Prerequisite: Power BI Desktop Tool, Power BI Service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Changing User’s in Power BI Desktop: Many a times we need to change user in Power BI Desktop for developing reports to get data from different perspective. As Power BI Desktop provides data source as CRM Online and also supports data refresh, it plays an important for Power BI users. So here is a trick to quickly change user in Power BI Desktop with CRM Online as data source. Find the steps given below: Step 1: Open your Desktop file and go to File → Options and settings → Data source settings. Step 2: Select the OData URL and right-click and then edit. Step 3: After that under credentials click ‘edit’ and then under ‘Organizational account’ hit ‘Sign in as different user’. You will be prompted to enter new user credentials. That’s it! Changing CRM Environment in Power BI Desktop: This can often be an important option which can be of use to Power BI users. Many a times, report needs to be created and tested first on Sandbox environment and later migrated to Production environment. Once reports are properly verified for look and feel and data manipulations, user can change the environment to some other desired environment. Following are the steps for achieving the same in Power BI Desktop: Step 1: Hit Edit Queries in ribbon Step 2: Click on Advanced Editor and on second line enter your OData URL (for required environment) Source = OData.Feed(https://_____________.crm5.dynamics.com/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationalData.svc) Then click done. This will fetch data from specified CRM Online environment.  

In this Blog we will walk-through how to add custom Domain/sub-domain in Azure web app with the help of GoDaddy. Problem Statement: We have a domain cloudfronts.in, purchased from GoDaddy and we want that it should point to website hosted on Azure. We have divided this blog in two different parts. Part 1: Add new custom Domain Part 2: Add new custom Sub-Domain Pre-Requisite: Azure Subscription with Web apps (Service administrator/Co-administrator) GoDaddy Account with new Domain (Admin) Next we need to follow the steps given below Steps 1: Login to your GoDaddy account with admin credentials and click on Manage domains. Steps 2: Click on domain name that you want to configure. In Our case we want to configure for cloudfronts.in. Double click on domain name and wait for new window. Step 3: Click on DNS Zone file and then edit option. Steps 4: We need some additional information from Azure web apps, that we will add in DNS configuration. Login to your Azure account and navigate to web site that you want to configure. Web site must be in share mode or standard mode to configure domain name. Change apps service plan pricing ties accordingly. Please refer following URL for more information http://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/pricing/details/app-service/ Navigate to Dashboard and click on Manage domains to add new custom domain name for your web site. Steps 5: Copy IP address of Azure web site. This information will need, when we add DNS record in GoDaddy. Steps 6:  Add new A(Address) record and point to IP Address with below configuration. Record Type: A (Host) Host: @ Point to: 192.198.15.14 (Azure website IP Address) If @ record in already present, then edit that record. Add new CName record with below configuration. Record Type: CNAME (Alias) Host: www Point to: cloudfrontsdev.azurewebsites.net (Domain Name of Azure website) Kindly edit this record if already present. Steps 7: Add CNAME(Alias) record that will point to Azure website. This information is required  by azure for verification purpose. Add two CNAME(Alias) record given in Image. Record Type: CNAME(Alias) Alias Name: awverify.www Points to Host Name: awverify.cloudfrontsdev.azurewebsites.net Record Type: CNAME(Alias) Alias Name: awverify Points to Host Name: awverify.cloudfrontsdev.azurewebsites.net Steps 8: Save all changes by clicking on Save Zone File. It might take 10-15 mins to update DNS entry. Steps 9: Add domain name in manage domain section(Azure) and click on ok. Reference https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/documentation/articles/web-sites-custom-domain-name/  

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.  

The blog post will show you how we can assign a static IP address to one of the Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines, using Microsoft Azure Powershell. Assumptions: Create Virtual Machine and Virtual Network in Microsoft Azure.   Steps in Microsoft Azure Steps: Create a Virtual Machine named test and Virtual Network testing as shown below, where Internal IP Address of test is 10.0.0.5     Subnet-1 usable address rangeof 10.0.0.4 – 10.31.255.254 . The new static IP Address to be provided should fall in the usable range of address space.   Steps in Microsoft Azure Powershell Step 1: Run Microsoft Azure Powershell as Administration.   Step 2: Add your Microsoft Azure Account using the command Add-AzureAccount in Powershell. As shown in figure above it will ask the account details, I have selected my work account. Note: If at all this login control redirects to your personal account while doing in Work account, type Remove-AzureAccount in Powershell and enter and confirm the details. Once the account is added you can see that your account is added with the subscriptions present in your account. By the commands like Get-AzureVM you can see all the VM’s that are present in your account. Since I want to set a static IP Address to my test VM which is present in the testing virtual network with Internal IP Address of 10.0.0.5, I will get that VM in Powershell by the command Get-AzureVM –ServiceName sampleax –Name test, by this command we can view all the details associated with that particular VM with corresponding service name and VM name. All these details are shown in the diagram below.   Step 3: Set IP Address to Test VM Here by the command Get-AzureVM –ServiceName sampleax –Name test | AzureStaticVNetIP –IPAddress 10.0.0.6 | Update-AzureVM   As shown in figure above you can see the Succeeded message, this tells us that the corresponding IP is been set to the IP Address Provided in the command, here as 10.0.0.6.   Step 4: To check the changed IP Address Now to see whether the IP Address is been set type the command Get-AzureVM –ServiceName sampleax – Name test This command will show the details with related VM as shown below. In the highlighted box we can see the IP is been set.   We can also check the updated IP Address in Microsoft Azure as shown below that Internal IP is been now updated.  

Consider migrating the data from Microsoft dynamics CRM online to Microsoft dynamics GP. Our goal is after the data migration is completed successfully, we want the result of the data migration (successful/failure) to go back to the source system. Steps: Scenario: 1st block: We query the source account entity 2nd block: We try to update/insert the target customer entity 3rd block: We update the source account entity, based on the result of the 2nd block (success/ failure) 4th block: We also update the target customer block based on the result of the 2nd block (success/ failure) In the target block (Update/Insert Customer), uncheck the error handling checkbox [Note: Error handling checkbox, is used to check if there are any fatal errors in the executions] After the data is inserted, we can have an update block for the source entity(Update account) that will write back the result (whether the data is successfully migrated or not) to the source system. In this example, GP2015_CustomerUpdateInsert is for inserting the data in the target system. As we can see in field’s column, we can capture information about the previous block by the highlighted fields, which can then be stored in the source system for tracking if the data went through.

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 →

Purpose of this blog is to refresh on-premise data sources available in Power BI. Prerequisite: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, Microsoft Excel 2013, Power BI Desktop Tool, Microsoft Data Management Gateway Steps for On-Premise Data in Power BI: Setting up On-Premise Data Refresh in Power BI will help refresh data directly from the data source to dataset. Here we will be looking on how to refresh on-premise data in Power BI using SQL data and Excel data. First we will be working on Excel data and then SQL data. I] Working on Excel Data: To begin with Excel Data we must have the following things on your PC Microsoft Excel 2013 Power BI Desktop Tool Microsoft Data Management Gateway Login to Power BI Service Create an Excel worksheet in Microsoft Excel 2013. And save it with some appropriate name.   Now open Power BI Desktop   Click on Get Data and select the type of file you need like in our case it is Excel and then click on   Select the Excel file from the appropriate location and click Open. You will get a Navigator window, select the sheet(s) you require and click on load   The data gets loaded.   Once loaded, you can view the sheet(s) and the columns in Field section on the Right hand side of the Power BI Desktop window. Now, you can create any chart or report in this and main is to save the file. This is saved with an extension of .pbix Now open Power BI Home page and create a login (If you have created your login already then use the same). Meanwhile it will ask you to install Microsoft Data Management Gateway. Install Microsoft Data Management Gateway on your machine.   Click on Get Data tab (at the left hand side bottom). Choose the saved .pbix file you saved using Power BI Desktop. Create the required chart(s) and report(s).   Here, chart based on Employee ID and salary is taken. Now the employee with name Bhavna (ID 1004) is 50 K. So, change it in the excel file, say, we change it to 20 K. Now save the changes done in Excel file and go to Power BI. Click on the dataset where you created the report using this Excel data and schedule the refresh. For scheduling the refresh click on the Dataset and click on SCHEDULE REFRESH you will get the below window check the gateway connections and the schedule time and click the Apply button at the bottom of that widow.   Now click on REFRESH NOW. The data gets automatically refreshed and you can see the changes in the report. As shown in above bar chart the salary that has been changed is reflected here. This is how refresh of on-premise in Power BI works using Excel data. II] Working on SQL Data: To begin with SQL Data we must have the following things on our PC Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Power BI Desktop Microsoft Data Management Gateway You have to create a login to Power BI Create a Table in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. And save it with some appropriate name. For demo purpose I have created a table named Emp_Details with following rows and data. Now similarly Get Data from the SQL table in Power BI and create Dataset. Here the salary of employee name Aurick is 2 K Now we will update the SQL data using Update query and change it to 20 K Run the select query to check the changes. And save the change done. Now, go to Power BI and similarly SCHEDULE REFRESH (as done for Excel data) and then refresh the dataset which you have used to create the report. As you can see the Dataset is refreshed and the Salary of Employee named Aurick is changed to 20 K.   There are many more on-premise data sources that can be used to refresh data using Data Management Gateway in Power BI Supported on-premises data sources: Custom SQL/Native SQL Access Database File (CSV, XML, Text, Excel, Folder) IBM DB2 Database MySQL Database Oracle Database PostgreSQL Database SharePoint List SQL Server Database Sybase Database Teradata Database Supported online data sources: AppFigures (Beta) Azure Blob store Azure HD Insight Azure Marketplace Azure SQL Database Azure Table store Blank query (query that is not accessing any data source) Dynamics CRM Online Facebook GitHub (Beta) Google Analytics Hadoop File (HDFS) OData Feed Salesforce Sweet IQ (Beta) Twilio (Beta) QuickBooks Online (Beta) Web Zendesk (Beta)  

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.