A CRM Riff

I just got done booking my flight and hotel for the Convergence 2010 conference in Atlanta. Although it is 24-27 April this year, getting great hotels and cheap air flights should be done now. And there still are some great hotels with some very decent rates for the remaining rooms. And super saver prices are still available for early bookers.

Here’s hoping you come to my session on the CRM Community this year. I’ll also be in the Dynamics Community Lounge. More to follow as I work on my presentation.

I was very impressed by Microsoft VP Frank Shaw’s response to former Microsoft employee Dick Brass’ strident op-ed in the NYT. Actually, I am often very impressed with Frank. He sez:

“Former Microsoft employee Dick Brass has an op-ed in the NYT arguing that our better days are behind us, (“clumsy, uncompetitive innovator” . . . ouch!) and using examples from his tenure to make the point that the company can no longer compete or innovate. Obviously, we disagree. :) But his piece does represent a good opportunity to touch briefly on how we think about innovation.

At the highest level, we think about innovation in relation to its ability to have a positive impact in the world. For Microsoft, it is not sufficient to simply have a good idea, or a great idea, or even a cool idea. We measure our work by its broad impact.

To make his point, Dick generally focused on ClearType, noting that this technology was “stifled” by existing business groups. For the record, ClearType now ships with every copy of Windows we make, and is installed on around a billion PCs around the world. This is a great example of innovation with impact: innovation at scale.”

Read more…

This has been a long and very busy week for me. Sometimes it just has to be said:

This picture was sent to me from a friend in India of all places. Have a great weekend peeps.  :O)

More and more of my friends are using the TripIt platform/service. You can use it privately but share out individual schedules to coworkers, family and friends or use it privately for you own tracking.

I don’t travel us much as I used to, but when I do I often end up cobbling some info for the other people involved. This service pulls hotel, airline, and rental cars info all together into one report. I started using this a year ago, or more. It is one of those rare services that I have continued to use amongst the many sites I sample and then forget.

The Nuts and Bolts article Outlook Synchronization in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, which is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=2d497348-0a10-40ce-8edb-b0ee85f1215e

Outlook synchronization enables Outlook users to view Dynamics CRM information, including contacts, tasks, phone calls, letters, faxes, appointments, and e-mails, within the Outlook interface. This document describes the client synchronization process that is associated with Update Rollup 7 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 or later (for on-premise deployments) and with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online November 2009 Service Update or later (for online deployments).

I’m in the process of looking at how my readers can find the most interesting and pertinent videos. The new (relatively) Microsoft Showcase Video has a lot Microsoft Dynamics CRM videos including this one from the Customer Relationship Management Summit.

I like how this video talks you through the thought process for picking Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It is very in depth for a CRM 101 type of video. Make sure you expand the video to full screen to see the slides better.

Have a great weekend!

I caught this Monday showing finally last night. I record them but you can see it online at http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-january-25-2010-bill-gates. It would appear retirement doesn’t mean the same thing to Bill as it does to most people. He’s only 54 and apparently kickin’ butt in the world of charity. The Gates foundation is continuing to bring innovations in health and learning to the global community.

From J.D. Meier’s Blog post titled ‘Career Growth’:

Read more …

The new Microsoft Partner Network Community is designed to facilitate real-time networking opportunities between people selling or building Microsoft solutions, Microsoft partners and Microsoft. It looks like, at first glance, that the community offers a number of ways for you to engage with your peers and Microsoft globally or directly within your region. You can:

1. See what’s happening in your local community and region, attend partner events and engage in social media with people in your community.

2. Get involved in Microsoft communities focused on student talent for hire, public policy affecting the technology industry, technology training and education and much more.

3. Join the conversation with Microsoft and other partners through online social media like twitter, facebook and Microsoft and partner blogs.

4. Keep up to date with the latest partner relevant news, webcasts and videos, and find product specific information and training within the broader Microsoft partner network.

I’d like to direct you to a few partner network community resources that may be of interest to you and help you start the conversation with other partners and Microsoft.

• Join the community twitter feed and the partner network facebook page
• Watch short video series on SMB, Windows 7, and Azure.

Take a sneak peek at what is being planned for the 2010 Worldwide Partner Conference.

Alltop’s Holy Kaw talks about measuring your clout on Twitter. With so many people using new social media channels, experimenting with the new paradigm, this is a good read.

My team was talking about the changes in communication. I’ve already noted that most people under 30 no longer own a land line opting instead for a cell phone. Now I’m hearing about kids under 20 no longer using email in favor of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. No, no I *do not* feel like an oldster. Really!  :o)

There are so many great sources of information out there that sometimes you might miss something. It’s like a stream of data coming at you that is so full, it threatens to consume all your time. The most savvy readers have various filters to let only the most interesting information, videos, and blogs through.

When I saw “The Visual Studio Documentary: Tony Goodhew full length interview” I knew I had to share it with my peeps. Tony Goodhew has been a major part of the success of the Visual Studio franchise and is one of the fan favorites from The Visual Studio Documentary.  He has some wonderful quotes about old times at Microsoft and helps take us into the future with the next version of Visual Studio.

Bing wins a Crunchies Award as best technology achievement of 2009.

"I have a saying that one always overestimates what can be done in one year and underestimates what can be done in ten years. We see this over and over..." Paul Greenberg in "CRM at the Speed of Light, 4th Edition". So begins my reading of Paul’s newest book. You can see his Biography here.

The book promises us new ways to look at CRM in the light of an Internet with rampant growth of things like blogging and social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. CRM’s promise is still developing and getting better with every release. Sometime in the near future companies without CRM systems will realize that without the CRM toolset, they can’t compete and/or survive. And the customer will be the ultimate benefactor of a system that makes buying, maintaining, and using necessary products easy and painless.

Okay, so now I’m going back to finish chapter one.  :o)

MyCustomer.com is looking at what 2010 might hold for the CRM industry.

"CRM is a solid industry. There may be naysayers who state that the CRM failure rate is 50-70% and so on, but the reality is that this isn’t even true anymore. That was from a Gartner report six or seven years ago when CRM was an immature industry and when the hype surrounding it was greater than what the reality could deliver. Now it has settled into reality and it is now a $13bn industry that has projected growth. Businesses are not so stupid that they would keep investing in something that has a great likelihood of failure. But not only are they not stopping, but they are increasing their investment in it. And furthermore, the projects continue to increase because there is enough success in CRM to indicate that it is worth the risk - and everything is a risk.

CRM has matured and consequently people realise that the seven cities of gold are not going to appear as a result of their CRM implementations. But what is going to happen is that you get better results with your customers. With expectations a little more realistic and legitimate, it provides enough value to be worth it, and when you combine that and the downturn, where businesses are looking to retain customers, overall you’re looking at a healthy industry." – Paul Greenberg

This is a good read.

Here are some of my favs, in case you haven’t seen them.

Are we ready for 2010?