAP cubes. SSAS is also used here for creating predictive analysis with some fully functional samples. The analytics accelerator will work with SQL Server 2005 with some components enhanced to take advantage of SQL Server 2008.

Check out more Channel9 videos on CRM Accelerators here and please visit http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators to download the accelerators.

Happy coding!

CRM Accelerators: eService (ASP.NET Portal)

girishr — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:03:15 GMT

Hands down, this is the accelerator that developers (at least I personally) would crave for.

CRM Accelerators: eService (ASP.NET Portal)

eService accelerator allows developers to easily create self-service customer portals built on top of ASP.NET. This accelerator utilizes an ASP.NET starter kit and several components of the ASP.NET framework including the membership provider for authentication. The out of the box functionality of eService includes the ability for customers to create cases, schedule and manage service appointments, search through KB articles, etc all from within the website.

Don’t be fooled by the name “eService”, as underneath the covers, there is an ASP.NET control suite for CRM. Each of the ASP.NET form you saw in this video is a customizable ASP.NET user control and all of its properties and settings are derived from the CRM metadata. You can hook up these controls to any entity within the CRM system and configure them fairly easily.

I’m sure this accelerator will jump start CRM development for a lot of ASP.NET developers and vice versa.

CRM Accelerators: Event Management

girishr — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:59:08 GMT

We continue our channel9 CRM accelerator video series with this post is on Event Management accelerator.

CRM Accelerators: Event Management

The event management accelerator allows you to plan and manage events and logistics through Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This front end portal of this accelerator is actually built using an ASP.NET starter kit. Behind the scenes, CRM plug-ins and workflows drives the business logic like registration, waitlists, notifications etc.

The data model and business logic that Reuben has designed for this is very comprehensive and is a result of working with several event organizers. If you’re looking at building an event management solution, this accelerator will reduce a lot of brainstorming & revisions that you have to do otherwise.

Given the design of this, I’m beginning to wonder if this accelerator could very well become a Content Management System (CMS) for event planning. What do you think?