Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Testing Beta version of CRM 2013 OnPremise - does the CRM Instance Adaptor for 2011 work with crm 2013?

Now - testing the new 2013 beta is a very positive experience up until now.
The UI has been updated and works surprisingly good in an intuitive way, the demo data gives a pretty good impression of the new process features, it doesn't brake down.

So - I wanted to see if the CRM Instance Adaptor for CRM 2011 does work for CRM 2013.
It does!

So a migration from CRM 2011 to CRM 2013 having the CRM Instance Adaptor in the domain model, should not lead to any concerns.

Get the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics from here
Get the CRM 2011 Instance Adaptor from here

Read my previous article about the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics here

CRM 2011 Process Dialogs - Use them

How often haven't you been asked for a new custom form to consolidate related entities for data capture?
Quite often i guess. Me too.

I recently wanted to bring something "new" into considerations for a client who was stocked in the decisions process for user friendly layouts.
The standard entity forms became too overwhelming in number of clicks and different forms popping up during the process of capturing data to Account, Contact, Opportunity and a custom entity. After quite a few iterations of presenting mock ups, discuss the adjustments to meet an acceptable usability level, modifying mock ups, presenting again and so forth - I brought in the suggestion of using process dialogs.
And to my surprise the feature was accepted after 10 minutes with the following argumentation:

  • Full control for system administrators to add or modify process dialogs
  • Flexible way of building up data entry forms for a specific purpose and with context driven tips added to each control
  • Out of the box functionality that assumably is compatible for future releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Totally under judged be my and most of my fellow colleagues.

Here are some tutorials from around the web that illustrates the advantages and limitations of using process dialogs:
  • https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/crmteamblog/archive/2011/02/02/welcome-to-the-world-of-dialogs-part-1.aspx#.UhxLERbFbGw
  • http://intellicore-ltd.blogspot.dk/2012/12/workflows-vs-dialogs-microsoft-dynamics.html
And if you want to bring it a step further having buttons to activate a specific process dialog without going into the entity for the dialog:
  • http://barrycrm.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/how-to-initiate-a-dialog-from-a-custom-button

Friday, August 16, 2013

Introducing a more flexible and personal way to buy Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online - CRM Connection - Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Microsoft Dynamics Community

New pricing from Microsoft on Dynamics CRM starting from 2013.

Read more:
Introducing a more flexible and personal way to buy Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online - CRM Connection - Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Microsoft Dynamics Community


What this means in short - Individual users can be assigned to a pricing model that fit their need of access and functionality.
  1. Mix and match licenses
  2. Compare and decide
  3. Access through mobile applications is included at no extra license cost
  4. Take advantage of more options for online support
Happy selling!