Michael Cross - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Consultant » Customize http://michaelcrossconsultant.com Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to improve your relationships with customers and increase your sales and profits. Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:51:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 THE best new feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Titan) http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/11/15/the-best-new-feature-of-microsoft-dynamics-crm-40-titan/ http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/11/15/the-best-new-feature-of-microsoft-dynamics-crm-40-titan/#comments Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:45:49 +0000 admin http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/11/15/the-best-new-feature-of-microsoft-dynamics-crm-40-titan/ What’s the best new feature of Microsoft CRM 4.0?

  1. Improved workflow functionality
  2. Built-in report designer
  3. Additional entity relationship options (many-to-many, system-to-system, etc.)
  4. Duplicate detection
  5. Improved data import and migration functionality
  6. Built-in mail merge templates

My vote goes to the several new options for entity relationships, including many-to-many, system-to-system, and self-referential.

These options go beyond the user and make Microsoft Dynamics CRM even more powerful as a platform for business growth.

What’s your favorite new feature? Why?

]]> http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/11/15/the-best-new-feature-of-microsoft-dynamics-crm-40-titan/feed/ 0 Is Open Source software for you? Read this article to find out. http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/07/14/is-open-source-software-for-you-read-this-article-to-find-out/ http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/07/14/is-open-source-software-for-you-read-this-article-to-find-out/#comments Sun, 15 Jul 2007 01:38:32 +0000 admin http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/07/14/is-open-source-software-for-you-read-this-article-to-find-out/ If you ever wonder whether open source software would be good for you (it’s free, isn’t it?), then I recommend you read this article on open source software.

The most illuminating part is the last two paragraphs on page 2:

“If you take this path, you become a software development firm, and that kind of company needs to be run differently than a traditional retailer,” says Dustin Roberston, vice president of marketing. “The to-do list for maintaining the site gets so jammed that if you don’t have developers to throw at it, the list just grows and grows.”

Backcountry has 25 developers and engineers on a staff of 260. And Jenkins admits that even open-source software has limitations that the best developers cannot overcome. In those cases, he’s perfectly happy to purchase old-fashioned licensed applications. “I’m not going to go the extra mile just to be the zealot,” he says.

Very interesting, isn’t it?

Now, if your company doesn’t have developers on staff, but you still want a CRM application that is flexible and can be customized with minimal programming, then check out Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The architecture of Microsoft CRM allows non-programmers to customize the application to meet your needs. Microsoft calls this “Affordable Adaptability” and this is one reason why I love Microsoft CRM (although I’ll be the first to tell you it’s not perfect).

An example is the fulfillment process that I created for a client.

This example should give you some idea of what can be done with Microsoft CRM when the standard functionality doesn’t meet your needs.

]]> http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/07/14/is-open-source-software-for-you-read-this-article-to-find-out/feed/ 0 Case Study on Designing a Fulfillment Process using Microsoft Dynamics CRM http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/07/04/case-study-on/ http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/07/04/case-study-on/#comments Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:10:21 +0000 admin http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/07/04/case-study-on/ I wrote a case study on designing a fulfillment process using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and posted it on my companies blog. Check it out and let me know what you think. I would love to hear how other people have addressed similiar requirements.

]]> http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/07/04/case-study-on/feed/ 0 Stick with Accounts and Contacts! http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/04/27/stick-with-accounts-and-contacts/ http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/04/27/stick-with-accounts-and-contacts/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2007 01:50:31 +0000 admin http://michaelcrossconsultant.com/2007/04/27/stick-with-accounts-and-contacts/ Do you think that different types of organizations (e.g., customers, prospects, vendors, etc.) or people (customers, prospects, service providers, etc.) should be tracked in different entities within Microsoft CRM 3.0?

For example, should you leave customers within the Account entity, and vendors within a custom entity? Why or why not?

One reason why you should do your best to keep organizations within the Account entity, and individuals within the Contact entity is so that you can take advantage of as much native functionality within CRM as possible.

For example, did you know that sending an e-mail only works with Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Users, and Queues? So if you create a custom entity with an nvarchar attribute in the format of e-mail, Microsoft CRM will not be able to use that entity or field to send an e-mail, either manually or via workflow.

Want to use the Case Management functionality to track cases for customers and other types of organizations tracked using custom entities? Sure, you can do that. What they don’t tell you is that you should not expect to be able to send automated e-mails to the organization shown in the lookup for the custom entity.

This is just one example of limitations of custom entities.

So when it comes to companies and people, be smart and stick with Accounts and Contacts.

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