Hi all

This is my last and final post on this blog.

I have left Microsoft and will therefore not be posting any more news, articles, insights, events etc.
Thank you to all my readers for your interest and input.

Take care! :-)

Whatch this live Webinar to learn about Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint Better together.

What
Organizations around the globe are empowering employees, lowering costs and streamlining processes by using Microsoft CRM, Microsoft SharePoint - or both. This compelling session will demonstrate the accelerated success that businesses are beginning to experience when combining the strengths of these two tools.

Why
Attendees will learn how Microsoft CRM and SharePoint deliver a flexible platform of development tools that can be used to meet 90% of the requirements for virtually any IT project - significantly reducing the costs to develop and maintain custom applications. In addition, you will learn how the search, document management, business intelligence and Web 2.0 capabilities of SharePoint can combine with the activity management, customer tracking, marketing campaign and workflow capabilities of CRM to enhance employee, vendor, distributor, partner and supplier relationships.

When
Today - Thursday, June 18th, 10:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. EST

Sign me up!
Visit www.successaccelerators.com to register now.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Announcing the new update to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 SDK. You can download it here or go to it live on MSDN here.

What’s new in this release? Some highlights:

• Dependent Picklist Sample - This sample shows how to make the options available in a picklist field dependent on the selected option of another picklist. It supports chaining several picklist fields together. This sample also includes best practices for defining functions in the OnLoad event and reusing them in other form events.
• Delete Async Records Sample - This sample shows how to remove completed records from the async table.
• KB Article Topics - added topics that describe knowledge base article states, how to create, publish and remove the articles, and how to search for published knowledge base articles in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• Visual Studio Templates
• Updated Visual Studio projects to work for both VS 2005 and VS2008.
• Updated support information for plug-in and workflow assembly backwards compatibility.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

We are excited to share with you the results of a new performance and scalability benchmark for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In working with our partner, Intel, engineers from our two teams were able to greatly expand our enterprise benchmark – more than doubling previous benchmarks and achieve scale of 50,000 concurrent users. In addition, the architecture employed during this test cost less than $35K – or less than $0.70 per user, and incorporated new energy-efficient processors that generate up to 30% less power within an IT or datacenter environment. 

By comparison, an October 2008 performance test for Oracle Siebel Release 8.0 scaled to 14,000 users and 1.6 million daily transactions leveraging Sun hardware that cost more than $150,000. Compared to this benchmark, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM scalability test drove 3.5 times more users and almost 2 times more transactions – while reducing hardware costs nearly 80 percent.

New standards
This benchmark sets new CRM industry standards in Number of Users and the Cost-Per-User for large-scale deployments. The results also reinforce Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a smart, cost-effective solution for the largest enterprises. 

You can read the full press release on the blog here or at Microsoft PressPass here.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Enterprise-class scalability with reduced costs and environmental impact for on-premise and on-demand Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployments.

REDMOND, Wash. — June 3, 2009 — Microsoft and Intel Corporation announced performance results today for Microsoft Dynamics CRM that set new enterprise standards for scalability, cost and environmental sustainability. Through a combination of enterprise-class software and the latest Intel^® Xeon^® processor 5500 series, which can reduce server power consumption by up to 30 percent, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 scaled to more than 50,000 concurrent users over a high-volume workload — while experiencing subsecond response times.

“Our business strategy is to make CRM technology that is simple, flexible and affordable for companies of all sizes,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “In this benchmark, we’ve proved that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can handle extreme workloads with minimal investment in hardware and a reduced impact to the environment. We’re once again redefining the price-to-value equation in the CRM market, across all deployment models.”

By comparison, an October 2008 performance test for Oracle Siebel Release 8.0[i] scaled to 14,000 users and 1.6 million daily transactions leveraging Sun hardware that cost more than $150,000[ii]. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM benchmark scaled to more than 50,000 users and more than 2.9 million daily transactions — all from hardware that costs less than $35,000[iii], or $0.70 per user. In this comparison, Microsoft Dynamics CRM drove three and a half times more users and almost two times more transactions — while reducing hardware costs nearly 80 percent.

“Intel and Microsoft engineers worked together to optimize Microsoft Dynamics CRM for new Intel^® Xeon^® processor 5500 series-based servers with intelligent server technology capabilities and Intel Solid State Drives (SSDs),” said Boyd Davis, general manager, Intel Server Platforms Group. “This collaboration led to exceptional economic scalability and responsiveness results, which can enable companies of all sizes to deploy enterprise-class business solutions at a fraction of what these kinds of solutions have traditionally cost.”

Detailed performance tests and production runs were completed on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Windows SQL Server 2008 for 50,000 concurrent users, 5,000 concurrent users, 2,500 concurrent users, and 1,000 concurrent users. For scenarios with casual users or lower transaction rates per user, higher number of users can be accommodated. An executive summary of the performance and scalability benchmark is available by clicking here, and other white papers that outline the results of each test will be published in the coming weeks at http://crm.dynamics.com.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of adaptable, easy-to-use ERP and CRM applications that enable business decision-makers to run their business efficiently and drive business success. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

This newsletter is in Danish as it is targeting the Danish Partner Channel.

Så er den her! Den første udgave af Dynamics Sure Step Journal! God fornøjelse :-)

Dynamics SureStep er Microsofts tilbud til vores Dynamics-partnere om et fælles metodeværktøj. Et partner-værktøj til at gøre det nemt, hurtigt og effektivt at sælge, implementere og supportere vores Microsoft Dynamics-produkter.

Metoden understøtter processen fra salg over analyse og design og hjælper også med den efterfølgende support-forretning. Vi har samlet alt vores materiale på vores globale Dynamics Sure Step portal. Her kan du downloade selve metoden (browserbaseret applikation), referencehistorier fra kunder og partnere, marketingmaterialer og diverse hjælpeværktøjer.

Vi har oprettet et dedikeret Sure Step site på den danske del af PartnerSource. Det finder du her.

Skal du bruge et hurtigt overblik over, hvad Dynamics Sure Step er så klik ind og se vores webbaserede introduktion. På 45 min. gives et indblik i metoden, hvordan den kan anvendes og hvilke fordele, der kan opnås. Bemærk, at det kræver adgang til Partner Learning Center (PLC).

Skal du i gang med Dynamics Sure Step? Eller ønsker du en ”temperatur-måling” på implementeringen af metoden? Så se mere omkring Sure Step Adoption, der giver en let tilgængelig grafisk implementeringsguide, samt et on-line analyseværktøj som du kan bruge i din udvikling.

Såvel vore træningspartnere som Microsoft tilbyder løbende træning og kurser i Dynamics Sure Step. Følg med på PLC og PartnerSource og sørg for at være tilmeldt vores nyhedsmail via Insights. Du kan frit hente kursusmateriale (engelsk) fra vores globale Dynamics Sure Step portal. Der findes produktspecifikt materiale til Dynamics AX, NAV og CRM.

Har du behov for marketingsmateriale så findes hhv. kunderettet factsheet og en kundeportal (begge på engelsk). Relevant dansk materiale i form af præsentationer, fact sheets m.v. vil blive placeret på det danske Sure Step site.

Bemærk! Vi forudsætter, at du har en Partner Service Plan for at kunne få adgang til at bruge og anvende Dynamics Sure Step.

Med venlig hilsen
Thomas Halse, Dynamics SureStep Lead 

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

This blog post is for the Danish partners only - or more precisely, the content that it is referring to, is.

Her på bloggen har vi nu samlet kontaktoplysninger fra bl.a. GPSD for dig som partner. Du finder dem på deres helt egen side via linket her og med link nede til højre.

Så har du altid bl.a. email-adresser og telefonnumre lige ved hånden.

Vi ønsker dig fortsat god dag og god fornøjelse med CRM :-)

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

The DemoMate Team has announced the release of version 1.0.690.

"We’re proud to introduce a powerful new feature" – requested by the DemoMate community – that dramatically expands what you can do with your demos. Now, at the touch of a button, you can package your demo in an embeddable Silverlight player. This new feature is called “Package Tutorial”.

Once packaged, your demos can be hosted on a web site, run from your desktop, or even embedded in blogs, SharePoint portals, PowerPoint presentations, or other applications that support Silverlight.

To package a tutorial, simply create or open your demo, switch to the Share tab, and select Package Tutorial. To see an example of the new tutorial player in action, just click here or on the screenshot to the right. Be sure and check out the full-screen mode to see how clear and easy-to-follow the demo screens are at their full size.

Update your copy of DemoMate to take advantage of this new capability. Simply launch DemoMate and choose 'Install the Update' when prompted. Or, select 'Check for Updates' from the Help menu.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

We're pleased to announce that the fourth update to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide (4.4.0) is now available!

In our commitment to provide continuous publishing to our customers and partners, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide update 4.4.0 contains the following:

• Several new topics, including...
• Configure a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Internet-facing deployment
• Install E-mail Router on multiple computers
• Upgrading from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0
• Planning e-mail integration
• Performance Counters
• Included in this release is the entire IG assembled into a searchable compiled Help file (CHM)!
• A mini-table of contents located at the beginning of each Word document chapter to ease navigation.
• A change summary sheet that describes each correction and addition as well as its relative location in each guide

Plus more...

To verify that you’re viewing the latest version, open any of the guide document files or chm file, and then on the first page of the document the revision number is displayed. Again, the most current release is 4.4.0.

The change summary sheet is a separate document included in the package. The document file name is v4_4_0_ChangeSummary.doc.

Download the latest version here.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

With our new web site you can experience more success with Microsoft Dynamics by becoming more knowledgeable about better implementations.

A new web site and content is now available to help prospect customers learn more about how to be more successful with their Microsoft Dynamics investment by working with an experienced Microsoft partner that follows a proven methodology like Sure Step. This site is an integral part of the Sure Step strategy - to get prospect customers to ask partners the right questions about implementation processes and drive additional partner adoption of Sure Step.

Are you a partner?
For partners, this site helps communicate and justify to your customers the need for providing value-added services like training programs, fit gap analysis, etc. Also available is a to-customer fact sheet for Sure Step (through-partner co-branded) to help partners further position Sure Step to your prospect customers.

Are you a prospect customer?
For prospect customers, this site provides valuable information in the form of scenarios, case studies, sample implementation project documents and a reference guide. Before a customer buys a Microsoft Dynamics solution, the site provides information on what they can do to get more out of the investment. Customers are encouraged to work with an experienced Microsoft partner that follows a proven implementation methodology like sure step to address  five success areas in an implementation project, including:

• Securing Executive Commitment
• Arriving at a Smart Budget
• Undergoing Change Management
• Ensuring Strong Project Management
• Making Solution Modifications Manageable

Where to go?
Go here for more information and success
Go to Sure Step on PartnerSource

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 4 has been released and is now available via the download center.

Microsoft Download Center page

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article (KB968176) 

The build number of this update rollup package is 4.00.7333.1551.

Update Rollup 5 (UR5) will release on July 2nd.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Microsoft Dynamics CRM accelerates for Sales, Marketing and Service Management processes, we all know that. Now, with CCF – Customer Care Framework, Gartner acknowledges this by placing Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the "Leader" quadrant on the April 2009 released Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Service Contact Centers.

Gartner says this:

• The addition of the Microsoft CCF is a boost to Microsoft Dynamics CRM's capabilities.
• The user interface is intuitive and appeals to broad audiences familiar with the look-and-feel of Microsoft's applications.
• Microsoft is investing in knowledge solutions, Web self-service, business process capabilities and industry versions, adding to its basic customer service functionality.
• The concept of xRM, where the customer is given the tools to create its own brand of CRM solution, is useful to reach a broad audience

Valuable resources
Information on Microsoft.com
The Gartner report
CCF Deployment Guide
CCF Development Guide
Download CCF 2009 including SP1 go to 'Servers' and then 'CCF2009'.

Learn more from your Partner-newsletter in Insights and on PartnerSource.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

This is the fourth article in the three ( :-) ) part blog post series on The Power of Choice – for partners and customers in Denmark we have released a Click-Try-Buy site, where customers for 30 days can try and get to love Microsoft Dynamics CRM for free! The article is in Danish since it only targets the Danish market.

Microsoft Danmark har frigivet et nyt dansk site for hosted CRM, hvor interesserede nu kan prøve løsningen på dansk GRATIS i 30 dage - se mere på www.microsoft.dk/clicktrybuy.

Interesserede kan bl.a. også læse om CRM og se fire korte film, der stiller skarpt på, hvad CRM kan gøre for dem i lige præcis deres situation - med en rolle i marketing, salg, service eller ledelse.

Hvad kan du bruge dette til som partner?
Du kan med dette site lade dine kunder og emner få succesoplevelser med Microsoft Dynamics CRM ved at prøve det i 30 dage.

Vil de herefter blive ved med at høste udbyttet, kan de direkte på sitet købe CRM fra jer som partner hosted løsning eller traditionelt installeret løsning.

Hvad kan du bruge dette til, hvis du er kunde?
Du kan med dette site få afprøvet mulighederne med Microsoft Dynamics CRM i en periode på 30 dage, hvor du også har gratis adgang til hjælp og vejledning i at optimere din brug af løsningen. Vil du herefter blive ved med at høste udbyttet, kan du direkte på sitet købe fremtidig adgang til løsningen hos en CRM hosting partner. Alternativt kan du naturligvis også implementere CRM som en traditionel løsning, serviceret af IT-afdelingen.

Er du allerede CRM-kunde, kan du med dette site lade en kollega få succesoplevelser med Microsoft Dynamics CRM ved at prøve det eller du kan ’invitere en ven’, som også skal prøve alle fordelene ved Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Blot send linket sammen med en invitation om at opleve styrkerne og effekterne ved CRM!

Se mere om styrkerne og effekterne ved Microsoft Dynamics CRM her.

Hvordan gør du som partner?
Ønsker du at tilmelde dig denne kampagne, så kontakt Martin Houlberg Jensen på martinhj@microsoft.com og hør nærmere om betingelserne.

Hvad siger markedet lige nu?
Ifølge en række analytikere vil der inden for de næste år kunne ses en stigning i danske virksomheders investeringer i CRM løsninger. Vi kan allerede se denne tendens og den er blevet yderligere forstærket af den økonomiske situation, der motiverer virksomheder og organisationer til at stille skarpt på procesoptimering, øget kundeservice og -loyalitet samt omkostningsreduktion samtidig med forretningsudvikling. Dette er essenserne af CRM!

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Dear partner,

Sure Step is important to secure rapid, solid and effective implementation of the customers CRM application and business changes around CRM processes. This blog post presents you with some important resources for you to secure your business and projects. Use and benefit, power-up and succeed!

Assess your knowledge of Sure Step
Use this free, fast, online assessment to verify how well you know Sure Step. Upon completion of the assessment you will receive a learning plan to help guide you in your efforts to continually enhance your Sure Step implementation skills. Mastering Sure Step enables our partners to minimize risk, improve customer satisfaction, and increase efficiency!

Learn more on PartnerSource here.

Get your success story out
Submit your reference nomination - a customer that is willing to speak with partners and prospect customers and tell how Sure Step and the partner - you  - gave them value during the implementation project and secured the basis for a solid and long term CRM solution.

Contact Sure Step Lead for Denmark and Iceland, Thomas Ødum Halse with your great story on how Sure Step helped improve your implementation projects and secured the customer satisfaction on a higher level.

New Sure Step Partner Case Study Now Available
Learn how a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner experienced fast growth in its Microsoft Dynamics CRM practice, found ways to secure all pending business and use resources more effectively, control costs, and increase customer satisfaction. With sound methodology, best practices, guidance, and documentation, the Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step Methodology proved to be a comprehensive business-enabling resource. Since this partner adopted the methodology, it has used Sure Step to scope every implementation project and close a significant volume of new business. Clearly set expectations and careful planning boost customer confidence and help customers realize solution benefits rapidly. And, with Sure Step tools and materials, the partner minimizes the cost and risk of complex projects, streamlines technical training, and gains valuable efficiencies in its resource utilization.

Read the full case study here and consider how you can benefit in similar ways.

For more information, read the announcement on the Sure Step Spring 2009 Release here.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Now you will learn why I in March blogged about UC and OCS. The reason is - besides that UC is great and enables business development and improvement within communication processes - that we have made and now released the glue that binds CRM and OCS together to empower yet another big step for all companies.

The glue is called Agent Communications Panel - ACP. It offers a lot of improvement possibilities including:

• make the employees CRM desktop aware of customer in focus and the history, ongoing orders, projects etc. – directly and automatic access all CRM knowledge
• by looking up the customer in CRM on incoming phone call the employee will have displayed customer data and saves valuable time plus is fueled with extra valuable knowledge
• more effective internal communication on customers, customer cases, projects, pipeline, ongoing tasks and other relation processes
• exchange 'customer' above with the contact points in your line of business and repeat all, for instance vendors, patients etc. - xRM!

 
Example of how ACP looks for the customer care worker.

What is the Agent Communications Panel (ACP)?
ACP is an application add-in to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 by the Office Communication Services (OCS) team. It combines Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

What does it do?
It enables contact center and call center agents to manage their communications (make calls, receive calls, conference, and chat) from within their Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

Technical info
The Agent Communications Panel is an XAML browser application (XBAP). It is published to a Web server and opened from a Web browser.
ACP is released in English and there are no plans to release the ACP in any other languages.
The OCS team has released the technical documentation on the download site.

Get & use
The ACP is a free download and is supported by the OCS team.
To get it and learn more go to the Microsoft download center here.
To read more about UC go here.
To read more about OCS read my blog posts from March 2009.
To read more about CRM go here.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team