Dynamics CRM & Bing Maps Integration
Many of the clients we speak with wish to have Microsoft Bing map integrations, but want to use standard address fields instead of latitude / longitude. Using CRM 2011’s OData query capabilities and Microsoft’s Bing web API, this can be achieved using a single HTML page within the CRM solution file. Madrona Solution Group has developed a simple HTML file that works the out-of-the-box contact entity using the standard address fields.
SalesForce.com: Round Robin, Round Robin, Assign Me a Record – For Free Please
Are you spending your valuable time assigning Salesforce.com Cases or Leads manually when you could be spending your time doing something more productive? Would you like for your Cases and Leads to be automatically assigned directly to your team members and distributed equally among them? If so, here are a couple of great, free Round Robin Assignment options to assist you.
Forecast: Cloudy with Eventual Challenges
Understanding data sources for acquiring and integrating data is rarely a slam dunk. After all, each data source is like an employee in a company, unique coming to the table with similar content and behavior but there are underlying differences, sometimes very subtle, indicating the person is from somewhere else. My favorite example, the way the word coffee is annunciated across the US puts a little more insight on where a person may be from, says the Jersey girl. Unlike the accents where you understand the word and carry on with meaningful communication, data sourcing nuances define the phrase, the devil is in the details. Delta’s vs. full pulls, does the file need interception for cleanup, SLAs/ OLAs, upstream sources, downstream consumers…oh my. Not to mention the sensitive task of data classification requirements, PII (Personally Identifiable Information) vs. (Non PII) that data owners and integrators need to collaborate closely on.
Turning On Salesforce.com For Media - Article by Darren Smith
One of our Senior Consultants, Darren Smith, has published an article in conjunction with Ad Monsters focused on utilizing Salesforce.com in a media focused organization. Full content of the article can be found here: http://www.admonsters.com/blog/turning-salesforcecom-media.
CRM 2011 Logging to Event Viewer Application
Recently, one of our clients decided to move their CRM installation to an internal server. Their team had been using CRM Online, but the reporting limitations (fetchxml) and a few other issues became high priority issues, and so inside the network we went.
Salesforce.com’ s Winter Release Brings Easy Access to Social Networks
Traditionally our interactions with customers and the profiles we create from those interactions have been gathered and managed from within our CRM solution; regardless how well or poorly it was implemented and adopted. If the most diligent processes and efforts were followed, at best “half” of a profile could be achieved. The holy grail of Contact information in CRM has always been a complete and up to date 360’ view. And with the rise of social networks to allow customers to have data about themselves available online and in real time, this looked to be a real possibility.
Scribe for Excel to Microsoft CRM 2011: Optionset / Picklist Value Lookup
Sometimes, we just need a good example of how to write some simple code. We don't have the time to parse / read / undertand all the possible ways of doing something - just tell us what to do for this one thing I know everyone has to do already.
Scribe for Excel to Microsoft CRM 2011: Date values
When using Scribe to import data into Microsoft CRM 2011 organization from Excel, sometimes date values need to be pull into strings (e.g. ensuring unique names) with the serial number Excel stores for the values. This often happens when I use Functions. I just want the date, so how do I do it?
Troubled Project Management - How to Get Them Back on the Right Path to Success
Many of us as project managers have come across a situation where we have been asked to take over a project that is "in trouble". Some of the reasons for this may include:
Creating Pivots From Excel Exports of Reports Made With the Report Wizard
There is an error generated when users try to pivot on an Excel export generated from a report made with Ad Hoc report wizard in CRM:
"The PivotTabIe field name not valid. To create a PivotTable report, you must use data that is organized as a list with labeled columns. If you are changing the name of a PivotTabIe field, you must type a new name for the field."
Duplicate Detection Rules Automatically Unpublished
I have been discussing the need for some duplicate detection rules for our custom entities with a client. I created them. I published them. I tested them, they worked great, and I deleted the duplicate records in our test environment. Note: for more information on CRM Duplicate Detection Rules, please see the MSDN post from a few years ago, it's pretty much the same. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2007/11/20/duplicate-detection-rules-defined.aspx
The Truth About Front Office / Back Office Integrations
Front office / back office integrations set my teeth on edge. For anyone that has spent a significant amount of time working on them, you know that they often elicit fear from those involved. There are some good reasons for this. First of all, they’re one of the few areas of a larger project that have to be 100% on day 1 of deployment. This type of integration is also typically the most visible component of a larger project, and it usually is the most challenging technically (as you may only have expertise in one of the 3 applications involved). The flip-side of this wariness is excitement at the challenges ahead, but it always pays to go into integrations of this type with the right mentality.
A Process Framework in Action
It is said that a picture is worth a 1,000 words, however in my experience a process framework diagram is worth 10,000 or more when it comes to solution design and here is why… In this month’s blog, we will look at a process framework in action, illustrating the power and importance of using this tool to implement working solutions that achieve results…
Using Conga Composer with Salesforce.com
Several months ago we posted a review of the Quote capability that was added to SalesForce.com. In particular we discussed the template editor. Our conclusion was that it provides the very basic needs for generating a quote, but there were limitations in designing and creating a template. In working with clients who need to convert existing templates from a word document to the template editor, we found limitations in reaching a complete recreation. In cases where a more eloquent and robust solution is needed we found Conga Composer from AppExtremes a great alternative.
How To Migrate Attachments From One Salesforce.com Org To Another
We were recently asked to split a client’s Salesforce.com Org into three separate Orgs and migrate/improve the associated business processes and data into the appropriate new Org. When it came time to migrate the attachments, we ran into some obstacles not covered by the basic Salesforce Online Help and Training catalog. The challenges we faced were based around the number of attachments stored in the Org (over 1.3 million attachments) and the size of the attachments (over half of the attachments were larger than 2MB and ranged in sized to up to just over 4 MB).
Getting your Thoughts and Data into the Cloud
A Critical Framework to Turn Goals into Results
Without clarity into how your company operates, it is easy to make uninformed decisions, which materialize in costly projects that deploy poor solutions that produce little benefit.
This is the first in a series of blogs that explores a critical framework used to avoid producing meaningless solutions, and help turn company goals into meaningful results.
Alternatives to BizTalk SQL Adapters
Everyone who has done BizTalk development is familiar with the SQL Adapter options for reading and writing information to a database. While there are some great benefits to using the SQL Adapter in certain instances (such as reading data from a stored procedure on a timed bases), but for most solutions that have database interactions SQL Adapters (even in BizTalk 2010) are not the most appropriate option.
Nucleus Research Confirms Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.com as Top CRM Applications
Nucleus Research recently completed a technology value matrix for CRM applications. This matrix utilizes overall application functionality and usability to rate CRM applications.
Dynamics CRM 2011 Auditing
Microsoft has provided out-of-box auditing functionality that far exceeds what was manually available in Dynamics CRM 4.0. In CRM 4.0, audit logs had to be created manually with custom entities and subsequent mappings. There were also third party tools available to address this need, but they were often cumbersome to use and expensive.
Showing Related Entities on a Form in CRM 2011
Frequently, businesses want to see 1-N and N-N entities displayed on related forms. In CRM 4, this required custom coding with an i-frame, but CRM 2011 provides this functionality thru out of the box configuration.
The steps below will walk you through adding a 1-N or N-N entity using the Sub-Grid customization.
Fetch XML - 2000 Character Limitation
FetchXML is among one of our favorite tools within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. On the client, we use fetch XML along with Avanade’s CrmService.jsfile to retrieve very small amounts of data usually less than 5 records. We recently found fetchXML has a limitation that isn’t related to joins, filters or aggregates (all limitations related to these areas are well documented in the CRM SDK).
A review of the SalesForce.com Template Editor
When the Salesforce.com Spring 10 release hit sales organizations last year, we finally had the ability to generate a quote and send it via a PDF to a customer, using native functionality called Quotes. The process was designed to take the user from the opportunity, to the quote page, to generating a PDF to emailing to the customer in seamless process. Pertinent information is automatically brought over from the opportunity record to the quote page (which can also be adjusted to capture needed information for the template). The quote is than saved and ready to generate a PDF from a template you choose. This process by design encourages that any all data need to generate a quote be captured in Salesforce.com to be easily accessed and placed on the template, a time savings we can all appreciate.
Dependent Option Sets in CRM 2011
It is a very common businesses requirement to limit the values in one Option Set (called picklist in previous versions of CRM) based on the value set in another one. After investigating several ways of addressing this common business requirement, we have come up with code that does the following:
- Provides robust filtering code that can be used globally (on any form).
- Relationship setup must be easily done in one place.
- Actual option set values and not the index must be used.
Dynamics CRM 2011 Security Features
Many of our clients have complex business requirements associated with the securtiy of their CRM application. The Madrona team employed a mix of CRM configuration and custom code in earlier CRM versions to meet the business requirements, but the tool supports many more items natively with the release of Dynamics CRM 2011. This is an overview of the security changes and provides some interesting details to consider while configuring CRM 2011.
CRM for Professional Services
CRM for Professional Services
This is another of a series of posts we'll do exploring how to best setup a CRM system to fit a specific organization's needs. A few specific business challenges to keep in mind when looking at setting up CRM for professional services organizations, and a few suggested approaches when modeling the system are outlined below.
Key Challenges
Capturing the right early and late stage sales metrics that are most indicative of how the sales team is performing - Most of the services organizations we work with have quite a few metrics they live by around their operations. They tend to track staff utilization, average bill rates, and revenue in the pipeline. However, the most successful organizations also have a couple of key additional metrics that they keep a close eye on to evaluate the true health of their pipeline. This depends a little bit from organization to organization, but there are a couple of common elements.
CRM for Publishers
CRM for Publishers
This is one of series of posts we'll do exploring how to best setup a CRM system to fit an identified business need. We will provide a few things to keep in mind when looking at CRM packages, and a few suggested approaches when modeling the system are outlined below. This specific post will focus on publishers, specifically those focused on selling advertising.
Key Challenges
Setting up the relationship between Advertisers and Agencies - Almost all publishers are dealing with a complicated landscape where on some deals the buyer is the advertiser, on others it's an agency, and on some the buyer may be one organization and the payer separate. Regardless, it is critical to work with systems and people who understand this relationship and have the capacity to setup the CRM system to track not only the advertiser and agency on the deal, but also to roll up metrics that give insight into who the most influential agencies are, as well as provide the ability to track specific agency individuals and their inter-relationship with multiple advertisers.
Keys to the Adoption of a CRM Platform
Having seen hundreds of CRM implementations, the most common complaint that crops up over and over is "We invested a significant amount of energy and money, but our team (particularly sales) just isn't using the system the way we expected, and as a result we don't get much out of it".
Over some upcoming posts we'll explore all the things you do during the process of building an application to make it great, but for now, we'll take a minute and address the elephant in the CRM room. Most CRM systems fundamentally are not consistently adopted by sales and marketing organizations. Here's a list of the top 10 areas you can focus on to drive adoption regardless of whether you are starting a new implementation or struggling with adoption.
Is the application simple enough? Virtually every organization wants to provide things that are easy to use for their peers, but far too frequently the CRM tools will get cluttered with layer after layer of fields, workflows, and customizations to the point where sales and marketing users are thoroughly confused about how to do their day to day job. It simply can't be overstated that the CRM system is a tool to enhance sales and marketing's ability to get their work done, and with that in mind it must be simple for even the shortest attention span user to quickly click through the forms and record key data. We very frequently find that some of the most robust applications end up as shelf-ware while applications that were consciously designed with a minimalist structure end up heavily used, and it's this initial adoption that drives them to become a core part of the business. If there's one thing you retain from this post, it should be that if you are struggling with adoption today, the most likely thing you can do to improve the situation is to simplify the UI, remove excess fields, get rid of extraneous workflows, and pare to the core business process followed by most users.
Keys to a Successful CRM Strategy
There is always more than one way to deliver great CRM tools, and there are many, many ways to design and deliver an application that sits idly by while people go about working in email and spreadsheets. However, we've found that every organization that masters the following components ends up with a platform with high rates of adoption that drives the business forward.
Managing CRM Projects
In this post, we'll outline an approach we commonly use for organizing resources to roll out a CRM platform.
First and foremost, a CRM platform project is like any other business project. You'll constantly be managing competing priorities of timeline, resources, and quality. With that in mind, if you're particularly interested in understanding how to manage projects, I would highly recommend Scott Berkun's book "Making Things Happen". We've consistently found Scott's insights and approach to be valuable in navigating projects.
That said, I think there are some keys to successfully managing CRM projects. These keys are based on my experience that a handful of things are true for almost all CRM platform projects. These underlying truths are: