Microsoft Dynamics CRM - The Danish blog : making business

Microsoft Office Communications Server - addendum, download links

martinhj@microsoft.com — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:34:00 GMT

Thanks for all the input. This addendum post gathers download resources.

Trial Downloads
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2
Attendant
Group Chat: Server Client Administration Tool
Group Policy Documentation
SDK
UCMA 2.0 Speech Language Packs

Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2
Pocket PC
Smartphone

Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 SDK
(32 bit) (64-bit)

Other
Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 client
Office Communicator Phone Edition (2007 R2)
Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

The new Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 - imagine this together with CRM

martinhj@microsoft.com — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:11:00 GMT

Here is a brilliant opportunity to get more out of CRM and at the same time to cut cost on travel, shorten the customer service cycle and bringing colleagues closer together, not meaning geographically but purely process-wise.

OCS empowers collaboration with customized presence states, Group Chat, Live Meeting, sharing desktop and more, even with the customer, is just at your fingertips and all of this goes very nicely hand in hand with the CRM system.

Are you already working with presence states and saving valuable time in calling or chatting with the right person available immediately instead of trying to reach busy colleagues and chasing somebody, who can help? Save a lot of time by knowing on beforehand if he or she is available, and if not, get notified when they become available.

More great possibilities include:

Audio conference call with customers and colleagues - online, with the click of ONE button, just invite to an appointment in Outlook
Build it into live business applications and business processes - Microsoft Dynamics CRM for one :-)
Move conversations between applications and devices - only focusing on the task at hand
Instant messaging with more than just plain text (namely rich text) and with more than one person, even go to Group Chat

A lot of really nice and business wise features are at the center of the new OCS and I urge you to take a closer look at the material and product. Just think of the added business value and possible developments of the business.

Now, look out for an upcoming blog post on CRM closer together with OCS.

Powerful stuff!

Useful links

Product Overview

Understanding unified communications for the call center

Getting Started

Downloads

Deployment Guide

Attendant Deployment Guide

Supported Migration Paths and Coexistence Scenarios

Capacity Planning

Thank you to Dietmar Dossow for some very useful TechNet-resources.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

AX/NAV CRM or Dynamics CRM?

martinhj@microsoft.com — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:19:00 GMT

The mayor part of my side meetings at the 'Best of...' event in Iceland last week, were around whether companies should choose AX or NAV CRM or Dynamics CRM and what Microsoft is focusing on over the next years. Customers were asking about differences, advantages of the one or the other and our plans for the future.

This has given me the incentive to repeat some key points clarify and elaborate on the topic here on the blog and to give some of my conceptual angles and answers to the question "What is better for us?"

When you go and ask Microsoft, may it be a PTS or Sales person, they will properly start asking you some questions to better understand your business before answering. That is because the answer is very much depending on a number of key elements of your needs and ambitions with CRM.

So, the short answer is that you typical will have to go both ways, not for all users but for the company as a whole.

The longer and more extensive answer is depending on a number of factors including what you mean by CRM, what you want to do with it and in which environment it will live.

Consider these three questions:

How do you define CRM?
What are your ambitions with CRM?
What's the universe like in which CRM will find its success?

Definition of CRM
Does it mean moving goods or attending customers? Or both? Is it for developing your business or managing it?

Look at the processes, map them and look at the users - employees and automations - handling them.

If a process is product oriented; logistical, SCM like, interacting with customers around product offers and delivery, go for the CRM world tightly combined with or in your ERP system - AX or NAV CRM and integrate with the rest of your business applications like Office, Outlook, document storage etc.

If a process if about activities and interactions with people, communication, knowledge, information storage and skills like this, go for the CRM world in your dynamic and agile business world, the world of Office and Dynamics CRM and integrate/combine with your ERP-system.

Ambitions with CRM
What will you have CRM do? Act as the platform and/or portal for the users? Combine information from different sources? Be the tool for business development, optimizing business processes, developing you customer service skills?

Look at your company's world of CRM, at the CRM-strategy, at the skill level of the organization and the driving factors of 'CRM' in your world.

If you want a tight interaction between Sales and Logistic, Logistic and Service, Production and Sales, Production and Logistic etc. you will want to go for CRM in your ERP system for supporting these processes.

If you want a tight interaction between Sales and Service, your customers and Sales, Service and your customers, Marketing and Sales etc., you will go for Dynamics CRM.

CRM universe
Take your IT environment into consideration. Also take a close look at your employees and their skills. Do you want CRM as a supporting mechanism or driving sales? Are the users in focus for CRM processes mainly ERP minded or CRM minded? Do they work with numbers and rules all day, or do they (want to) live a flexible and dynamic day with their customers?

If your business processes centers around the ERP system and most or all processes somewhere along the way go through here, you will want to go for CRM in your ERP system.

If you have the future CRM users work less time in applications and would like to focus on automating processes, optimizing processes, packaging functionality, let's say for employees that (should) focus on the interaction part of the customer dialogue, you would like to go the Dynamics CRM direction.

In conclusion
Again, within many successful companies of today we see both CRM scenarios as described above:

Some employees will be on the road most of their working hours visiting customers. A lot of processes connect them with their colleagues in the office and both groups will expect a supporting CRM tool which is easier to use than a typical ERP system. The tool should have a user interface similar to other tools familiar to them – like e.g. Microsoft Outlook.
Other employees within the same company work in a back office function expecting a CRM tool to support campaigns with a large number of transactions, that are tightly connected to other entities in the ERP system – like inventory items, price lists, etc.

Conclusion: Most often, it is not a question of either/or – but both/and and fortunately Microsoft offers the right and best answer for most of the situations :-)

Thanks to my brilliant colleague Per Christensen (PMM for AX and NAV) for establishing this overview together with me.

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Smart business: How Microsoft Dynamics help customers save money

martinhj@microsoft.com — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:28:00 GMT

Also - one would even say especially - for us in the delivery link of the chain, this is important knowledge. Go via the link to the tools and further information on how to support and help your customers in these challenging times.

Without a doubt, the current economic situation is a topic that is on both your and your customers' minds. The question that is consistently being asked by our customers is “How can Microsoft help save our company money?” Microsoft Dynamics solutions can help save customers money and we encourage you to be proactive in sharing these cost ideas with them.

Click here for more information.

Use, benefit and Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Invitation for coming ISV's: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Discovery Days

martinhj@microsoft.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:08:00 GMT

Are you looking to join Microsoft's ISV program? Are you interested in building on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform?

What are the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Discovery Days?
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is Microsoft's customer relationship management solution for small business, midsized companies and large enterprises. It provides a complete suite of powerful marketing, sales, and service capabilities, all with a familiar and consistent user experience based on Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook.

However Microsoft Dynamics CRM is as well a mighty, web services based development platform that allows the development of all kinds of applications. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM –Discovery Days are a 2 (two) day free training class that teaches you how to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a development platform.

What’s in it for you as an ISV?
Get to know Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a rich, state of the art, development platform! By creating a sample application on your own you will experience how easy and productive it is to develop with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. You will also benefit from tips & tricks on how to develop the industry solution of your unique expertise!
Once your Microsoft Dynamics CRM industry solution is released, other Microsoft partners might also find your solution great in order to deliver even more complete and specialized solutions to their customers. This gives you additional sales opportunities!

Who should attend?
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Discovery Days classes are designed for programmers and technical oriented people. We recommend to have people attending who have development experience in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Although they are not required, participant’s skills sets should allow passing the following Microsoft exams:
• 70-526- TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 – Windows-Based Client Development
• 70- 528 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 - Web-Based Client Development
Specific Dynamics CRM knowledge however is not required.

Training Content
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Discovery Days classes focus on using Dynamics CRM as a development platform to develop a sample application.

How to proceed
When you have attended the Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Discovery Days training class you will be able to start developing your solution on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform right when you are back to your office! The CD provided contains components like a download link to a Microsoft Virtual PC Image of Dynamics CRM, the complete course material and lots of useful technical and business information.

Business wise Microsoft will get in touch with you to develop together with you the best business model to market your solution together with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Dates
January 12th and 13th 2009 in Copenhagen.

Registration and more information

Queries
Please contact DynamISV@microsoft.com

Join us and welcome!

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Convergence 2008 - day 1: Three words for you: Customer Service

martinhj@microsoft.com — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:47:00 GMT

Kirill Tatarinov’s keynote today talked about the 3 main aims of our software: People, Process and Ecosystem. He showcased real life examples and customer cases, bringing our thoughts around technology alive right there on stage. If you were there, you know what I mean :-) He also made it quite clear what companies have gained with the Microsoft platform.

One of the very important areas of a powerful Ecosystem is connectivity - and Kirill mentioned eService as an example of connecting with customers. This CRM Accelerator invites your customers into your Dynamics CRM system – effectively connecting with your customers. That will drive and inspire customer service and ease the initiatives companies can benefit on as well as servicing customers in a more effective and UX-adoptable way.

Three words for you: Customer Service!

Main focus for today and our entire business:

1. Customer – User Experience (UX), needs and wants of the market

2. Service – Microsoft platform to service all: users, IT and customer relations

3. Customer Service – combining and empowering company’s strengths with Microsoft products

That is the essential of Microsoft, our partner-community and Convergence!

See you there.
Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Convergence 2008 - day 0: Partner briefing

martinhj@microsoft.com — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:37:00 GMT

All,

I'm bloging from Convergence 2008 in Copenhagen.

Convergence kicked off today at Copenhagen! The prime Microsoft event for business decision makers. Approximately 4000 participants, the most focused partners and an offering of many powerful and insightful sessions throughout the two days - Wednesday 19th of November and Thursday 20th of November.

This morning’s keynote hosted by Klaus Holse Andersen really put the spotlight on what focus Microsoft has on the challenged market, the financial situation and our part in helping companies into a lighter future.

Company’s primary focus
We’ve been out talking to customers; listen to concerns and pains and how we can be of help and service. Some are optimistic and alert and the main focus is on improving people productivity. Kirill Tatarinov gave his angle on our main common goal. Part of that is securing that customers are taking full advantage of the Microsoft platform. Dynamics’ products are empowering companies for improved customer service, business productivity, the benefits of xRM and much more.

Overall user experience (UX) is in focus. Industry platforms and vertical solutions will help partners drive segmentation and customers optimize business. Many tracks at Convergence will give ideas, inspiration and answers to customer’s tasks to get through the tuff market situation and minimize the impact on their business. Customers have the opportunity to connect with partners and Microsoft and learn how our software supports and inspire companies to drive their business onwards.

Doug Kennedy, VP of Microsoft Dynamics Partners Team WW, talked about partner’s value from Microsoft and to customers and he presented his look at partner’s opportunities in the market. If you as a partner have the completeness of a solution for the customer, you will have outstanding results.

A big thank you to all partners for your effort around Convergence and for all the work for the customers.

Let’s go!
Let’s unleash the potential in an uncertain market.
Let’s make sure, that we maximize return on investments in sales, marketing and service.
Let’s help all to get the overview and insight in their businesses health and direction.

See you there.
Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

CRM at Convergence 2008 in Copenhagen

martinhj@microsoft.com — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:02:00 GMT

Hi all

Signed up for Convergence this year?

This master event will give you knwoledge, insights, inspiration, networking, business opporutnities and ideas and a lot more - maybe even a few surpises :-) You can meet and listen to some of the greatest personalities of the Microsoft community starting with the kickoff keynote by Kirill Tatarinov.

Be sure to come by the MS pavilion booth 33-36, where I will be showcasing the Accelerators for Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Wednesday, November 19 hours 11-14 and again Thursday, November 20 hours 13-15.30.

Many interesting tracks are offered through out this big two-day event. Grap the opportunities, for example - focusing on CRM, of course :-) :

CRM02 Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Understanding the Business Value of On-Premise and On-Demand Deployment Options
CRM07 Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Extending the Power of Sales Force Automation
CRM12 Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Applying xRM within your Organization
CRM13 Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Extending Your Solution
CRM14 Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Better Together with Microsoft Office SharePoint

There is a lot more, both CRM and other tracks.

Learn more here:

See you there.
Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Hosted CRM 4.0 Trial Site - now open for business

martinhj@microsoft.com — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:37:00 GMT

The NEW 4.0 version of the Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM Trial Site is now available - powering FREE 60-day TRIALS for anyone who wants to evaluate the product prior to a purchase. Invite prospects to feel and love Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM Trial Site, while hosted by Microsoft, IS NOT Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The CRM Trial Site is a distinct implementation available for trial purposes only, available to worldwide prospects, Field and Partners.

Goto: http://www.hostedmicrosoftcrmtrial.com

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team

Citizen Service Platform - help Local and Regional Governments meet the needs of their Citizens

martinhj@microsoft.com — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:02:00 GMT

On CodePlex - Microsoft's open source project hosting web site - you can find many projects of interest, in particular the Citizen Service Platform. This project is designed to hold solutions built upon the Microsoft platform using SharePoint, Dynamics CRM and the Windows Live platform that can be used to help Local and Regional Governments meet the needs of their Citizens. To see an online hosted demonstration of the templates in action, and other Public Sector demonstrations please visit the http://www.microsoftpsdemos.com site.

Enter the CodePlex/CSP site here.

For even more information have a look at http://www.microsoft.com/csp and http://www.citizenserviceplatform.com

Enjoy! :-)

Martin Houlberg Jensen
CRM Evangelist
Microsoft Dynamics CRM team