Shafraz Nasser's CRM Blog

Future of Accelerators

Shafraz — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:04:35 +0000

The Dynamics CRM team have announced that the following 4.0 accelerators are being upgraded to 2011 solutions:

Customer Portal

Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Portal

Customer Care Accelerator

Read the rest here.

Tagged: accelerator, crm2011, solutions

Converting 2011 Beta Site to Trial

Shafraz — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:11:14 +0000

Just a few weeks back into 2011 for me (nice long holiday ) and my first post of 2011.

Over the past week, we’ve been trying to convert several of our Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 beta sites to Trial. Upon visiting http://offers.crmchoice.com/crm2011-upgrade-customer-conversion/ and starting the process by selecting Credit Card payment, I immediately hit a snag with the sign in page- turns out I had to turn on ‘InPrivate Viewing’ in IE. (Goes without saying, that this process doesn’t work at all in anything other than IE.)

So after switching to InPrivate Viewing, I still had to sign-in about 3 times before it let me in. Once in, Step 1 is simply selecting the Organisation to convert. Step 2 asks you to complete your details. I discovered that I had to complete ALL fields on the page instead of just the mandatory ones. On Step 3, I had another snag. The page loaded with the banner and footer but nothing else. I could see a JavaScript error but the error didn’t offer anything of help. The Microsoft Support team told me that it was a known issue and the work around was to refresh the page (F5) when at Step 3. Tried it and managed to successfully complete it.

Hope that helps somebody else.

Tagged: crm2011

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta Programme

Shafraz — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 20:56:49 +0000

Haven’t posted in quite a long time! That’s because we’ve had a huge upsurge in CRM demand and doesn’t look as though it will let off anytime soon.

Just a quick post to highlight that we (Gen-i) have been accepted into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta Programme! We’re only one of 40 partners around the world and we’re undertaking a cloud based implementation for a brave customer. The stability of CRM 2011 Online has improved dramatically over the past few weeks and months and expect it to continue to improve (though I’m sure there are still a few bugs waiting to be found).

CRM 5 @ WPC

Shafraz — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:14:20 +0000

As expected, RTM web Q4 2010, RTM on-premise Q1 2011.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/jul10/07-12wpcdynamicscrmpr.mspx

Tagged: crm5, v.next

Customer Care Accelerator

Shafraz — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:26:24 +0000

The Customer Care Accelerator (CCA) for Microsoft Dynamics CRM focuses on delivering contact center enabling functionality, such as the ability to create a unified desktop by combining data elements from disparate line of business applications and displaying it in a single user interface. The core Customer Care business scenarios highlighted by this accelerator include the following:

Integrated desktop: Customers can aggregate information from diverse business applications into an integrated desktop providing employees with a 360° view of the customer interactions. Customer service representatives have immediate access to business critical information to serve customers quickly and efficiently, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Eliminating Duplicate Data Entry: Organizations can streamline business processes by creating desktop automation workflows. Process automation eliminates the need for agents to re-enter the same data in multiple applications. Minimizing duplication helps to reduce human error and ensures a consistent customer service experience.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI): Organizations are provided with a consistent framework to connect CTI systems with key line of business applications.

Activity Reporting: Contact center managers have swift access to agent desktop transaction reporting, helping them to identify process bottlenecks.

As with all the other Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 accelerators, CCA is available as permissive shared source and is a reference example that can be adapted to fit the needs of a customer as well as additional business scenarios.

See here for more details.

Tagged: accelerator

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Statement of Direction (Updated)

Shafraz — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:12:33 +0000

Find the updated Microsoft Dynamics CRM statement of direction from Microsoft here.

Tagged: accelerator, cloud, crm5, v.next, windows azure

May Auckland xRM and CRM User Group

Shafraz — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:43:45 +0000

Presented By: Paul Scott, Regan Murphy, and Kyaw Zay Ya
Start Time: Tue 04/05/2010 05:30 p.m.
End Time: Tue 04/05/2010 07:00 p.m.
Location: Microsoft NZ, Level 5, 22 Viaduct Harbour Ave, Auckland Central
Agenda:
- 5.30pm Networking with food and drinks.
- 6.00pm User Group (Including Prizes and Q&A)
- 7.00pm End
Catering: Pizza and Drinks
Door Charge: Free!

1. Tips and Tricks
Things you will find useful with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

2. Marketing
We will present an overview of the Marketing module within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and how it can deliver leading marketing campaigns and target your customers more effectively.
Campaign Templates, html emails and marketing lists will be demonstrated to provide all the details which will allow you to be more effective with the marketing module.

3. Marketing Add-ons
We will briefly discuss Add-ons for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to further support your marketing needs beyond the current capabilities.

More details and registration here!

Tagged: user group

Microsoft Discloses Global Availability and New Features for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Shafraz — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:37:43 +0000

Microsoft Corp. opens Convergence 2010 today with Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Business Solutions Kirill Tatarinov demonstrating how the company is delivering on its vision of the Dynamic Business by providing customer-driven advancements across Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP applications to help organizations embrace change and seize opportunities that drive enduring business success.

Read the rest here.

Tagged: v.next

CrmDiagTool

Shafraz — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:40:23 +0000

Found myself Bing’ing for the the CrmDiagTool earlier today, found out that Ben Lecoq has left his role at Microsoft and his links to the tool were orphaned! Thankfully, the Dynamics EMEA support blog now hosts the tool. Find it here.

Tagged: crmdiagtool

CRM5 CTP3 Released

Shafraz — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:37:53 +0000

Today is a major milestone in the development of the next generation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, code named “CRM5” as we are pleased to announce the availability of the Community Technical Preview 3 (CTP3) for this release.

Read the rest…

Tagged: crm5, v.next