Michael McClary's Blog

Moving on...

2008-05-27T00:39:48Z

After taking on a new role, still within Microsoft, I've decided to move my blog to here

Shameless Plug-In

2008-01-25T15:07:37Z

At the end of March I’m flying out to the Sahara Desert to compete in the Marathons des Sables ‘The Toughest Footrace on Earth’ (http://www.saharamarathon.co.uk/about.html) Whilst I’m not looking forward to 151 miles carrying my provisions on my back, it’s in aid of a worthy cause – ShelterBox – who have kept thousands of families alive all around the world in times of disaster.

My JustGiving page has just been posted here: http://www.justgiving.com/michaelmcclary

CRM 4 and GMail POP3...made for each other?

2008-01-22T20:20:50Z

Blogs, frogs and dogs - 3 things that I spend too much time looking at

Michael Lu has put together a great screencast (7m 33s) showing how to set-up the Dynamics CRM 4 E-mail Router with Gmail's POP3 service.

Check it out here:

http://video.mikelu.org/emailrouterpop3/emailrouterpop3.html

To be honest, it's about time I did one of my own - ~~all~~ most suggestions welcome.

CRM 4 Downloads and License Keys

2008-01-22T19:02:32Z

As ever, Simon has done a great job of highlighting that the software is downloadable and some information about the license keys.

As of last week, the English, German and Spanish x86 bits are on MSDN Premium Downloads:

CRM Screencasts

2008-01-22T18:50:05Z

Sanjay and John have done a great job of putting together some short screencasts for CRM 4:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Office Communication Server 2007 with Sanjay Jain

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Multi-Language User Interface (MUI) with Sanjay Jain

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Multi-Currency with Sanjay Jain

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 : Data Migration Manager with John O'Donnell

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 : Installation with John O'Donnell

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 : Report Wizard with John O'Donnell

Feel free to spend a few minutes on each checking out some of the new features.

Also, if you are exploring Dynamics CRM 4 and would like to see some developer or integration features on the 'small' screen then please let us know!

CRM 4.0 HAS SHIPPED!!

2007-12-17T11:36:48Z

Unleash the hounds!

According to Michael Lu we shipped CRM 4 RTM on Friday - great job by all of the guys on the team. There'll be a short wait to get the bits on media and MSDN but expect to see some great solutions coming out shortly, all built on the Titan platform.

CRM Product Team caught on video

2007-12-10T18:07:10Z

A while back we filmed a bunch of videos with various folks on the CRM Team. The first of those has now made it onto Channel 9:

http://blogs.msdn.com/benriga/archive/2007/11/15/phil-richardson-chats-up-crm-on-channel-9.aspx

This one is a deep dive with Phil Richardson that follows on to the overview one they posted previously:

http://blogs.msdn.com/benriga/archive/2007/11/16/phil-dives-deep-into-crm-4-0-on-channel-9.aspx

Praveen Upadhyay talks about workflow and CRM:

http://blogs.msdn.com/benriga/archive/2007/11/20/giving-workflow-foundation-something-to-do.aspx

And finally, Barry and Phil walk through reporting:

http://blogs.msdn.com/benriga/archive/2007/12/07/crm-4-0-reporting-for-duty-sir.aspx

CRM 4.0 Developer Training

2007-10-04T04:07:25Z

Yes, I know that the NDA lifted on Monday and I'm later than some people, but don't worry, I'll catch up eventually.

So one thing is that we are running a 3-day CRM 4.0 Developer Training Course in London starting on Monday 29th October. What's the catch? Well, you need to be a UK ISV on our Early Adopter programme...but if you are then you can attend a great 3 days in London and learn the latest about building applications on CRM 4.0, including...

Configuration
Relationships
Application SDK
Server-side SDK
Workflow
Off-line capabilities
Reporting
Analytics / BI
and more...

If I left Microsoft... (musings on CRM 4.0)

2007-10-03T23:01:24Z

Not that I would of course (internal chip kicking in there)

I would build an application platform which gave the following:

Easy customisation so ISVs could verticalise an application quickly and simply
No weird tools, just familiar MS-type stuff and a nice Web UI to do the normal things (create and customise Workflow Foundation workflows, customise entities, create 1:n, m:n relationships, that kind of thing). Actually, if you want to create and customise workflows using Visual Studio I'll throw a few extra helper tools in as well.
Multi-tenancy, multi-lingual, multi-currency.
Multi-coloured, multi-pack, multitudinous (great word, not as good as 'thrashing' but still good)
An Asynchronous Services cluster to run Workflow Foundation components and asynchronous plug-ins
A simple, open and dynamic Web Services API, very important in this modern day of the interweb and computers connected by wires and things
A very nice web UI-based Report Wizard that even Basil could use
Off-line cached SSRS reports out of the box, yes, they'd like that
In fact, while I'm there, off-line web service exposure, off-line data synchronisation and, what the hell, off-line .NET plug-ins

And a few more things that'll come to me.

No-one will think of this - I'm off while it's still fresh

Office Business Applications - Architect Forum follow-up

2007-09-30T18:33:02Z

So this post is a bit late, but on the 13th I spoke at the OBA Architect Forum at our offices in London.

The principal reason (apart from helping out with a lot of OBA stuff this coming year) was that we have some great business applications with great hooks; easy web service interfaces, .NET Business Connector, SQL Analysis Services cube generation and processing.

The principle of OBA is great - take a look at www.obacentral.com for all of the material people have been submitting. Unfortunately I see a lot of demonstrations which talk a good game but don't actually use a business application on the back-end. I focus on two applications here at Microsoft; Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM - the new 'Titan' release is imminent and I'll be blogging features in my next post. If you're a UK ISV interested in building great OBA architectures on real business data then we're interested in talking to you.

Postings from colleagues:

Matt Deacon (including post-event decks)

David Gristwood

Darren Strange

Walk to work

2007-09-30T18:24:00Z

I get a good feeling from going to our new London office, OK they're a bit modern and swanky, especially the customer centre, but my principal reason is the journey...

Instructions:

Get to London Paddington
Walk through Hyde Park
- As the joggers go past, feel a pang of guilt that you're not going out running as much as you should
- Take pictures of the lake, the park and various wildlife
Don't take too much notice of directions and vary your route :-)

Currently the time varies between 35 and 60 minutes (see note on route above).

Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 Service Pack 2 has been released to web.

2007-08-03T16:29:51Z

The service pack is now available for download from Partner Source and Customer Source. See the download page for a fix list and other information.

PartnerSource - https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/downloads/servicepack/DynamicsAX40sp2.htm

CustomerSource - https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/DynamicsAX40sp2.htm

New! Dynamics developer centre on msdn

2007-06-19T17:55:36Z

ISVs working with Dynamics should definitely take a look at the new Dynamics collateral on MSDN here.

CRM Presentation at MIX'07

2007-05-04T14:05:31Z

Check out this link to find out where to download Ben Riga's presentation from Mix'07.

In it, he presents with Jason Hunt of Invoke Systems about Microsoft Dynamics CRM's capability as an application platform. There are also two examples of great CRM applications from Jason; a live Pet Insurance application which was built to use Microsoft CRM as an application platform from the ground up and also a great Citizen Relationship Management application for Local Government showing the power of CRM customisation including a portal and Virtual Earth integration.

If you are:

Wondering whether to build your application using Microsoft CRM as an application platform
Evaluating the features and customisation of Microsoft CRM
Looking for some hints as to the next version of Microsoft CRM 'Titan'

then please download and view the video. If you have any questions then please e-mail me

One more CRM 'TITAN' Developer Workshop left!

2007-05-04T13:26:28Z

We've had a great response to the Titan Ascend programme and, having run a successful 3-day developer workshop on the great new features, we still have spaces left on a second run, at Microsoft TVP (Reading) May 30th - June 1st. These places are only available to ISVs on the Ascend programme, so...if you want to build your vertical or horizontal solution on Microsoft CRM and are a Gold Certified Partner then e-mail me for more details.