TIDBITS on the Microsoft Power Platform

Many years ago when I was trying to ramp up on all things Microsoft Dynamics CRM, I started with the What's new features. I took each feature and mastered it and moved to the next. We also had a great need to depend on books and externally provided information. Needless to say one reason I wrote a book.

Today is Different.

Today developers new to Microsoft Dynamics CRM are lucky to have the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Center.

If you have not visited, check it out!

I can certainly go on and on about all that is wonderful about working with both Office 365 and CRM Online every day.

I can mention items such as having access to the complete hierarchy of my accounts and contacts easily accessible on my phone, to not having to wonder if the calendar on my phone, within my CRM system or on my computer has everything that I am suppose to know about,  BUT

I just read this summary of amazing business productivity when using the suite so I am sharing here for your reading enjoyment.

Screen shots, Videos, Words all wrapped up in one.

Enjoy! 

Oh Partners and IT Department Leads:

Is it time that your little data center gets an injection of extreme power and versatility? What about adding to your customers CRM Online experience?

Check out this great blog post on CRM Online + Azure

I was on a call today, actually the incredible CRM Community Technology call and in addition to the great content being presented, we also had a very active IM window of discussions happening. Yes, I can multi-task.

So always learning, I posted a question/statement about synchronizing group e-mails with Dynamics CRM Online. As it turns out my assumption that this could not be done was wrong.

So I went out to do a bit more learning on the newer GROUPS feature of Office 365 and how it interacts with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the CRM Outlook Client.

If you start with the Office "Find Help about Groups" you will quickly see how much is available.

You them might want to read Jesper's post on Office 365, Groups and CRM Online.  

and for a summary the Office team has written Delivering the First Chapter on Groups.

What is amazing about synchronization is how absolutely difficult distributed data technology can be. There are a huge number of variables that the team continues to nail and hit out of the park, none of which can be under-estimated. So to read more about Synchronization check this out.

So you ramped up a development instance, used it heavily, crammed a bunch of testing into it and now you want a clean fresh start. The following is how you delete a development or sandbox instance of CRM Online.

Switch or delete an instance of CRM Online

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn531078.aspx#BKMK_SwitchDelete

Switch an instance

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn896590.aspx

Delete an instance

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn896592.aspx

Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Salesforce? A question faced by business leaders thinking about the heartbeat of their company. They want to take what they think is the easy road and grab onto a package that perhaps has a ton of buzz, is sexy or one of their peer firms use or maybe they don't want to consider all the value that services brings to the transformation. Microsoft Dynamics CRM soars with an excellent services consulting team. Technology + People + Process .... 

Why? Because there is so much choice! AND choice requires decisions and decision means a tighter fit for your way of doing business and a competitive edge in the marketplace. 

Believe it or Not when it comes to CRM, it is not just the application. Nor the bells or the whistles, or the backend database, it is about a partnership with the vendor and the services provider AND all the great technologies. A partner who is going to be with you through many years of growth. 

Recently I saw a great blog post about great companies switching away from Salesforce to Dynamics CRM.

As quoted in the article

"While each of these companies have unique customer engagement needs, they all have some things in common: the need for increased productivity, the desire to engage more deeply and consistently with their customers, and faster time to value."

So as you consider your options, consider how much choice and at what price. For in today's world there is so much want and even more need for flexibility and options despite how overwhelming they can sometimes be.

• Tablet Access
• Mobile Access (Windows, Apple, Android)
• Web Access
• On Premise options
• Outlook (integration and distributed processing)
• PowerBI (and Power Pivot, Power ...)
• Excel (Input and Output, with Dynamic Security)
• Word (mail merge integration)
• Cortana (Voice to CRM)
• Kinect  (For those really into the cutting edge working with services) 
• Did I mention? Microsoft Social Engagement and analytics 
• Dynamics Marketing (The Enterprise CMO application)
• Advanced KBA and Services Management (Socially enabled tweets to case) 
• Document Management (SharePoint integration)
• Yammer (Internal Social, integrated groups to accounts)
• Lync or Skype (presence enabled OOB and click to call)
• Call Center Unified Service Desk (USD)

and a large database of solutions that meet needs that use to require custom everything such as compliance tracking, verification, facilities management, scheduling, and I can go on.

I can't believe that after 10 years of working with this product I am still continually finding great things to love about it.

Yes, it is not perfect, but then that is what requests via CONNECT to the product team are all about and with major upgrades coming out faster and faster. I get more excited every day not only about all that is currently available, but the proven pattern of growth from Microsoft and The Dynamics CRM teams.

Although not necessary: Writing Code for Forms provides a way to increase interaction between the user and the entity forms. This is often done by using JavaScript that is executed for events that occur on the form.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 7.1.0 (2015) offers TURBO Forms which are seriously worthy of consideration, both for the Experienced Dynamics CRM Developer and for the CRM end user.  Performance differences have been clocked anywhere from 3x to 7x times faster.

Here are some materials and videos to help get you started.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 - New Form Rendering Engine

Form rendering enhancements

Writing code for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 or CRMOL Forms : Read More

If you are currently using Microsoft Dynamics CRM, particularly if you are using a more current version or if you are always current with CRMOnline, then it is definitely time to go dive into the world of Microsoft Power BI and all the imbedded tools like Power Map.  

People can be incredibly visual and communicating CRM information using a visual medium like the Microsoft Power BI suite adds a huge refresh to how data and reports are consumed.

Do you know about the Microsoft Dynamics CRM TRUST CENTER?

If you have not tapped into Microsoft Customer Source (provided by Microsoft) and some of the incredible resources in the community then you might want to dip your toes into the CRM User Groups offerings, by signing up for a trial and watching the presentation "Getting the Most out of Microsoft Customer Source"

Where is CustomerSource, Right Here!

Where is the CRM User Group?

NEW Deploying and administering Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015

Are you hosting your own instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM? Have you invested in training your IT Professionals and Network Administrators in the infrastructure behind Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Ask yourself this question "Are you hosting your own web pages?" If the answer to this question is NO, then you want to seriously consider training your resources on hosting the incredible power of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Take for instance IFD (The Internet Facing Deployment Options) or The Tablet and Mobile Apps .. So many options :)

For those of you privileged enough to be using Office 365 you might have a grasp on all the incredible new being released! Fairly recently the concept of GROUPS was released and these GROUPS can now been seen as folders in Outlook.

Rojy takes us one step further and shows how you can configure Office 365 + GROUPS + CRM Online to make for some incredibly powerful 360 Degrees for users.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rojythomas/archive/2015/05/05/integrating-office-groups-with-crm-online.aspx 

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM SPRING Release is incredible so make sure that you are planning for a review of all that you are doing with the system. Work with Microsoft Consulting Services, or one of the proven and experienced Microsoft Dynamics CRM partners.

Related articles

CRM Online in the world of Enterprise : Patterns & Principles for Solution Builders White Paper

27018: Cloud Trust - Learn More about this Differentiator at Microsoft

Dynamics CRM 2015 Update 1 Content (Spring 2015)

YouTube Videos

• Microsoft Social Engagement Overview https://youtu.be/ZLZk2reTr-Y
• Microsoft Social Engagement Alerts https://youtu.be/lQKzwulgnmM
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Trial Quick Start Guide: https://youtu.be/owqW6WTjTc0
• Microsoft Social Engagement Quota Management - coming soon!
• Microsoft Social Engagement Search Setup - coming soon!

Subscribe to the Dynamics channel to stay up to date: https://www.youtube.com/user/msdyncomm/DynamicsCRM

CRM Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 (7.1.0) Product Documentation is Available! http://bit.ly/1JfsMl9
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing 2015 Update 1 Product Documentation is Available! http://bit.ly/1JGVOxz
• Microsoft Social Engagement 2015 Update 1Product Documentation is Available! http://bit.ly/1QIgxmq
• Parature, from Microsoft 15.2 Product Documentation is Available! http://bit.ly/1Pd1625
• AND SEVERAL MORE excellent blog posts by our field and PMs - check it out!

So you were wondering how Hierarchy works and really love a good diagram that says more than paragraphs and paragraphs full of words?

Look no further, just Click!