MS Dynamics CRM 2011 MOC training courses

June 7, 2011 6 Comments

MS Dynamics logo

Update Feb 2012: I’ve written a much newer article bring up to date all the information about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 training courses and exams in one place here: CRM 2011 Training Update 2012

As a follow-up to my previous post about the new Dynamics CRM 2011 exams and certification tracks, this article describes the official courses available to help prepare you for gaining CRM 2011 certification, or upgrading your skills from a previous version, or simply to find out more about the software to help you do your job without actually taking any exams.

All the courses described below are available now on the courseware download library (for MCTs) and on PartnerSource (for suitably certified MS Partners), except where stated.

Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC) courses for CRM 2011

Although there are four main exams (Applications, Customization, Installation, Extending) there are many more courses, some of which are already released, others around the corner. All of these are discussed in this article. Find out about MOC courses available for Dynamics CRM 2011»

Filed under Courses, CRM 2011, Dynamics CRM, Training + certification Tagged with , , , , , ,

MS Dynamics CRM 2011 Certification Tracks and Exams

June 7, 2011 13 Comments

MS Dynamics logo

Update Feb 2012: I’ve written a much newer article bring up to date all the information about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 training courses and exams in one place here: CRM 2011 Training Update 2012

I see lots of people asking about the CRM 2011 certification track, exams and courses and although most of this information is available, it is not very well linked together. So, to try and get things straight and written down in one place, here’s my take on “how to get certified in CRM 2011”.

Individual CRM 2011 exams

There are three core exams already available for CRM 2011, very similar in concept to their 4.0 equivalents, and the details of what is required for each one are on these pages (and their various tabs for skills measured, preparation materials etc):

MB2-866 – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization and Configuration

MB2-867 – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Installation and Deployment

MB2-868 – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications

The fourth exam “Extending Dynamics CRM 2011” is not yet available, but it is planned for release in August, and I’ll update this page once details are up on the Microsoft Learning website. Update: the details for Course 80295A Extending MS Dynamics CRM 2011 are now available.

Read more about the available certifications for CRM 2011 and what you need to pass to achieve each one»

Filed under Certification Exams, CRM 2011, Dynamics CRM, Training + certification Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Annoying file format warning when exporting CRM records to Excel

July 1, 2010 4 Comments

Pointless error message dialog box

When you export from CRM to Excel the data is derived as XML, saved with an XLS file extension and Excel is invoked to open the temporary file. Unfortunately Excel checks to see if the file being opened is actually of a type which matches the file extension and tries to be helpful. Normally this is to help overcome problems such as a comma-separated variable (CSV) file being saved as an XLS file extension, which ought to mean Excel tries to read the XLS file, fails because the contents are nothing like a real Excel binary file and gives up. Instead, Excel actually looks at the content, spots that it looks very much like a CSV and allows you to open it just as if the file extension was correct in the first place. However, this cleverness is tempered somewhat by the fact that the default setting for this is to ask the user every single time what they want to do.

As always, this is probably intended to be a helpful warning and prevent people opening files which might have insecure content, but it fails to do so because most users do not understand the implications and the longwinded message is probably not even read properly anyway. Certainly the 50th time someone sees a dialog like the one below, they just click “yes” without reading and it no longer provides any benefit whatsoever (by the way, I have done nothing to this, it displays in this ridiculously wide, un-resizable window on my machine).

Click to see larger version - CRM Excel export error message

Whenever I have managed people in IT support roles I try to eliminate fixes which involve things like “ignore that error message, just hit OK and it will work fine”. This not only numbs people to the meaning of that particular error message but to these sorts of warnings in general. Too often I have heard users explain why they did not report a problem until it was too late, saying “well, I got an error every day saying something about faulty disk or something but I just clicked OK, like John said we should with that other one…”. Find the root cause, eliminate the error, or suppress the error somehow, don’t teach people that errors don’t matter or they just ignore them. If you went to your doctor and said “it hurts my neck when I lift my arm up” you would not be impressed if she replied “then don’t lift your arms up!”, would you?
Read on to find out how to stop Excel asking unhelpful questions when you export records from CRM»

Filed under CRM 2011, Dynamics CRM, Excel, Group Policy, Office 2010 Tagged with , , ,

Outlook client for CRM 4 with rollup 10

June 30, 2010

MS Dynamics logo

Finally Microsoft have released a client installation package with a recent rollup already included in the package (“slipstreamed”). Unfortunately, nearly 4 weeks after the release of update rollup 11 it is only rollup 10 that is included. While this is a move forward from the rollup 7 client that was available, it still means that most people are going to need to install the client and then immediately apply a patch to UR11, so it is probably of limited help really. Thanks but no thanks.

Get the new CRM 4.0 client for Outlook with Update Rollup 10 if you are using the on-premise or partner-hosted (“service provider”) versions of CRM. If you are using CRM online you are stuck with installing the original version of the special online client and patching it yourself. Note: CRM on-demand from Microsoft is only available in the US and Canada despite the announcement back in April about worldwide release, because it seems that will only be for the next release, version 5 available later this year.

Hat tip to The CRM Business for the original heads-up on this one.

Filed under Dynamics CRM, Patching + hotfixes Tagged with , , ,

Usual CRM Update – Rollup 11

June 7, 2010 1 Comment

Roll-up, roll-up, read all about it. Yes, the usual updates for Dynamics CRM 4 have been released and you can download the components and versions you need from this page. The knowledgebase article kb981328 has the detailed information about Update Rollup 11 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, including the prerequisites:

You must have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed to apply this update rollup. Update Rollup 7 is a prerequisite for Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data Migration Manager.

Update Rollup 1, Update Rollup 2, Update Rollup 3, Update Rollup 4, Update Rollup 5, Update Rollup 6, Update Rollup 7, Update Rollup 8, Update Rollup 9 and Update Rollup 10 are not prerequisites for the server section of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Additionally, you must have Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 installed to apply Update Rollup 11. To obtain Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, visit the following Microsoft website: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ab99342f-5d1a-413d-8319-81da479ab0d7&DisplayLang=en)

Note that for the server component there is no prerequisite, this rollup can be installed on a base installation (plus MUI if you have multiple languages installed). For the Outlook client you need rollup 7 (same goes for the data migration manager), and for new client installations you can just install the Outlook CRM client with rollup 7 already slipstreamed in. I must admit I find it annoying that the client install is not set up with a proper manifest to trigger UAC elevation – you have to remember to do “run as administrator” (if you are not using the deployment management tools, as many small businesses may not bother to do). The fact that programs prompt me rather than having to remember to do this is one of the reasons I like UAC (since I never run my client machine with local admin rights).
Read about UR11 highlights and the (old) new help files»

Filed under CRM 4.0, Dynamics CRM Tagged with , , , ,

Outlook CRM client synchronisation explained

May 17, 2010

Outlook synchronisation white paper

Another recent find was this page with a link to a pdf file “nuts and bolts” white paper about Outlook synchronisation. This covers the basic concepts effectively, but also drills down into some of the details about how and when exactly the synch process takes place (some things are effectively immediate, others are queued up) This helps answer those peculiar edge-case questions which come up from time to time about what happens if you create a record here, update it there, share it to someone else then delete the original, or mark it as complete, or some other strange scenario. For example:

An E-mail that is deleted in Outlook will not be deleted in CRM at the next Outlook Sync
An E-mail that is untracked in Outlook will be deleted in CRM at the next Outlook Sync if the user designates

So you can track an email into CRM then delete the copy to keep your mail file size down, and the deletion does not “propagate” to CRM. It is this sort of behaviour which makes perfect sense when you think about the implications, but calling the process “synchronisation” seems to confuse many users as they expect that to mean “keep both copies entirely identical”.

Similarly this table explains what happens when you (or someone else deletes something in CRM which is linked to an item in Outlook:

Entity  Behaviour after deletion in CRM
Contacts A Contact that is deleted in CRM will be deleted in Outlook at the next Outlook synchronization if the Outlook user is not the CRM Owner of the Contact. If the user is the owner in CRM, then the Outlook contact will be unlinked after synchronization.
Appointments An Appointment that is deleted in CRM will be deleted in Outlook at the next Outlook Sync if the Appointment Start Time is in the future.
Tasks A Task that is deleted in CRM will be deleted in Outlook at the next Outlook Sync if the Task has not been completed.
E-mails An E-mail that is deleted in CRM will not be deleted in Outlook.

The distinction between synchronised Contacts I own or do not, Appointments in the future or the past, Tasks which are open or completed, all these details matter in real-word implementations. This document is definitely worth a read, then keep a copy handy for when you need the definitive answer for an awkward situation.

Filed under CRM 4.0, Dynamics CRM Tagged with , , , ,

Quick CRM customisations

May 14, 2010

I recently found some interesting (and easy) customisations for Dynamics CRM 4 that I though I would share.

Linking to LinkedIn

I’m using Office 2010 with the CRM client installed, and I’m also using the LinkedIn Social Connector for Outlook. I had a few problems at first with Outlook 2010 beta, but a quick uninstall of the social connector component and reinstall or the latest version of the OSC beta as per this Microsoft article did the trick. It’s not something I rely on hugely but it can be handy sometimes. Even more useful would be to get information about my CRM contacts directly. This can be done for Accounts (ie companies) as explained in this article by CRM MVP Marco Amoedo. I must get round to going through the solution to see how it might be possible to modify it for individual Contacts, although I expect getting the results to match the right person might be the tricky part.

Copying addresses from Accounts to Contacts

Maybe you imported a load of data and have Contacts with no address, or you have Contacts who work at sites other than the main head office. Either way it would be great to be able to copy any of the multiple addresses associated with an Account directly to a Contact. I found a nice little solution to do just that on the BusinessNone blog. The html code (which is attributed to Microsoft’s Pierre-Adrien Forestier) needs to be published on your web server then simply called from an iFrame on the Contact form.

This presents all the addresses associated with the Contact’s parent Account so you can choose between them with a click of a button. Note that the “Address name” field is used here to distinguish between the sites. I have often seen this field completely overlooked (or even removed from forms) or misunderstood (being used for the name of the premises or building, or simply the first line of the address). The Address Name is simply “how do you refer to this address?” – head office, New York store, Dallas factory, LA regional call centre or whatever.

Visit this page to download the iFrame source for Address Picker (Ben Vollmer’s Skydrive, Hotmail / Windows Live login required) Note: you need to follow the link to the Skydrive page then download, you can’t right click the link here.

Do you find these useful? Do you have any other favourite quick and easy enhancements for CRM? Let others know in the comments below!

Filed under CRM 2011, CRM 4.0, Dynamics CRM Tagged with , , , ,

Dynamics CRM rollup 10 and SDK update

May 14, 2010

Update Rollup 10

First, the obvious regular update. MS Dynamics CRM 4.0 update rollup 10 was announced a couple of weeks ago and the various platform versions and components can be downloaded here. A few minor bug fixes, but this one does not seem to be setting the world alight. Rollup 7 is a pre-requisite as with the last couple; this is clearly seen as the new baseline, but it would be good to see an updated client install package with the rollup already slipstreamed in (as they did with rollup 7). Hopefully for most people it is becoming much more routine to get these rollups tested and installed but it is still annoying for new client installations to have to put the client on and then immediately patch it.

CRM 4.0 SDK version 4.0.12

There is also a new CRM SDK version 4.0.12 available to download, and there are some useful articles about it on the official CRM blog on MSDN and David Jennaway’s MSCRMUK site. Slightly annoyingly the self-extracting CAB file does not have the release version in the filename or in the file version info, it is simply “CrmSdk4.exe” so not obvious which is the latest version when you have multiple downloaded versions lying around. Ho hum, just a quick rename needed.

The xRM stuff is new, there are some Visual Studio templates and CSS stylesheet sample files, but lots of things are unchanged (such as the UX style guide, still on v1.0 from November 2007).

There are some other nuggets too – for example the old dynamicpicklist sample code and documentation has been deprecated and replaced by a newer “dependent picklist” sample instead which deals with three levels of dependency category > sub-category > type and is more robustly written to handle greater flexibility such as non-continuous sets of choices for the subcategories and items which may be available for more than one major category selection.

I also noticed this week there is a “User Interface Integration SDK for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0” for developers writing standalone applications which need to get information to or from CRM, described in the overview as:

The User Interface Integration Software Development Kit (SDK) for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is for developers and system customizers who want to build and deploy composite desktop applications based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Composite desktop applications are useful when there is a need to bring information from different systems into a unified application for employee use. This SDK provides an architectural overview, the entity model, and how to register and host applications and workflows in your composite desktop application. Sample code and walkthroughs are provided to guide you through the capabilities.

Filed under CRM 4.0, Dynamics CRM Tagged with , , , ,

Microsoft Second Shot is back again for 2010

January 23, 2010 1 Comment

After a very long wait (and some said it might never happen), Microsoft have reintroduced their Second Shot campaign so that you can register to take an exam and if you fail you get a second chance to do a free retake. You register with Prometric,  then they email you a code. You use this voucher code when you register online to take your chosen exam, for which you pay the normal fee (or reduced rate for students, if applicable). Last time round you could not use second shot and a discount voucher (eg one from a Self-paced training kit) since you can only put in one code. Once I actually get a breathing space to take an exam (things are pretty busy right now) I’ll update to let you know if this is still the case.

Offer details:
Dates: January 13, 2010 – June 30, 2010.

Details: You must register, obtain a voucher code, schedule, pay, and take the first and (if necessary) the retake exam before June 30, 2010.

Applicable exams: This offer applies to all Microsoft Learning IT professional, developer, project management, and Microsoft Dynamics exams, including academic exams. Visit the Learning Catalog and search for your next exam

Eligible countries and regions: This is a worldwide offer that is available at Prometric test centers only.

Note Only one Second Shot voucher is available per purchased exam.

Notice that the deadline for taking the first time and retake is the same – June 30th 2010. Previously the first exam had an earlier deadline and the retake had an extra month or so if you were taking one.

Read more about Second Shot »

Filed under Certification Exams, Dynamics CRM, Training + certification, Windows 7, Windows Vista Tagged with ,

Save the Date CRMUG UK Meeting 28th November

January 2, 2007

Registration is not open yet, but as advance warning, the next CRM User Group meeting for the UK is planned for:

28th November 2013 at Microsoft’s London Victoria Offices.

Add to calendar Click to add the next CRMUG meeting to your Outlook calendar

Agenda

Agenda is yet to be confirmed, but loosely speaking will be a 9:15 registration and coffee for a 9:45 start.

After a mid-morning coffee break we plan to have two parallel speaker sessions for people to choose the topic of most interest to them. At least one of these will be followed by a related “round table” discussion of Q&A and audience participation.

After lunch we will all get back together for a further general session before “The Marco and Cass Show™” – also known as the Microsoft CRM Roadmap presentation. Given the planned release time frame for “Orion” this session alone is probably enough reason to travel all the way to London for this CRMUG meeting.

We will round the day off with an Experts Panel to try and answer any questions which have occurred to you during the earlier sessions, before closing at approximately 4pm.

Where is that again?

Microsoft UK
Cardinal Place
80-100 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 5JL

That’s a 2 minute walk from Victoria tube station, serviced by the Victoria, Circle and District Lines.

Of course I will post once the official page for registrations goes live.

What do you want from CRMUG?

Following our recent CRMUG UK committee meeting, I took on the role of “Vice Chair for Programme” so I need to figure out what things our members want to get out of our events, what sessions will be of most interest, general applicability and so on.

What do you want to “share and learn” at the CRM User Group? Are there any topics you particularly want to hear about?

Do you have a great customer story to tell, with some inspiration or ideas for others to take away and use to get more out of their CRM system? Could you / would you speak for 30 – 45 minutes about your CRM deployment project and what you got out of it?

If you have something to share, or want to find out about a particular aspect of using Dynamics CRM, please let me know in the comments so I can start to assimilate ideas to put together another great event, for users, by users!

Filed under CRMUG, Dynamics CRM, Events Tagged with , ,

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