Modification to Bulk Update the Parent Account: MSFT Dynamics CRM
No one enjoys opening up each record, one at a time, to update a field with the same value in your company’s CRM. This is why the bulk edit feature in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is such a great tool, especially if the field you need to update is a Lookup field. This ends up saving a bunch of clicks and ultimately, time. One thing I never really noticed though, is that while most fields can be edited there is one on the Account that stood alone. The Parent Account. Since I hadn’t had a need to ever update this field en masse myself it wasn’t until a client wanted to change the Parent Account on multiple records that I realized CRM has the lookup link grayed out. Meaning, Read More »
The Benefits of CRM Systems and Microsoft Dynamics CRM improved Integration with Outlook
My question to you is; why wouldn’t you be using a CRM system?
CRM’s refer to allons between a business and its customers. CRM systems not only help manage your business and relationships with clients it also provides s number of important benefits to both small and large companies including increasing revenue and decreasing costs. What business or business owner wouldn’t want to do that?
How to Renew an SSL Certificate for CRM on ADFS 3.0
If you are using an Internet Facing Deployment for your CRM there is always that time every 1, 3, or X years where you receive the message to renew your SSL Certificate. With ADFS 3.0 no longer dependent on IIS like its previous version were it changes the process a little bit. It is not very difficult to do but it took me a little research to piece together all the steps in the right order. I wanted to share this information so that the process goes as smooth as possible and you aren’t stuck with your environment being down as you scramble to figure out how to get the CRM and ADFS applications working together again.
You will first want to remove the old certificate from the ADFS and CRM servers. If the certificate is not removed then this will cause problems later down the line.
Strategies to keep your CRM data clean
With most CRM systems or for that matter any enterprise systems we often hear this saying “Garbage in Garbage out” about the data that resides in these systems. The reality is that most systems do have garbage data and each organization uses different methods to maintain/scrub/cleanse their data. Some organizations use a data warehouse where data is synced from different sources and normalized, the data warehouse is used as the master data source for all reporting and transactional data still remains in the same state. In another situation an ERP would be the source for the master data and all other systems like CRM would sync and integrate with the ERP data. But each system has its users and they too would like to maintain good data. In a modern system like Dynamics CRM, it provides a lot of methods to maintain your data. The following methods can be deployed to keep you data clean:-
Power BI & Dynamics CRM Online 2015
The Power BI preview released by Microsoft in Convergence provided a great tool to quickly make sense of large amounts of data. Power BI does all the heavy lifting and provides a quick and easy way to interact with the data. As promised by Microsoft with the release of Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 CRM is now available within PowerBI alongside SalesForce & Google Analytics to gather data and provide data analysis. As of publishing this article the Power BI Dynamics CRM connector will only work with Dynamics CRM Online, it will not work with an on premise CRM installation, hopefully the on premise connectivity is not too far.
6 CRM Software Trends to Keep Your Business Ahead
1. More SaaS (Software as a Service, Storage as a Service)
Make the Most of Your CRM System; Engage Your Staff to Engage Your Customers
We are not talking about the obvious such as how much of your budget to spend or about technical considerations, we are talking about what questions to ask and what decisions to make before searching for the Customer Relationship Management system that best suits your organization.
Dynamics CRM Online & Office 365
Initially when Dynamics CRM Online was introduced it was tied to windows live id, Microsoft’s online authentication platform. Since then it has been replaced by Office 365 login. And it’s not just that Dynamics CRM Online authentication that has moved to Office 365, now there is lot more integration between these 2 systems. The latest one is the connection between Power BI and Dynamics CRM using Office 365. You can find additional details of the same at
CRM Service Module: Part 1
Often when discussing a Dynamics CRM it is not uncommon to think of the application solely in the terms of how it can be used for the Sales and Marketing departments. As marketing to prospects and building potential sales are the first interactions companies usually have with a customer it is easy to see why these tend to be focal points for a CRM system. However, critical interactions with those companies do not stop after the sale, they continue on well beyond closing the opportunity and invoicing the order. If you have heard the adage, “It is easier to retain current customers than to acquire new ones,” you know I am speaking of customer service. The customer service module in Dynamics CRM is often forgotten in conversations when speaking of the capabilities of the application yet it is quite a robust piece. To bring light to this often overlooked module of Dynamics CRM over the next few articles we will highlight some of the features.
3 Reasons Why You Need a CRM System (Customer Relationship Management)
Here are three pertinent reasons your business needs and can benefit from having a CRM.
1. YOU NEED METRICS
How many successful projects have you had in the past week, month or even year? What is your conversion ratio and what are the best methods to make sure you are reaching your customers? Knowing your business metrics is critical to your business growth and success. A CRM will give you instant metrics of dozens of aspects of your business plus it allows you to create custom reports to better track metrics to your specific needs. Once you have those reports at your fingertips, you will never look back. Just think. No more time wasted on excel spreadsheets!
