When I was a novice in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM world I didn’t think much about professional frontal courses as I felt they did not bring real life experience and there for didn’t give me useful tools.
Nowadays, as I am training CRM 4.0 courses I put much emphasis on actual implementation scenarios drawn from the various projects I was involved in. I also encourage my students to bring their clients or their own implementation issues to the discussion. This always makes the lecture come alive and the students fill they gain real knowledge and got good value for their money. That is what they came for.
The CRM 4.0 Customization & Configuration course is a mandatory course for CRM implementers on one hand and for CRM application managers at the customer end on the other. The course clarifies where the CRM 4.0 customization abilities end and where extension by development starts.
- As an implementer, it is crucial for you to understand the product’s features and abilities in order to suggest your customers with the best solution and to correctly evaluate the implementation efforts required on your behalf.
- As a customer, the ability to understand the features of the product you have purchased and to evaluate the solution your implementer suggests can help you reduce cost and tell a good implementation solution from a bad one.
I am instructing a new 3 days CRM 4.0 Customization & Configuration course starting next Tuesday (3.3.09), the course registration is still open. Can you afford not to be there?
I am often asked by my clients if Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 can automatically schedule and perform a repeating task, such as sending an email notification to a Contact every year or adding a Note to a Contact record every day.
One trivial solution to this problem is developing a custom module that will be repeatedly launched by Windows Scheduled Tasks feature or Windows Service and perform the required task.
Another solution, one that does not require writing code, can be implemented using the Work Flow engine.
Let’s take, for example, a scenario in which we would like to automatically send ‘Happy Anniversary’ email greeting to our Contacts on their Anniversary day.
The following 8 steps describe how to set up the required work flow rule:
1. Create a new blank work flow rule for the Contact entity
2. Set the rule to be triggered by both the record Creation and Attribute change events. Set the scope to user, at least until you have tested the rule.
3. Select the Anniversary attribute to trigger the record attribute change event
4. Add a Wait condition to wait until the Contact’s next Anniversary date
5. Add a ‘Send E-mail’ step, set the required email template (assuming you have one) and email details
6. Add an ‘Update Record’ step and set it to update the Contact’s anniversary date to next year Anniversary date
7. By the end, your work flow rule should look something like this:
8. Publish the work flow rule
9. Test the rule by creating a new pseudo Contact with a future date (e.g. tomorrow) as anniversary date and your email address. If all went well, you should be able to see a new rule instance waiting in the Contact’s workflows grid.
Past the target date, verify that the workflow rule has advanced and that you have received the greeting email. Also make sure the Contact’s Anniversary date has been updated to next year anniversary date.
I have been using the term Vanilla for quite some time now to describe Microsoft Dynamics CRM application when referring to the state in which it comes right out of the box. What I meant to say was “Plain and without any extras or adornments”.
But why Vanilla?
Only recently I have discovered the origin of this term in the ice cream flavors analogy crudely illustrated here:
I love this analogy. When I train groups of students in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, this never fails to get full attention from even the sleepiest student.
So what does this analogy really mean? It means I am but an ice cream vendor. Would you like sprinkles on it?
Here it is, my first blog post.
Although a professional blog regarding my work as Microsoft Dynamics CRM professional, implementation problems and solutions, I probably won’t resist the temptation to babble about more important stuff like Spongebob Squarepants, philosophy, and various nonsense.
Ciao world, have a great weekend.
