Monday, June 30, 2008

HELP WANTED: Disabled button Activity Details

I have an issue, perhaps someone can help me out.

When I do a Mail Merge (for example contact) with the following specifications:
  • Type: Mail
  • Use Microsoft Office Word
  • Electronic Mail
  • Mail Format: Attachment

Create Microsoft Dynamics CRM activities --> button Activity Details is disabled

However when I do the same but then on Type: Letter, the button is enabled

Can someone please explain to me WHY the button is disabled???


See screenshot below!



Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Virtual Machine (Sample Data Differentiation File)

This VPC differentiation disk adds demonstration data and other demo-related content to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Virtual Machine. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Virtual Machine is required and is separately downloadable. Please note that this virtual machine addition is for partner demonstrations only, and is not supported through Microsoft Technical Support.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 User's Guide

A printable version of the Help that ships with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, On Premise can be downloaded here.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

How to Integrate SharePoint with Microsoft CRM

Just received a very informative article how to integrate Microsoft CRM with SharePoint, the level of integration is greater than any previously posted and they have also provided download links to a visual studio project file giving the source code away for free!
You can read the complete article here and also downloading the files.

KB950202 - The translated labels disappear when you add a new value to a picklist field of an attribute for an entity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

After configuring and modifying the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 NL VPC, I run into some translation problems. The basic language of the VPC is English (1033) and the Language Package is Dutch (1043). According to the KB article 950202 the symptoms are:
"Consider the following scenario in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. You enable a language pack. You add a new value to a picklist field of an attribute for an entity. Then, you save the changes. In this scenario, the translated labels disappear. When this problem occurs, the labels in the picklist field are displayed only by using the base language. "
The KB article 950202 can be downloaded here.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Celenia integrates the Dynamics Suite

I'm always interested in the intergation between the Dynamics Suite, so CRM with NAV or Axapta. Just came accross the Celenia website. More information can be found on their website. In this post I want to mention the Celenia CRM Connector. According to the website:
"Celenia CRM Connector for Microsoft Dynamics AX NAV easily automates and streamlines the flow of an organization’s internal business data. With Celenia CRM Connector for Microsoft Dynamics AX NAV, integration can be achieved at far lower costs than development of custom communication applications. Furthermore, Celenia CRM Connector for Microsoft Dynamics AX NAV facilitates more accurate and efficient internal data exchange and application level integration than can be achieved by manual processes".

Two Business Logic Into One.

Hope to get more experience in this add-on soon, so everyone who's interested in an integration between the Dynamics Suite, please check the website.

DEMO2WIN! Workshop for Microsoft Dynamics Partners

Last wednesday I attend the Presentation Delivery Skills Workshop: "DEMO2WIN!" at Microsoft. The main coal of this workshops was: How to acomplish the 2% factor in your demo.

Below you can read s short summary of the workshop. More information can be found at the 2WIN! Global Website.


The workshop started with the top 10 Demo Crimes like:

  • Teaching vs. Demonstrating
  • I Love this part of my software
  • So What?
  • etc.

Many of the crimes are familiar in your way of giving demo's to customers.

After that we discussed how to make a demo with Demo Scenes and Sub-Scenes Items. This part will show you how to create a demo, for example demonstrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM, see below.

  • Demo Scene: Sales Entity
  • Demo Sub-Scene: Uploading your Outlook contact into CRM
  • Demo Sub-Scene: Create a relationship between your Contact and the Account
  • Demo Sub-Scene: Create an activity for the Contact / Account

For every Demo Scene and Sub-Scene Item you are able to use the Tell-Show-Tell Technique. This technique will first: tell what you are going to demo, then demo the scene and finally tell the audience what you just have done. The Tell-Show-Tell Technique can be applied for every Dem Scene and his Demo Sub Scenes!

Using the Tell-Show-Tell Technique with Visually Supporting like the Triangle. The Triangle is for example: using PowerPoint, Flipchart and Whiteboard or other facilities.

Finally create an opening and closing demo scene. This will make the audience remember your presentation, so be creative!

I only can recommend everyone to follow the DEMO2WIN! workshop and take your benefit with this.