Microsoft CRM Training

A simple SQL Server setting that could speed up your Microsoft CRM

The good news: When your Microsoft CRM database file runs out of space, SQL Server by default expands(grows) your database file.

The bad news: By default it is 1 MB at a time.

Just imagine, you are entering a lot of data (multiple users or doing an import), and after you enter 1 MB of data, which is easy to do, the database basically needs to stop everything and grow by 1 MB. A little dramatic in the description but basically this is what the database is doing. Wouldn't it make more sense if the auto grow was by a percentage or set size. Most people like to grow the database by 10% of it's current size. SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 have the 1MB default setting, we have not verified in SQL 2008 R2.

Here is how to change the setting:

1) In SQL Server Management Studio right click on your database name and go to properties.

 

2) In the navigation pane on the left select "Files" and then scroll until you see the "Autogrowth" column.

 

3) Click the elipsis (...) and the change autogrowth dialog box will appear.Make your changes and click ok on the dialog box and the database properties box.

Making Opportunities more efficient

   

This is a simple customization that I should have thought of before. But it came about because of a user request on how to use our Excel add-on product. We will show you EBAX at the end of the blog. I am sure other people will expand on the basics of this customization and I look forward to seeing the results.

My bet, you are using the activities menu in CRM to add a phone call activity.  This pops up another window.  Users are also required to select History activities on the Opportunity side menu to see the last call they have made.  What about showing last call information in the opportunity view?

   

Let's see the end result of the customization.  On the Opportunity Screen you see a new section called Last Call.  Last Call shows the Date and Time of the Last Call and the Description entered.  Users can easily see the previous conversation.  Once they type over the information in the Last Call Description box and save, a new Completed Phone Call activity is created with the new call information.  The next time they open the Opportunity, they can see what happened last.

   

   

   

We can configure our View to show the Opportunities Last Call Date/Time and Description:

   

   

   

   

   

How to create this customization:

   

Within your CRM:

   

Select the "Settings" tab on the bottom left of your screen.

   

   

   

Within "Settings" then select "Customization" on the top left on your screen.

   

   

   

   

Within "Customization" then select :

   

   

A list of all Customizable Entities will now be available. Choose the entity you wish to customize (i.e. "Opportunity")

   

   

   

Within the "Opportunity" entity select "Attributes" from the "Details" list on the left.

   

Then select "New" so you can create a new attribute. You will be making 2 new attributes and need to do this twice.

   

   

   

   

The first new attribute should be filled in as follows:

   

   

   

   

Then "Save and Close"

   

The 2nd new attribute should be filled in as follows:

   

   

   

Then "Save and Close"

   

Now select "Forms and Views" from the "Details" list and choose "Form."

   

   

   

   

Within "Form" select "Add a Section" from the list on the right.

   

Fill in the "Add a Section" as follows:

   

   

   

   

Click "OK"

   

Make sure to have your custom made selection, "Last Call" highlighted.

   

Now select the "Add Fields" from the list on the right.

   

Once in the "Add Fields" window check the two attributes you previously created:

   

   

   

   

   

The 2 newly created attributes should now show up within your newly created Section, "Last Call"

   

   

   

   

Double click on "Last Call" and within the "Formatting" section make sure that the "Two columns" box is checked. Then select "OK"

   

Now From the top select "Save and Close"

   

In the "Forms and Views" window, at the top, choose "Actions" and then "Publish"

   

   

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Creating "Opportunity - Last Call" Workflow

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Select the "Settings" tab on the bottom left of your screen.

   

   

   

   

Within "Settings" then select "Workflows" on the top left on your screen.

   

   

   

Within the "Workflows" screen select "New" on the tool bar.

   

Fill in the "Create Workflow" window as follows:

   

   

   

Select "OK"

   

Your newly created "Workflow: Opportunity - Last Call" will come up. Fill in the top section as follows:

   

   

   

Now choose "Select" next to the checked box: "Record attributes change" and check the "Last Call Description" Box

   

   

   

   

Click "Ok"

   

   

On the bottom section of the Workflow select "Add Step" and "Check Condition"

   

Within the type box write: "Check to see if Last Call Description is not blank"

   

   

   

Click on "If<condition> (click to configure), then:"

   

Now select the following:

   

   

   

Select "Save and Close"

   

Now highlight "Select this row and click Add Step" then "Add Step" then "Create Record"

   

Fill in as follows:

   

   

   

Click on "Set Properties" and fill in the "Subject" line with: "Last Call"

   

Click cursor within the Description box. Then on the right side of the screen set the "Look for" drop down tabs to

"Opportunity" and "Last Call Description"

   

   

   

Select "Add" and then "OK"

   

Click cursor within the "Regarding" box. Then on the right side of the screen set the "Look for" drop down tabs to

"Opportunity" and "Opportunity"

   

   

   

Select "Add" and then "OK"

   

Click cursor within the "Owner" box. Then on the right side of the screen set the "Look for" drop down tabs to

"Opportunity" and "Modified By"

   

   

   

Select "Add" and then "OK"

The screen should appear as follows:

   

   

   

   

Now select "Save and Close"

   

   

   

Now highlight "Select this row and click Add Step" then "Add Step" then "Update Record"

   

Fill in as follows:

   

   

   

Click on "Set Properties"

   

Click cursor within the "Last Call Date" box. Then on the right side of the screen set the "Look for" drop down tabs to

"Opportunity" and "Modified On"

   

   

Now "Save and Close"

   

Within the "workflow: Opportunity - Last Call" window click on the save icon and then select "Publish"

   

   

   

   

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Creating "Close Last Call" Workflow

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Within the "Workflows" screen select "New" on the tool bar.

   

Fill in the "Create Workflow" window as follows:

   

   

   

   

   

Select "OK"

   

Your newly created "Workflow: Close Last Call" will come up.

   

On the bottom section select "Add Step" then "Check Condition"

   

   

   

   

Click on "If<condition> (click to configure), then:"

   

Now select the following:

   

   

   

Select "Save and Close"

   

Now highlight "Select this row and click Add Step" then "Add Step" then "Change Status"

   

Fill in as follows:

   

   

   

   

   

Select the save icon and then select "Publish"

   

   

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Select the "Settings" tab on the bottom left of your screen.

   

   

   

Within "Settings" then select "Customization" on the top left on your screen.

   

   

   

   

Within "Customization" then select :

   

   

A list of all Customizable Entities will now be available. Choose the entity you wish to customize (i.e. "Opportunity")

   

   

   

Within the "Opportunity" entity select "Forms and Views" from the "Details" list on the left.

   

Select "Form"

   

   

   

   

Double click on the "Last Call Date" box and within the "Field Properties" window that appears, select the "Field is read-only" check box.

   

   

   

   

Select "OK"

   

Then on previous window select "Save and Close"

   

Now on the "Forms and Views" window select save and then "Actions" and Publish"

   

Your new workflow is finished and ready to use!

   

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Using:

   

   

   

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I hope you have enjoyed our first post…

   

As promised, here is the view from our EBAX Excel Add-on product.  User can just work in Excel to update Opportunity information including generating the Completed Phone Activity.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Prosoft Announces 4 new Add-ons for Microsoft CRM

Note Count for Microsoft CRM – FREE

Note Count is a free add on to Microsoft CRM that allows users to see how many notes are associated with the record.  If there are any notes, the tab will turn red and display the count.

http://shop.prosoft-sys.com/notecount.aspx

View Count for Microsoft CRM

One of the most commonly asked for functions of CRM is a count of records in the view.  Prosoft's View Count add-on is composed of 2 parts. The first part, available on every view and advanced search, is a display of the number of records in the view (highlighted in red).

The second part is a report that displays a count of active and inactive records for entities selected in the configuration utility.  This quickly and easily allows administrators to see which entities are growing the fastest.

http://shop.prosoft-sys.com/viewcount.aspx

 

Email Signature for Microsoft CRM

The Signature add-on allows the administrator to put a signature template at the bottom of emails created with Microsoft CRM.  When a new email record is created, the signature will automatically appear at the bottom.  Using the configuation tool the signature can be customized to show the user fields you need.

http://shop.prosoft-sys.com/signature.aspx

 

Appointment Start Time for Microsoft CRM

When creating appointments or tasks in CRM and the date is changed, the time is automatically set to 12AM (midnight).  This addon will change the default start time to be whatever is selected.

http://shop.prosoft-sys.com/appointmentstarttime.aspx

 

Infopath Tip

On a recent project of ours, we were given a requirement in which we needed to have about 20 items to be true before the form could be submitted.  Looking at the validation box we can only have a maximum 5 conditions.

 

One of the greatest functions of the data validation tool though is to create a custom condition by an expression. For complicated validation requirements, this is often the fastest way to create your condition.  To find out the syntax, select what you want in the row.  In this case I will say that the data validation error will come up if field 1 is not equal to "bob"

 

The next step is to change the first drop down box to "The Expression" rather than the field.

  

As you can see, the expression box automatically converts the condition to the appropriate format.  We can then add Boolean operators (and, or) to chain these together as well as parentheses to nest them.  Using notepad and copy / paste I was able to create a very large string  which held all 20 of my conditions. 

EBAX for CRM Update

Prosoft Systems hasn’t been sitting idle since our last release.  We’ve been working on ways to make our products the best they can absolutely be as well as some new products in the works.

With the latest update to EBAX for CRM we have added quite a bit.  A quick rundown:

1.       Ability to maintain users.

2.       The “extended” option

3.       Column filtering

4.       A whole new method of lookup

Ability to maintain users

One feature that was asked for was to allow administrators the ability to maintain their user accounts with EBAX.  The User entity is now available and can be maintained by users with appropriate access.  In the screenshot below we list all of the views we’ve created.

 

 

The views “EBAX” and “Full Access Users” are built into EBAX.  All of the others are created using the CRM user interface.

The “Extended” option

Extending our ability to maintain users, we have added a little option called “Extended”.  This option is only applicable to the Users entity.  If the option is selected our EBAX user will be able to maintain the roles of users in their CRM system.

 

If the option is not selected, the roles will not be available.

Column Filtering

One of the great things about table formatting is that it automatically puts filters for each row.  This is a function that most people weren’t using until they found it. When they did they loved it! So what we’ve done is we have auto enabled this function so that you don’t need to go through the trouble of turning it on.  If you don’t like it though, the clear table formatting option is still around.

 

 

A whole new method of lookup

One of the things that users asked for the most was a more intuitive method of handling lookup values.  They loved what CRM did where the new window would pop up, they could search for their record and see the lookup view with all of the data they needed.  We decided to re-do how we handled lookup and make it more like how CRM handles it.  Now if you have a view that has fields for lookup, you go to the column where you need to look something up and click the lookup button.

 

A new window will open which mirrors what CRM looks like.  Search for your record, select it, and move on.

 

Introducing EBAX for SharePoint

Prosoft Systems International has a product lineup that they call EBAX. EBAX stands for: Excel, Business, Application, eXchange. Put simply, this product lineup allows you to download data from your business application, modify it, and then put it back all inside of Excel.

The basic premise of EBAX for SharePoint is that you select your site, list, and view and then click "Populate Data". The program then downloads the appropriate information into Excel. From here you can modify the information and then when you are done, click "Update Data" to send it back into SharePoint.

If this sounds obsolete already because of the "Edit in a Datasheet" function SharePoint currently has you would be mistaken.

The product is very helpful because it keeps track of which records you modified before you send the data back to SharePoint which lets you undo mistakes (something "Edit in a Datasheet" is sorely missing). It will also let you know if something is formatted incorrectly (like a date or if you entered a value above the maximum value) right away. This is very helpful with doing large data imports. If there is a row with any bad data, it can let you know before sending it into SharePoint.

Figure 1 - EBAX Toolbar

Navigating through complex site architecture is made simple through a tree format. Prosoft has even added buttons to make favorites so that you can bookmark the lists you go too often.

Figure 2 - Navigating through a complex SharePoint site doesn't have to be complex.

Figure 3 - Simple interface to add / remove favorites

EBAX for SharePoint also allows users to take their information offline. This is particularly helpful if you are a sales person going to a conference and you need to add all of the business cards. Download your current contact list, and then while on the plane, update the excel sheet. Once you are connected to the internet again, you can click "Update Data" and all of your new contacts are in place.

All of the column types are supported along with their validations (for example: if you have a column with a maximum of 10 characters, the row will turn red once you enter character 11).

There is no server side portion to install. It is all client side based and compatible with SharePoint services as well as MOSS 3.

EBAX for SharePoint is currently in beta status. Unlike Google though, they plan to take it out of beta and have the full version by March 13^th. Try it out and let them know what you think.

EBAX Updated – V3.0!

Prosoft Systems has updated EBAX and is releasing EBAX 3.0!  After much research and input from our customers Prosoft Systems has worked to make this version the most efficient and user friendly as possible.

   

As you can see below we have added several new features to the ribbon that makes EBAX more comprehensive and user friendly:

   

   

With our new "Table Formatting" feature the user can now customize their data. There are drop down arrows within each column header. These drop downs give the user the ability to sort alphabetically, by color, or with text filters. (below)

   

   

Next we have incorporated an easy record search tool. This way you can locate specific records within large data sets by typing in any known information within the record. (below)

   

   

Last on the ribbon we have added a "Navigation" feature which allows the user to enter the number of records they wish to pull up from the specified view. Then, with the "Previous" and Next" buttons, the user can navigate forward and backward through the data. (below)

   

   

Also EBAX V3.0 has some unseen updates:

• Optimized to work quickly with larger data sets.
• The capability to assign records
• An extended list of available CRM entities to work with inside EBAX

   

These new features were designed to help make EBAX the most efficient tool for day to day use with CRM users.