Global Address Book allows Customer/Vendor information mainly addresses and contact details to share across multiple legal entities. For example: Customer/Vendor of one legal entity may be Customer/Vendor in other legal entity or Customer in one legal entity may be vendor in same legal entity etc. In below scenarios explain on how we can share Customers, Vendors and their addresses and contact details across multiple legal entities. Scenario 1 Utcon Engineers Pvt. Ltd is Customer as well as Vendor in USMF Legal entity Scenario 2 Toyo Engineering Pvt. Ltd is Customer in USMF legal entity and also customer in USSI legal entity Scenario 3 Globus Engineering  is Vendor in USMF legal entity and also Vendor in USSI legal entity Scenario 1: Utcon Engineers Pvt. Ltd is Customer as well as Vendor in USMF Legal entity Select USMF legal entity. Click Home > Common > Global Address Book In Global address book form, in new field click on Party to create new party (Party: A person or organization. A party can be internal or external to an organization. Party may be customer or vendor for organization) In party ID for, specify Record type Organization, in name field enter organization name Utcon engineers Pvt. Ltd. Specify addresses and contact details of Party and close the form. Close the form   Now you can see created Party record on Global address form. Now edit Party record (Utcon engineers Pvt. Ltd.) and in Party tab, click on customer to create customer in USMF legal entity. In Customer form, you can see name, address and contact information automatically came from Party record. Enter other information which is required for customer and close the form. You can see created Customer in Accounts receivable or in Sales and marketing module. Navigation: Accounts receivable/Sales and marketing > Common > Customers > All            customers Now go back to Global address book form edit party record (Utcon engineers Pvt. Ltd.) and in Party tab, click on Vendor to create vendor in USMF legal entity. In Vendor form, you can see name, addresses and contact information automatically came from Party record. Enter other information which is required for vendor and close the form. You can see created vendor in Accounts payable or in Procurement and sourcing module. Navigation: Accounts payable/Procurement and sourcing > Common > Vendors > All            vendors   Scenario 2: Toyo Engineering Pvt. Ltd is Customer in USMF legal entity and also customer in USSI legal entity Select USMF legal entity. Click Home > Common > Global Address Book In Global address book form, in new field click on Party to create new party In Party ID form, specify Record type Organization, in name field enter organization name Toyo Engineering Pvt. Ltd. Specify addresses and contact details of Party and close the form. Close the form Now you can see created party record on Global address form. Now edit Party record (Toyo Engineering Pvt. Ltd.) and in Party tab, click on Customer to create Customer in USMF legal entity. In Customer form, you can see name, addresses and contact information automatically came from Party record. Enter other information which is required for customer and close the form. You can see created Customer in Accounts receivable or in Sales and marketing module for USMF legal entity. Navigation: Accounts receivable/Sales and marketing > Common > Customers > All            Customers Now select USSI legal entity. Click Home > Common > Global Address Book Select Party (Toyo Engineering Pvt. Ltd.) and click on edit. Click on customer to create customer in USSI legal entity. In Customer form, you can see name, address and contact information automatically came from party id record. Enter other information which is required for customer and close the form. You can see created customer in Accounts receivable or in Sales and marketing module for USSI legal entity. Navigation: Accounts receivable/Sales and marketing > Common > Customers > All            customers   Scenario 3: Globus Engineering Pvt. Ltd is Vendor in USMF legal entity and also vendor in USSI legal entity Select USMF legal entity. Click Home > Common > Global Address Book In Global address book form, in new field click on Party to create new party In party ID form, specify Record type (Organization or Person), in name field enter organization name Globus Engineering Pvt. Ltd. Specify addresses and contact details of Party and close the form. Now you can see created party record on Global address form. Now edit Party record (Globus Engineering Pvt. Ltd.) and in Party tab, click on Vendor to create Vendor in USMF legal entity. In Vendor form, you can see name, address and contact information automatically came from Party record. Enter other information which is required for Vendor and close the form. You can see created vendor in Accounts payable or in Procurement and sourcing module for USMF legal entity. Navigation: Accounts payable/Procurement and sourcing > Common > Vendors > All            Vendors Now select USSI legal entity. Click Home > Common > Global Address Book Select Party (Globus Engineering Pvt. Ltd.) and click on edit. Click on Vendor to create Vendor in USSI legal entity. In Vendor form, you can see name, addresses and contact information automatically came from Party record. Enter other information which is required for Vendor and close the form. You can see created Vendor in Accounts payable or in Procurement and sourcing module for USSI legal entity. Navigation: Accounts payable/Procurement and sourcing > Common > Vendors > All            Vendors.   Relationship of Party with Customer and Vendor You can check relation between customers or vendors between different legal entities on Party form. In Global Address Book, select party and click on edit and open Relationship fast tab to check relationship between customers or vendors between different legal entities   Summary: By using Global Address Book you can create a business party, define various information like addresses, contact details etc. and by using Party you can create and share customers and vendors across multiple legal entities.  

Email Router is a service that runs continuously to synchronize only emails between CRM and specified Email system. Tasks, Appointments and Contacts are not synchronized using Email Router. Email Router is a separate component available for download and needs to be installed. Note: Only one instance of Email Router should be setup for an Organization. Settings in Dynamics CRM Online In Dynamics CRM Online, make sure the following settings are in place: The Process Email using in the Email Configuration Settings under Settings > Email Configuration should be: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 Email Router. Also make sure, Incoming and Outgoing Email are set to Email Router as shown below.   Additionally, set the user’s mailbox and the Incoming and Outgoing Emails should be Server-Side Synchronization or Email Router marked as Success when a mailbox is approved for Email and is Test & Enabled as well. Download & Install Email Router You’ll need to download the Email Router so that you can install it on your server. Here’s where you can get to download the Email Router: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45017 Run the setup and let the wizard install Microsoft Dynamics CRM Email Router Service. Configuration Profiles Configuration Profiles hold information about the server and authentication methods to the same to which the Email Router will connect to. You’ll need to create one or more Incoming configuration profiles and one or more Outgoing configuration profiles. First, I’ll create a configuration profile for Outgoing email. Enter a suitable Profile Name for the configuration profile you are creating. Chose the direction between Incoming and Outgoing. For this configuration, I’ll choose Outgoing. Since I’m configuring for Exchange Online server, I’ll choose Email Server Type as ExchangeOnline. The Authentication Type will remain Clear Text since this is the only Authentication Type for ExchangeOnline. Check mark the Use Autodiscover as it is a way to obtain the Exchange Web Services URL. This option is available when you select ExchangeOnline. In Access Credentials, I’ll select Other Specified since I want Email Router to authenticate by using the credentials of a specified user. Note: The specified user must have full access to mailboxes. Ideally, an Administrator should be selected. For User Type – When ExchangeOnline server type is selected and Other Specified as the Access Credentials is chosen, options available are Administrator or User. I’ll chose Administrator since I want to enter only 1 credential to authenticate mailboxes. Enter Username and Password in username@fulldomain For Access Type – Use either Delegate Access or Send As access. I chose Delegate Access in this case where I want email to be sent as ‘Send on behalf of’. Similarly, I’d configure the following for Incoming configuration for CRM Admin user, which is as follows: Deployments At least 1 deployment needs to be configured. Deployments hold the information to connect to your Dynamics CRM environment. Create a New deployment in the Deployments I’ll chose the Deployment as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online since I’m connecting to an Online deployment of my Dynamics CRM. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server: You’ll need to use ; where, Organization Name can be found in Settings > Customizations > Developer Resources. Note: I’ll be using disco.crm5.dynamics.com/ since my organization is in Microsoft Office 365. Provide Access Credentials of the Administrator mailbox which you want the Email Router to connect to Dynamics CRM Online deployment. Select the default Configuration Profiles that the current deployment will use. Chose from the Incoming and Outgoing profiles created in the Configuration Profiles in the Email Router. Users, Queues and Forward Mailboxes Users, Queues and Forward Mailboxes of a CRM deployment can be managed under this tab in the Email Router application. Select the Deployment created in the Email Router and click Load Data. This will show a list of all the mailboxes for that organization. You can chose any once / all mailboxes and click on Test Access to verify the connection was successful or not. Once you get a success as shown below, your mailbox is now functional. Forward Mailbox A Forward Mailbox is a centralized mailbox which reduced administrative efforts for a mailbox and diverts messages to respective users. Here, your Email Router is set to send and receive Email from and to CRM using the Email Router.  

Product Configuration is generic Product structure with distinct variants that allow user to use product easily in sales process as per customer requirement. You can use product configuration on Sales Order line as well as on Sales Quotation line. Example of Bicycle configuration: Bicycle is configured by using five attributes such as Bicycle Type, Bicycle Colour, Saddle Type, Suspension and Wheels. Each attribute type has set of value which is mentioned in below table. Attribute Type Attribute Value Bicycle Type Racing Bicycle, Touring Bicycle, Cruiser bicycles Bicycle Colour Red, White, Blue, Black Saddle Type Racing Saddle, Comfort Saddle, Cruiser Saddle Suspension Yes, No Wheels Number of Wheels Below are steps to create Product Configuration Model for Bicycle Create Product Configuration Model Navigation: Product information management > Common > Product configuration models to open the list page. Click Product configuration model in the New group of the Action Pane to open the New product configuration model Add name Bicycle for Product Configuration Model, enter description, select New component and enter name Bicycle Configuration for component (Component: Component is generic element that can be assigned to product configuration model. This can include information about user requirements, attributes, constraints, sub component, BOM lines, and route operations) Click OK Create Attribute Type: Navigation: Product information management > Common > Product configuration models list page. Click Attribute types in the Setup group of the Action Pane. Create new attribute types Bicycle colour, Bicycle Type, Saddle Type, Bicycle Suspension and Wheels Add values for which is mentioned in below table Attribute Type Base Type Attribute Value Bicycle Type Text Racing Bicycle, Touring Bicycle, Cruiser bicycles Bicycle Colour Text Red, White, Blue, Black Saddle Type Text Racing Saddle, Comfort Saddle, Cruiser Saddle Suspension Boolean Yes, No Wheels Integer Number of Wheels  (Attribute types – Attribute types specify the set of data types or domains for attributes that are used in a product configuration model. The following data types can be used in a product configuration model: text, boolean, integer, and decimal.) Create Attributes Navigation: Product information management > Common > Product configuration models. Select the product configuration model and then click Edit in the Maintain group of the Action Pane to open the Constraint-based product configuration model details Click the Attributes FastTab. Add attribute name, solver name and description Select attribute type for each. (Attributes: Attributes describe the properties of the components. You can use attributes to specify the features that can be selected when a distinct product variant is configured.) Create Constraints: Navigation: Product information management > Common > Product configuration models. Select the product configuration model and then click Edit in the Maintain group of the Action Pane to open the Constraint-based product configuration model details Click the Constraints FastTab Below are the Rules and its expression constraints which is used to create condition for Bicycle Configuration. Configuration Rules Rule 1: IF Bicycle Type = Racing Bicycle THEN Bicycle Colour = Blue Or Black Expression constraints:  Implies[ BicycleType == “RacingBicycle” , SaddleType == “RacingSaddle” ] Rule 2: IF Bicycle Type = Touring Bicycle THEN Bicycle Colour = Red Or White Expression constraints: Implies[ BicycleType == “TouringBicycle” , BicycleColour == “Red” | BicycleColour == “White” ] Rule 3: IF Bicycle Type = Cruiser Bicycle THEN Bicycle Colour = White Or Black Expression constraints:  Implies[ BicycleType == “CruiserBicycles” , BicycleColour == “White” | BicycleColour == “Black” ] Rule 4: IF Bicycle Type = Racing Bicycle THEN Saddle Type = Racing Saddle Expression constraints:  Implies[ BicycleType == “RacingBicycle” , SaddleType == “RacingSaddle” ] Rule 5: IF Bicycle Type = Touring Bicycle THEN Saddle Type = Comfort Saddle Expression constraints:  Implies[ BicycleType == “TouringBicycle” , SaddleType == “ComfortSaddle” ] Rule 6: IF Bicycle Type = Cruiser Bicycle THEN Saddle Type = Cruiser Saddle Expression constraints: Implies[ BicycleType == “CruiserBicycles” , SaddleType == “CruiserSaddle” ] Rule 7: IF Saddle Type = Comfort Saddle or Cruise Saddle THEN Suspension = True Expression constraints:  Implies[ SaddleType == “ComfortSaddle” | SaddleType == “CruiserSaddle” , BicycleSuspension == True ] (Constraints: Constraints describe the restrictions of the product configuration model, and they are used to make sure that only valid values are selected when the product configuration model is configured. There are two type of constraints Expression constraints which is used in above example and Table constraints. Expression constraints: express relations between attributes to make sure that compatible values are selected when you configure a product. Table constraints: A constraint type that specifies allowed attribute combinations. Each row in the table displays a legal combination of values.) Create Calculation, Sub component and User requirement: Navigation: Product information management > Common > Product configuration models. Select the product configuration model and then click Edit in the Maintain group of the Action Pane to open the Constraint-based product configuration model details Click the Calculation, Sub Component, Use requirement Fast Tabs You can use calculation, sub component and user requirement if require otherwise it is optional Create BOM Lines (for Bicycle Wheels) Navigation: Product information management > Common > Product configuration models. Select the product configuration model and then click Edit in the Maintain group of the Action Pane to open the Constraint-based product configuration model details Click the Constraints FastTab Enter name, description, condition (optional) of BOM line. Click the BOM line details button to open the BOM line details form In BOM line detail form select Item Y20I (Wheel) Open detail fast tab and select Set and Calculation check box In Setup tab, in consumption calculation field, select set and attribute check box and in Quantity field select attribute Wheels. In Per series field select set check box specify one. (BOM Lines: BOM lines are included in the product configuration model to identify the manufacturing BOM for each component. A BOM line can reference an item or a service, and all item properties can be set to a fixed value or mapped to an attribute.) Create Route Operation: Navigation: Product information management > Common > Product configuration models. Select the product configuration model and then … Continue reading Product Configuration Model in AX 2012 R3 →

Accounts Receivable is process of matching customer account balances with the general ledger balance. The reconciliation should be done at least monthly as part of the month-end closing procedures so any adjustments needed can be included in the correct period. Below are steps to process accounts receivable reconciliation. 1. The Ledger accounts to be checked in the ‘Customer Posting profile’ accounts. Navigation: Accounts Receivable→ Setup→ Customer Posting Profile   2. Summary accounts for Accounts Receivable should not be allowed for manual entry.   3. Run the report for ‘Balance List’ for the above ledger accounts. Navigation General Ledger→ Reports→ Transactions→ Balance List   Enter the Start & End Date for the closing month. Click ‘Select’ Select all the ledger accounts required. Click ‘Ok’. Run the report with the selected ledger accounts. 4. Now run the Report for Customer Balance List. Navigation Accounts Receivable→ Reports→ Status→ Customer Balance List Select From date, Report period start date and To date Click OK The Total Ledger Balance for ‘Accounts Receivable’ should match with the total ‘Customer Balance’. If they do not match, we need to find the transactions with discrepancies. To find the transactions with discrepancies, Run the report for ‘Customer-Ledger Reconciliation’. 5. Run Customer-Ledger Reconciliation report Navigation General Ledger→ Reports→ Reconciliations→ Customer→ Customer Select the Dates, Posting Profiles. Select the check boxes for Include Details Differences only. Click OK to get the transactions with discrepancies. 6. All the transactions with differences should be analysed to find the transactions. The reasons for the discrepancies can be as follows. The posting profile changes (Change of ledger accounts in the posting profile during that period) Manual entries to the Ledgers     1. The posting profile changes Posting profile is a setup where the ledger accounts defined for the customer balances. A ledger account can be defined for all customers or for a group of customers or even for an individual customer. During a fiscal period, if the ledger account is changed for a customer in the posting profile; there arises a discrepancy in the customer account balances & their ledger balances.     2. Manual Journal Another reason for a discrepancies is a manual entry to the ledger account for the customer.   7. Steps to correct discrepancies A journal voucher can posted to transfer the balance from one ledger account For example: Suppose the ledger account defined for all customers is defined as ‘130100’ & after that for a specific customer group, a new ledger account is mapped; which is ‘130110’. When the ledger account is changed, all the transactions for the customer group before the change would show discrepancies. Solution: A journal voucher can be posted to transfer the balances between the two ledgers. The transactions with incorrect posting should be reversed & then they should be posted again. Solution: A manual journal is required to be posted to transfer balances between the two ledger accounts. Summary: You can use Account Reconciliation Process to check discrepancies before month end closing. Run Balance list report, Customer balance list and Customer reconciliation report to find discrepancies. Use journal to correct discrepancies or if possible then reverse posted transaction to correct discrepancies.  

Why CRM For Outlook? We use Outlook as a one-stop solution for our day-to-day communication. Your Dynamics CRM can be integrated with your Outlook using CRM For Outlook. CRM For Outlook is a lightweight client that gets set up on a client’s computer and is connected to your organization’s CRM by authenticating your Dynamics CRM credentials. Once setup, you can straight way carry out basic Dynamics CRM operations right from your Outlook itself! Create Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities etc. You can even track emails to an Account or a Contact, even an Opportunity. Get CRM For Outlook You can get CRM for Outlook from the below link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45015 Also, in your CRM, you can also see a yellow strip on top of the window saying Get CRM For Outlook as shown below. Setting Up CRM For Outlook Once setup, you can access the Configuration Wizard application from your Windows’ Start Menu.   To connect to your CRM Online organization, simply select CRM Online in the drop-down option as shown below and click Connect: Alternatively, this can even be setup from the Outlook itself once the CRM For Outlook client is installed. Simply navigate to the CRM tab on the extreme right     And click Configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook. Next, you can select CRM Online from the drop-down as shown in the above dialog box. Next, the CRM Online will ask you your CRM credentials.   On Signing In, the progress will be shown and your CRM Organization will be integrated with your Outlook.     Once setup, the Configuration Wizard will show the details of the added organization and will show the current selected one as the Synchronizing Organization. Note: The Synchronization method used can also be Server-Side Synchronization. That’s it! Your organization has been added to your Outlook. You may now open your Outlook and see your Organization appear in the left pane as shown below. Access Organizational Data in Outlook You can now see that your Organization has been added on the left pane of Outlook where you can navigate between different CRM Folders. You can simply navigate across your CRM folders and select different records (1). The View (2) as seen in the sample screenshot below is the one available in CRM for your records. Selecting a particular record will show it’s details in the reading pane below the view (3). Track an Item in CRM You can track Emails, Appointments, Contact or even Tasks from your Outlook to your CRM. To track in Email in CRM, simply select an Email and click on Track Button   You can also Set Regarding to this Email in CRM. It will then appear in Activities of the Set Regarding’s record. Same as Tracking an item, you can choose to Set Regarding for an Email as shown below.   On clicking Set Regarding, Outlook will pull up records from CRM and let you choose which type or record and which record would you like to Set Regarding against for the selected item. Once the Set Regarding is set, this information will appear in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM section below the email as shown below. As shown in the above picture, I chose City Power & Light (sample) account to Set Regarding for this Email. This email will then appear under the said Account under Activities.   With CRM For Outlook, you can Create CRM records from within Outlook. Track Emails, Appointments, Tasks and Contacts (People) in CRM directly Set Regarding / Set Parent for Contacts. Once a record is tracked in CRM from Outlook, synchronization can happen between CRM and Outlook for that particular record. Set personal options for how the data should be synchronized between Outlook and CRM   Hope this was helpful! I’ll keep you posted on deeper technical features that CRM For Outlook offers.

Change tracking is a new feature available in CRM update 1 that can help in keeping the data synchronized in source and target systems by detecting the data changes since the data was initially created or last synchronized. Change tracking is used for incremental load STEPS: Before we begin to implement change tracking, we need to enable it on the entity for which we need to track changes Customizations → Entity → Enable change tracking We need to maintain a table in Sql so that the output tokens can be saved for future purpose which will help to maintain a version for the records in the form of tokens [Note: The tokens can be maintained in a file also] Let’s start by creating the SSIS package using SSIS integration toolkit for Dynamics CRM-Kingswaysoft Flow of package will be: Drag and drop the Execute Sql task which will be used to fetch the tokens from Sql [Note: In case of initial migration, the token will be NULL] Since initially the table will be empty we need to handle the NULL scenario Create a variable for maintaining the count of rows for the table(we need to store the result set in this variable created) If the count=0 (1st time migration), it goes to a sequence container passing the input token as NULL If the count !=0 , it goes to a sequence container passing the input token as the last inserted token in the table Let’s consider we migrating the data for the 1st time The sequence container will contain a data flow task (having the source and target CRM components) and Execute Sql task (storing the new token to Sql) Data Flow task: Drag the CRM source component Set up the connection, select source type as ‘Entity changes’, mention the entity and define the input and output token variables [Note: In this scenario the Input token will be NULL as it is 1st time migration] Now we drag two CRM destination components CRM Primary Input (Tracking the Updates and Inserts) CRM Secondary Input (Tracking the Deletes) For CRM Primary Input destination component, set up the connection, action as ‘UPSERT’, mention the destination entity and upsert matching criteria For CRM Secondary Input destination component, set up the connection, action as ‘DELETE’ and mention the destination entity Execute Sql task: We need to store the output tokens in Sql, using Execute Sql task In parameter mapping, we mention the input and output tokens variables that we get from the Data flow task Let’s consider the scenario where we already have the data set up The sequence container will contain a Execute Sql task (for fetching the last output token from Sql), data flow task (having the source and target CRM components) and Execute Sql task (storing the new token to Sql) Execute Sql task: We need to fetch the output token from Sql The result set can be stored in the Input token variable which we pass to the CRM source component The steps for data flow task and the execute Sql task are the same as mentioned earlier The final package will look like this: The package can be scheduled on a daily basis thus keeping the data in sync in the source and target systems.  

Purpose of this blog is to setup social media (Facebook) for Microsoft Parature. Prerequisite: Parature Enterprise license. Facebook Page on which Parature Support has to be setup. Purpose of the setup: Setting up Social media for Parature will help clients raise tickets from the social media platforms. Tickets can directly be created from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn. Steps to setup social media (Facebook) for Parature: To begin with setup, first ensure social media role for the user is ON. We can set social media role for the user by going to Setup -> CSR Management -> Social Media Role. Set the role level to Social Media Administrator. Next is setup of Social Channel. To setup Facebook channel: Go to Setup -> Social -> Social Monitor Settings In Social Channels section, click “+” symbol, and click Facebook Channel. It will take you to Facebook’s login page. Insert the Facebook credentials and log-in. On successful login, a pop-up will come to select the Facebook page on which the Parature Support has to be enabled. Select the Facebook page on which you want to enable the Parature Support. Set All Default Actions to “Monitor”. Add “Tags”, “Influencers” and “Reply As Accounts” as needed. “Tags” allow you to have glimpse of what’s happening on your social channels. “Reply As Accounts” allow the customer service representative to create tickets from customer posts and also reply them via same social media site. In this way unnecessary rerouting through multiple channels can be avoided. Enable the Social media: Select the newly created social channel, select Action and click Enable. To ensure your Facebook page is enabled, Select the Social channel, click on Actions – > Enable FB Portal. From here we can set access to knowledgebase for the customer, Allow the customer to raise tickets and also chat with the service representative. To allow customer to raise ticket from the social media: Under Basic Options, select Enable. Enter Tab Display Name. Make sure Summary and Details field under Primary Fields section is selected to “Summary”. Using Custom fields, you can further modify Customer Social media experience. Miscellaneous options allow you to select how tickets are to be handled. Enabling Knowledge Base for the portal: Knowledge Base allows customer to searching content on their own if they don’t want to submit a ticket. To Enable the Knowledge Base: Under Knowledge Base section, select Enable. Enter Tab Display Name for the Knowledge Base. Enter the number of recently modified articles and number of most popular articles you which to show on the Facebook page. Save your changes.  

Dynamics CRM App for Outlook is a lightweight Office app that you can use together with Outlook 2013 or Outlook Web App (included with Office 365). You can use the app to track incoming email in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. When you track an email message, a copy of that message is stored as an email activity record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. You or anyone with access to your CRM activities can then access that activity record in CRM, Dynamics CRM App for Outlook, Dynamics CRM for Outlook, or in the CRM mobile apps. Microsoft Preview features: Are not supported by Microsoft Support. Are available on a “preview” basis so customers can get early access and provide feedback. May have limited or restricted functionality. Aren’t meant for production use. May be available only in selected geographic areas. Prerequisites for installing and using CRM App for Outlook Your CRM system administrator must deploy Dynamics CRM App for Outlook to your organization before you can access it. To deploy Dynamics CRM App for Outlook: Your organization must use CRM Online, and Dynamics CRM 2015 Update 1 must be installed. Your organization must use Exchange Online for email processing. Your organization must synchronize email through server-side synchronization. The system administrator must set up specific security roles. The system administrator must enable the Dynamics CRM App for Outlook Preview feature. The system administrator must add Dynamics CRM App for Outlook to your Exchange Online service. Supported browsers You can use Dynamics CRM App for Outlook with Outlook Web App on the following browsers: Internet Explorer 10 or Internet Explorer 11 Google Chrome version 41 or later With Dynamics CRM App for Outlook, you can: Tap the power of CRM while working in the familiar Outlook environment. Track incoming email wherever you are, as long as you have access to a browser. Track an incoming email message and (optionally) link it to an existing record in CRM. For example, you might want to link an email message to a specific account or opportunity. If a record doesn’t exist, you can create it right from within the app! Find out whether an email message is already tracked, and change the regarding record (the CRM record that the message is linked to). Create CRM contact or lead records for people on the From list that aren’t already included in the CRM database. You can also create new CRM records for any entity (record type), as long as the entity has been enabled for mobile and for multi-entity search. Preview information about contacts and leads stored in CRM. For example, you can find a number or company name for a contact or lead, or preview the last and next activities for a contact or lead. Open CRM records directly to find or enter more detailed information. Enable the Dynamics CRM App for Outlook Preview feature To enable the Dynamics CRM App for Outlook Preview feature: Go to Settings > Administration. Choose System Settings. Choose the Previews Select checkbox on the read and agree to license terms. Choose Yes to enable the Microsoft Dynamics CRM App for Outlook Preview. Click Ok. Set the CRM App for Outlook privilege for a security role Go to Settings > Security.  Choose Security Roles. Select the security role (for example, Salesperson), and then choose the Business Management Verify that Use CRM for Office Apps is set to Organization. If not, choose Use CRM for Office Apps. Choose Save and Close to save the changes to the security role. Deploy CRM App for Outlook You can use the Exchange admin center to quickly and easily deploy Dynamics CRM App for Outlook to your users. Sign in to the Office 365 admin center. On the left-side menu, under Admin, choose Exchange. On the Exchange admin center page, under organization, choose apps. Choose (+) > Add from the Office Store. Search for and add the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook app. Once the app is installed, refresh the list, select the app, and then choose Edit. Choose how you want to deploy Dynamics CRM App for Outlook to your users. Choose Save to enable the app for your organization. Accessing Dynamics CRM App for Outlook after it’s been deployed Once the system administrator installs and enables the Dynamics CRM App for Outlook, the app appears as a Dynamics CRM tab in the Outlook reading pane. Just choose the tab to access your CRM data. Track an incoming email message from an unknown sender Select the email message in your Inbox, and then choose the Dynamics CRM When an email message is from an unknown sender (the sender isn’t already a contact or lead in CRM), you’ll see the Create Contact form. The First Name, Last Name, and Email fields are already filled in for you. The Phone Number field will be filled in if it’s available. Click Save post filling the required info or choose Save and edit in CRM to open the contact form in crm. The sections Next Activity, Last Activity, Case Associated View and Opportunity Associated View are empty because the contact doesn’t have any related records in CRM yet.Email getting tracked in CRM for Microsoft Online Service Team contact Similarly one can also create for any entity (record type), as long as the entity has been enabled for mobile and for multi-entity search just like the contact/lead record using the Dynamics CRM tab and link the email message to that record. To create a new record in CRM (for example, to create a lead record instead of a contact record) and link it to the email activity record: Do not save the contact info Click on track. Choose New next to any enabled entity. In the quick create form, fill out the fields. Choose Save to save the record if you’re done adding information. To enter more detailed information, choose Edit to edit the record in CRM. A contact with the email id details is created in CRM by the system by default. We have tested the feature for a custom entity. Please find the screenshots for the same. There are 2 ways to track an incoming email in CRM using Dynamics CRM App. If you don’t want to link … Continue reading CRM App for Outlook Web App (OWA) →

Note:  This article assumes experience on SSIS Integration Toolkit for Dynamics CRM and understanding of CRM Online Images, Notes and Attachment migration in CRM Online is always a challenging task. One easy way of dealing with them is to use SSIS Integration Toolkit for Dynamics CRM Images Steps: Drag and drop Dynamics CRM Source and Dynamics CRM Destination component. Set up the Source CRM by adding the connection manager, mentioning the source type(Entity /Fetch xml/Entity changes) Set up the Target CRM by setting the connection, choosing the appropriate action (Create/Update/Upsert/Delete etc.), specifying the destination entity Map the Input column and destination CRM field For migrating images, we need to directly map entityimage field of source to entityimage filed of target   Notes/Attachments Steps: For notes and attachments, select the annotation entity as the source as target by following the steps mentioned above The fields to be mapped are subject, notetext, documentbody, filename, mimetype, objectid for mentioning to which entity is the note/attachment related to We use Text lookup function for lookups We can lookup on name/ GUID /custom field as per the need. In the example mentioned above we lookup the accountid which is the primary field for account entity  

This blog is an effort to note down the mistakes made and lessons learned after couple of data migrations completed successfully for our clients. If you are moving from CRM on premise or any platform to CRM Online, you will need to migrate your data. First, determine which entities are being used and needs to be migrated. The order of migration is important as field(s) of an entity can be related to other entity and used on the entity(s) form. Some of the points to consider while migration: Unique identifier in CRM To uniquely identify a record in CRM, use the guid of the record Mapping GUID of the source to target helps in identifying records in source & target Created On date Created date of source record can be mapped to overridecreatedon field in target It can only be inserted once, cannot be modified on update of records Calculated fields Avoid mapping calculated fields to avoid data mismatch during migration. CRM will automatically calculate them on data load of other fields used in calculation Users There are chances that users in your system who have been deactivated own records, such as activities. For assigning a record to any user, the user must be active So if you have a former employee and you want to import activities and assign them to that user, you will need to temporarily have his user record active in the new system. This means creating records for users who are no longer in the organization You can create users without sending an invitation to that address Assign records to the user and then disable that user record Opportunities When importing opportunities, the actualclosedate will be set to today’s date even if you try to load another date to that field. The recommendation is after you update the status of the closed opportunities to Closed, run an update for opportunities updating the actualclosedate to the correct date Activities Individual activity entities like email, appointment, phone call or task should be migrated individually Initially, keep the status of all activities ‘Open’. Once you update all fields and parties of the activities, close them at the end of the migration since once closed those activities cannot be updated If the owner of the account/contact/lead associated with the activities is updated, it may change the owner of activities. To avoid this, either disable parental to cascading relationship (CRM setting) or do not map the owner of the parent on update Always try to run activities in batches as there can be lots of data if your system is too old Activity parties Consider partytypecode and activitytypecode in field properties. If ispartydeleted = -1 that means party associated with the activity is deleted. Hence cannot be migrated If one of the recipients is not in CRM as a contact, account, or user, it will create an activity party not linked to any partyid in CRM. These records cannot be imported Set up your activityparty dts source query to  inner join activitypointer to filter out any activityparties linked to an activity that was deleted from the system This will cut the list down and save much time Connections Connection roles & Association should be present Select record types ‘All’ (not a specific record type) to avoid mismatch. Connection creates its own connection so there are 2 connection records created while migration. To avoid duplicates, Handle in CRM to delete the duplicates based on connection 1-role 1 & connection 2-role 2 combinationOR Design a package to delete the duplicate records if it is already created once Keeping these best practices in mind, you can quickly migrate your data in CRM Online.