Chapter 11. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Accelerators*

* This chapter was researched and prepared largely by Patrick Austin of Webfortis. Patrick Austin is both Microsoft CRM certified and Scribe certified and has extensive experience working on integration projects and custom vertical solutions.

A client recently inquired, “What are the CRM accelerators, and do they make CRM faster?”

Well, in a way they do. Not necessarily with the speed of the program but with the speed of adoption, development, time to market, and sales cycle.

Because a CRM system can be difficult to adopt within certain organizations, the “glitz” of these accelerators can provide an added benefit and visibility that’s needed to get salespeople and managers to more readily adopt CRM. In addition, the CRM accelerators such as the Event Manager or the eService accelerator speed development of CRM integration to the Web.

If you’re a Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution provider, one of the goals of your business is to sell or provide either licensing or service for CRM. The accelerators speed the sales and development cycles by offering rich out-of-the-box functionality for vertical and horizontal markets, and in fact Reuben Krippner, a senior product manager for CRM, refers to the CRM accelerators as a “diagonal market” solution, meaning they can appeal to and be used by nearly any organization.

If you’re an IT manager or CRM administrator, you can leverage your investment in CRM by implementing function-rich solutions at a fraction of the cost. For example, if your company has the need to manage customers through your website with one common repository of data, or the need to mine data through social networking, implementation of the eService and Social Networking accelerators, respectively, will replace costly development or third-party products that might orphan data in disparate databases. In addition, other CRM accelerators can provide enhanced insight into sales forecasting and analytics, provide enterprise search capabilities, provide CRM users with a better overall picture of accounts and contacts, and help management staff monitor CRM usage and auditing.

They extend the already powerful CRM 4.0 functionality by providing “prebuilt” solutions from Microsoft, and as CRM gains a wider audience, it’s become obvious that CRM is not just any old customer relationship management software; it’s a platform for rapid application development and can help any organization go to market faster without the hassle of building something from the ground up.

Our goal within this chapter is to highlight the following aspects of a select group of CRM accelerators:

• The purpose of each CRM accelerator

• The level of effort required to install and maintain the accelerator

• The effect each accelerator has on CRM once installed

• Additional applications for each accelerator

We’ve hand picked the CRM Accelerators we feel bring the most value to the majority of CRM systems; however, we strongly recommend you check for new updates and releases from the accelerators download site, as Microsoft frequently updates and releases new Accelerators.

The accelerators are unique to Microsoft in that they are open source and allow for alternate configuration, including complete rewrite if desired.

In short, think of the accelerators as “templates” that are provided by Microsoft that can be modified for your particular requirements.

In addition, it is important to realize that although the accelerators’ customizations use officially “supported” CRM methods, you will have a difficult time getting support from Microsoft with them. In other words, adding an accelerator solution to your implementation will still qualify you for support (unlike other modifications that might place your implementation in an unsupportable state), but Microsoft support will refer you to an implementation partner for advanced configuration and troubleshooting issues.

CRM Accelerators

At the time of this writing, the CRM accelerators listed in Table 11.1 have either been released or are planned for release.

Table 11.1 CRM Accelerators

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and the Accelerators

The accelerators have been designed to work primarily within a CRM On-Premise environment; however, there are certain aspects of the accelerators that provide value, albeit not the fully intended functionality, for CRM Online.

What this means is that although you can use some of the accelerators for CRM Online (as shown in Table 11.2), because of the limitations of working with CRM Online (for example, the inability to run custom code and the required use of Windows Live authentication), full use of the accelerators is limited.

Table 11.2 The Differences Between CRM On-Premise and CRM Online for the Accelerators

The eService accelerator contains some customizations that can prove valuable, such as the ability to track audits to the CRM case, CRM contact, and CRM account entities; however, the core value of the eService accelerator is the capability to enable customers to create and modify CRM cases, modify CRM account and contact data, and schedule CRM services through a custom portal, and this is not available with CRM Online. (It is available, however, if you create a custom portal on your own servers and then integrate with your CRM Online implementation.)

Analytics Accelerator

The Analytics accelerator is designed to leverage an existing investment in SQL Server, using SQL Analysis Services, and it provides the following functionality:

• Dashboards, graphing, business intelligence (BI) elements.

• SQL Analysis Services, predictive analytics, online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes.

• Utilizes PerformancePoint Server with scorecards.

• Report deployment needs to occur (very simple) and can be leveraged with new reports (requires SQL Server Reporting Services [SSRS] skills).

• SQL Server 2008 dashboards, which provide a framework to deliver more robust dashboards than SQL Server 2005.

Figure 11.1 shows the Analytics Accelerator: CRM Sales dashboard.

Figure 11.1 Analytics Accelerator: CRM Sales Usage dashboard.

• Basic: For organizations that need basic reporting. If you’re looking for a quick win to your sales reporting team, these reports can be deployed quickly and easily.

• Rationalized: For organizations that need more than the basic reports provide; trending using a SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cube.

• Dynamic: For organizations familiar with reporting and analysis services who can utilize Performance Point Server dashboards.

This accelerator intends to help sales managers in the following ways:

• Account Executive dashboard: Provides insight into sales representative’s performance to date with open opportunities, probability, estimated close date, competitors, total estimated revenue, and a weighted value

• Sales Manager dashboard: Provides insight into the top 10 key deals and top 10 sales leaders for the year

• Service dashboard: Provides insight into the top 10 high-priority cases and associated details such as customer satisfaction level and elapsed time

• CRM Sales Usage dashboard: Provides insight into the value employees have in different areas of the business such as how many contacts and activities a sales representative has created, and the number of neglected leads and opportunities

Prerequisites and Modifications

This accelerator is composed of multiple releases, with Release 1 (R1) providing simple cube definition; Release 2 (R2) providing SSRS 2008 reports, dashboards, and SSAS cube development); and Release 3 (R3) providing more advanced SSAS capabilities and Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server scorecards.

SQL Server 2008 offers richer reporting and dashboard capabilities than SQL Server 2005, and in the future this accelerator will be able to take advantage of these new features.

This accelerator modifies the following CRM entities:

• Adds four new main reports and five subreports.

• The rationalized elements provide a SSAS cube and sales trending data extract.

After the Analytics accelerator has been downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following materials in the Source folder:

• Documentation for overview, cube deployment, and report installation

• Reports for use with this accelerator

• Visual Studio code to enhance this accelerator

Analytics Accelerator Installation

1. Within CRM, navigate to Workplace, Reports, New. You’ll be prompted with a New Report screen. Configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005Account Executive Account Executive Dashboard.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Account Executive Dashboard

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - Account Executive Dashboard

• Categories: Sales Reports

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Reports Area

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.2.

Figure 11.2 Adding the Account Executive dashboard report.

2. Click Save and New to create the new CRM report and then create the next report.

3. Add the CRM Sales Usage dashboard report and configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005CRM Usage CRM Sales Usage Dashboard.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: CRM Sales Usage Dashboard

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - CRM Sales Usage Dashboard

• Categories: Administrative

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Reports Area

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.3.

Figure 11.3 Adding the CRM Sales Usage dashboard report.

4. Click Save and New to create the new CRM report and then create the next report.

5. Add the CRM Sales Usage Dashboard Details subreport and configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005CRM Usage CRM Sales Usage Dashboard Details.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: CRM Sales Usage Dashboard Details

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - CRM Sales Usage Dashboard Details

• Parent Report: CRM Sales Usage Dashboard

• Categories: Blank

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Blank

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.4.

Figure 11.4 Adding the CRM Sales Usage Dashboard Details report.

8. Click Save and New to create the new CRM Report and then create the next report.

9. Add the Sales Manager Dashboard report and configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005Sales Manager Sales Manager Dashboard.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Sales Manager Dashboard

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - Sales Manager Dashboard

• Categories: Sales Reports

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Reports Area

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.5.

Figure 11.5 Adding the Sales Manager Dashboard report.

10. Click Save and New to create the new CRM Report and then create the next report.

11. Add the Sales Manager Dashboard Closed Details report and configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005Sales Manager Sales Manager Dashboard Closed Details.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Sales Manager Dashboard

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - Sales Manager Dashboard Closed Details

• Parent Report: Sales Manager Dashboard Closed Details

• Categories: Blank

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Blank

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.6.

Figure 11.6 Adding the Sales Manager Dashboard Closed Details report.

12. Click Save and New to create the new CRM Report, and then create the next report.

13. Add the Sales Manager Dashboard Open Details report and configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005Sales Manager Sales Manager Dashboard Open Details.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Sales Manager Dashboard Open Details

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - Sales Manager Dashboard Open Details

• Parent Report: Sales Manager Dashboard

• Categories: Blank

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Blank

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.7.

Figure 11.7 Adding the Sales Manager Dashboard Open Details report.

14. Click Save and New to create the new CRM Report and then create the next report.

15. Add the Sales Manager Dashboard Recent Activity Details report and configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005Sales Manager Sales Manager Dashboard Recent Activity Details.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Sales Manager Dashboard Recent Activity Details

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - Sales Manager Dashboard Recent Activity Details

• Parent Report: Sales Manager Dashboard

• Categories: Blank

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Blank

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.8.

Figure 11.8 Adding the Sales Manager Dashboard Recent Activities Details report.

16. Click Save and New to create the new CRM Report and then create the next report.

17. Add the Service Dashboard report and configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005SupportService Dashboard.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Service Dashboard

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - Service Dashboard

• Categories: Service Reports

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Reports Area

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations your New Report screen should match Figure 11.9.

Figure 11.9 Adding the Service Dashboard report.

18. Click Save and New to create the new CRM Report and then create the next report.

19. Add the Service Dashboard Details report and configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: Installation1-BasicSQL Server 2005SupportService Dashboard Details.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Service Dashboard Details

• Description: Analytics Accelerator - Service Dashboard Details

• Parent Report: Service Dashboard

• Categories: Blank

• Related Record Types: Blank

• Display In: Blank

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.10.

Figure 11.10 Adding the Service Dashboard report.

20. Click Save and Close to create the new CRM report and then close.

At the time of this writing, the first release of the Analytics Accelerator was available, with release 2 promising a number of enhancements to the first release and support for SQL Server 2008 dashboards. Release 3 will deliver more advanced SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) capabilities, as well as Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server scorecards.

eService Accelerator

The eService accelerator is all about extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer service functionality and making it available to the Internet. However, this functionality can also be applied to almost any CRM entity within CRM with only a small number of configuration changes by adjusting the ASP.NET user control to point to a different entity. In addition, this accelerator allows for attachments of files to CRM cases and handles all login processes by utilizing the ASP.NET membership provider.

Figure 11.11 is an example of the eService accelerator’s portal.

Figure 11.11 Portal profile example.

Prerequisites and Modifications

The following prerequisites exist for the eService accelerator:

• A website running the .NET Framework. If you are running CRM On-Premise, you can use your existing CRM web server for this website.

• The standard implementation is designed to work with Active Directory authentication; however, because source code is provided, an Internet-facing deployment (IFD) implementation is possible.

• This accelerator has not been road-tested within 64-bit environments.

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is highly recommended because this accelerator allows users to access potentially sensitive customer data.

This accelerator modifies the following CRM entities:

• Adds new CRM case attributes

• Case form changes

• New case relationship

• Contact form changes

• Contact relationships

• Account relationships

• eService audit configuration

• eService audits for account, case, and contact

• eService workflows for account, case, and contact

For a detailed breakdown of the changes made, review the “Microsoft Dynamics CRM eService Installation Guide.doc” that’s included in the Documentation folder included with the download files.

Once the eService accelerator is downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following materials in the Source folder:

• Documentation for installation, configuration, administration, and end-user training

• All required customization files

• Sample HTML, CSS, and images for a sample website

• Visual Studio source code for all examples

eService Accelerator Installation

There are four main components to the installation:

• CRM entity customizations

• ASP.NET user controls

• Custom CRM workflow assembly

• Interface for configuring the eService user controls

The steps for performing a standard installation are listed in the following subsections.

Create an eService Accelerator User

1. You will need to assign a user that the eService accelerator will use for authentication. This user can be used for other accelerators or other CRM purposes if desired, although it’s recommended that you don’t use a person’s existing login; explicitly create this user for the purpose of handling CRM requests.

2. Within Active Directory, create a user whose logon name is crmwebuser or similar. This can be done by right-clicking an administrative user and selecting Copy (to inherit all the administrator’s permissions).

3. If your user does not exist within CRM, add it. Within CRM, create the crmwebuser and assign the appropriate email address if necessary.

4. Assign the appropriate role to this user (for example, System Administrator). Alternatively, a new role could be created that allows only this user to modify entities relating to the accelerator (for example, case and note).

Prepare the Installation

1. Run the installation executable that was downloaded from Codeplex. At the time of this writing, this is eService_v1.0_RTW.exe.

2. Once you’ve extracted the files, the wizard can be used to configure most of the necessary components (see Figure 11.12).

Figure 11.12 eService Installation Wizard.

Configuring ASP.NET Membership

1. Within the Installation Wizard, click Step 1: ASP.NET Membership. This is the same as navigating to the InstallationStep 1 - ASP.NET Membership folder and then running the aspnet_regsql.exe application. This will guide you through configuring ASP.NET membership for the eService accelerator. Figure 11.13 is an example of the ASP.NET SQL Server Setup Wizard.

Figure 11.13 ASP.NET SQL Server Setup Wizard.

2. Click Next to begin and Figure 11.14 will display.

Figure 11.14 ASP.NET SQL Server Setup Wizard - Configuration.

3. Select Configure SQL Server for Application Services, and then click Next.

4. Select the server and database to use with this configuration (see Figure 11.15).

• Select Windows Authentication to utilize an Active Directory account to authenticate to the SQL Server. You’ll need to ensure that the user that this website’s application pool runs as (normally NT AUTHORITYNETWORK SERVICE) also has privileges to write and read to the database that gets created.

• Select SQL Server Authentication to use a SQL Server user for which to authenticate.

Figure 11.15 ASP.NET SQL Server Setup Wizard — Server and Database.

5. Click Next to continue with the installation (Figure 11.16).

Figure 11.16 ASP.NET SQL Server Setup Wizard — Settings Overview.

6. You’ll be prompted to review your settings. Click Next to continue.

7. Once the installation has completed, you’ll be prompted to finish (see Figure 11.17). This completes the step 1 part of installation.

Figure 11.17 ASP.NET SQL Server Setup Wizard — Finish.

Run msa_eService.Install.exe

1. Within the InstallationStep 2 - CRM Customizations folder, open the register.xml file (see Figure 11.18).

• Set Server to the CRM web service URL (the URL you use to access the front page of CRM; for example, http://<servername>:<port>).

• Set Org to the name of the organization. Remember not to use spaces in the name. (For example, MicrosoftCRM is used if the Org name is Microsoft CRM.)

• Set Domain accordingly.

• Set UserName to your logged-in username or a CRM user with a high level of privileges, such as a user with a System Administrator role.

• Save your changes.

Figure 11.18 Editing the register.xml file.

2. Before running the msa_eService.Install.exe, make sure you’re logged in to Windows as a user that exists within CRM, and you have appropriate permissions to make the customizations, such as System Administrator. If this is not possible, this EXE is flexible enough to impersonate a specific user account. See the “DocumentationTechnical Architecture and Extensibility Guide” for additional information.

3. Open a command prompt and navigate to the folder that contains the msa_eService.Install.exe, or double-click the EXE for the same results (see Figure 11.19).

Figure 11.19 Running the msa_eService.Install.exe from a command prompt.

4. You’ll be prompted to enter the password of the user you assigned within the Register.xml file. Type it and then press Enter. After authenticating, the program will create a CRM connection, import custom workflow assemblies, import contact customizations, import case customizations, import custom entities, import workflows, import a site map, and then publish all customizations. This process takes a few minutes, so be patient.

5. When the program has completed successfully, you’ll be prompted to press Enter to continue (see Figure 11.20).

Figure 11.20 Successful Installation of msa_eService.Install.exe at the command prompt.

6. If you encounter any problems during the installation, additional information may be available within the msa_eService.Install.Log.txt file located within the same directory as the EXE.

Prepare the Console Files

1. Within the Installation Wizard, click Step 3: Install CRM Portal Configuration Console. This is the same as navigating to the InstallationStep 3 - Accelerator Console Files folder within the extracted files for this accelerator.

2. Open the Accelerator Console Web Files folder and then copy the eService folder. Navigate to the C:Program FilesMicrosoft Dynamics CRM ServerCRMWebISV folder, and then paste the eService folder (see Figure 11.21).

Figure 11.21 Copy the eService console web files.

3. Open the Accelerator Console Assembly folder and then copy the eServiceAccelerator.Web.Configuration.dll file. Navigate to the C:Program FilesMicrosoft Dynamics CRM ServerCRMWebin folder, and then paste the DLL file (see Figure 11.22).

Figure 11.22 Copy the eService console assembly DLL.

Import the eService Customizations

1. Open CRM and on the CRM toolbar, click the Tools option, and then select Import Data.

2. When the Import window appears, navigate to the InstallationStep 4 - Data Import folder within the extracted files for this accelerator and select eservice_portal_config.csv. Then click Next.

3. Within the Record Type drop-down list, select eService Configuration. The Data Map field should display Automatic. Then click Next through the remaining screens and click Import once displayed. This will begin the import process, which will take a few minutes.

Modify the New Workflows

1. Now you need to make edits to the new workflows (see Figure 11.23). Six of the workflows will need to reference the crmwebuser we previously created. You can assign a user within your organization that has been designated as the primary portal user, or you can choose to use crmwebuser. In addition, one of the workflows will require you to update the URL that directs a customer to the website.

Figure 11.23 Workflows added during the msa_eService.Install.exe installation.

2. Edit the workflow labeled MSA-eService: New Case created via the eService Portal. Figure 11.24 shows this workflow.

Figure 11.24 Edit the eService New Case workflow.

3. Edit the Case:Created By Equals field to the appropriate CRM user.

4. Edit the Send Email to Account Owner portion of this workflow by clicking the Set Properties button, and then update the From field with the appropriate CRM user (see Figure 11.25).

Figure 11.25 Edit the eService New Case workflow with a new user.

5. Click Save and Close to close the email template window. Then click Save and Close to save the changes to this workflow.

6. Edit the MSA-eService: Case Note added via the eService Portal workflow (see Figure 11.26).

Figure 11.26 Edit the eService New Case workflow.

7. Update the Note: Created by Does Not Equal field with the appropriate user, making sure to remove reference to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web User user.

8. Edit the MSA-eService: Audit Account Updates via the eService Portal workflow and update the Modified by (User) Does Not Equal field with the appropriate user, making sure to remove reference to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web User user.

9. Edit the MSA-eService: Audit Case Updates via the eService Portal workflow and update the Case: Modified by Does Not Equal field with the appropriate user, making sure to remove reference to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web User user.

10. Edit the MSA-eService: Audit Contact Updates via the eService Portal workflow and update the Modified by (User): User Does Not Equal field with the appropriate user, making sure to remove reference to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web User user.

11. Edit the MSA-eService: New Service Scheduled via the eService Portal workflow and update the Service Activity: Created by Equals field with the appropriate user, making sure to remove reference to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web User user.

12. Edit the MSA-eService: eService Portal Account Sign-Up workflow and edit both URLs within the Send an Email with Instructions on How to Create an eService Portal Account (Set Properties) window (see Figure 11.27). The first page will allow users to create a new account. (By default, this is the CreateUserAccount.aspx page in the Sample Portal site.) The second URL is the default page that existing users will see when they visit the site.

Figure 11.27 Edit the URLs within the eService New Case workflow.

13. Within the CRM Workflows window, select all workflows that begin with MSA-eService, and then publish them. You should be prompted to publish seven workflows. If for any reason the workflows do not publish, review the previous steps and make sure the CRM user you’ve assigned has the appropriate CRM security role.

eService Configuration

1. Within Settings, Customization, eService Configuration, verify that the eService Configuration entity is displayed within the Settings area of CRM. If it is not, check the Settings check box and then Save and Close. (You don’t have to publish the eService Configuration entity again.) Restart your browser.

2. Configure the settings for the eService Configuration entity via Settings, eService Configuration. Select and then edit the eService Config V1 eService configuration listed (see Figure 11.28).

Figure 11.28 Settings for the eService configuration.

The fields within the eService Configuration screen are as follows:

• Default Subject: When a case is created via the web portal, it will be assigned the default subject that you select here.

• Web User: Select the appropriate CRM user (for example, crmwebuser) to use as the portal user who has the following privileges:

• Create, Read, and Update CRM cases, notes, and document attachments

• Create and Read CRM service activities

• Send and Read emails

• Create, Read, and Update the custom entities associated with this accelerator

• Case List Setting: This field contains two options:

• Open: Only open cases display when the customer logs in to the portal.

• All: All cases (both open and closed) display when the customer logs in to the portal.

• Case Note Web Prefix: Use this prefix within a CRM note or keyword within a Knowledge Base (KB) article to make it public to a web user. This provides a layer of flexibility so that internal notes can be added without a customer seeing them. It also means that a KB article using this keyword can be searched via the web portal. By default, nothing is public unless the prefix is typed.

• Configuration XML: Do not make edits to this field, because this XML should be configured only through the eService Console. To keep users from accidentally editing this field, make it read-only.

• Default Language Code: 1033 is the default code for English. For a full list of country codes, visit: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0h88fahh.aspx.

• Active StateCode Value Name: This is the default names of the case state code. In the English edition of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, this is Active.

• Enable Open Case Button: By checking this field, you’re allowing customers to reopen cases.

• Enable Close Case Button: By checking this field, you’ll enable customers to be able to close open cases.

• Send KB Article Email from Contact Owner?: If you check this field, KB articles will be emailed from the contact’s owner (CRM user). If you uncheck this field, the email will be sent from the portal user (for example, crmwebuser).

• Maximum KB Article Length: This sets the maximum number of returned characters for KB articles.

• Send KB Article Email Method: This drop-down list contains two items:

• SMTP: Set to SMTP if KB articles are emailed to customers through an SMTP account.

• MSCRM: Set to MSCRM if KB articles are emailed via Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This is the recommended item if the CRM Email Router component is installed.

• SMTP Server: Your SMTP server.

• SMTP User Account: The user account used to authenticate access to the SMTP account.

• SMTP Password: The user account password used to authenticate access to the SMTP account.

Full Sample Portal

1. Within the Installation Wizard, click Full Sample Portal. This is the same as navigating to the InstallationSample Portal folder.

2. Select all files within this folder and copy.

3. Within C:Program Files, create a new folder called Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer Portal, and then paste all files from the Sample Portal folder.

4. Within this new folder, edit the web.config file and edit the following entities (see Figure 11.29).

Figure 11.29 Edit the Web Config file.

• LocalSqlServer

• msa.CRMOrganizationName so that it matches your organization name.

• msa.CRMServerURL

• msa.CRMWebServicesUser

• msa.CRMWebServicesPassword

• msa.CRMDomain

5. Open Internet Information Services Manager (inetmgr).

6. Create a new website named Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer Portal.

7. Select Port 4444 as the default TCP port this website should use.

8. Select C:Program FilesMicrosoft Dynamics CRM Customer Portal as the website home directory, making sure to Allow Anonymous Access to This Web Site.

9. Allow the following permissions:

Read

Run scripts (such as ASP)

10. Once created, navigate to the Properties window of the new website, click the ASP.NET tab, and select ASP.NET version 2.0.50727.

11. Within the Properties window, click the Documents tab and add Default.aspx.

12. Click OK to save your changes and close the Properties window.

Configure the SQL Server User

For the NT AuthorityNetwork Service to properly access the ASPNETDB database, you must create a new NT AuthorityNetwork Service user within SQL Server Management Studio, and grant db_owner access to schemas owned by the user, and db_owner to the Database role membership.

Testing the eService Accelerator

1. We’re now ready to view the site. Open a web browser and navigate to the server at the port specified (for example, http://localhost:4444/). Then click the Customer Service link to view the customer’s access to the portal (see Figure 11.30).

Figure 11.30 Sample portal.

2. We can test the system by returning to CRM and adding a new contact, making sure to select Web Portal Contact-Level Customer to the new eServices Access Level field.

3. Once added, CRM will fire workflow to send the contact an email. Check to see your workflows fired (see Figure 11.31).

Figure 11.31 View eService workflow.

4. The contact’s History should contain the notification email. Open it to see the email details, including links to log in. The link within the email can then be used within the sample portal to create a new user and to log in (see Figure 11.32).

Figure 11.32 Contact email notification.

5. Copy the link from the notification email and paste it into your browser. You should then see the default new user login page. Complete the fields to create a new portal user, as shown in Figure 11.33.

Figure 11.33 Portal login example.

6. Once you’ve created a new user and logged in to the site using your new credentials, you’ll have direct access to contact data within CRM (see Figure 11.34).

Figure 11.34 Portal profile example.

Your portal should now be installed. With some minor HTML/CSS changes, you can match the look and feel of your website.

Event Management Accelerator

The CRM Event Management accelerator provides functionality for event management within CRM. Out of the box, CRM offers rich campaign management, and this accelerator takes your marketing campaigns to the next level.

One of the main features of this accelerator is extending CRM campaign functionality to a web portal, although a web portal is not required, and the functionality this accelerator provides can be used solely within CRM.

This accelerator, shown in Figure 11.35, provides the following functionality:

• Event planning, such as booking a venue, managing presenters, managing catering, and managing presentations and content preparation

• Event attendee management features, including inviting the target audience via phone, fax, letter, and email, and the Web

• Allow CRM users to manage registrations via phone, letter, fax, email, and web

• Track all customers who attend the event

• Event Review - Microsoft Dynamics CRM reports that measure the effectiveness and return on investment (ROI) of the event

Figure 11.35 Events calendar within the sample portal.

Prerequisites and Modifications

The following prerequisites exist for the Event Management accelerator:

• A website running the .NET Framework.

• The standard implementation is designed to work with AD authentication; however, because source code is provided, an IFD implementation is possible.

• This accelerator has not been road-tested within 64-bit environments.

• SSL is highly recommended because this accelerator allows users to access potentially sensitive customer data.

• If you’ve implemented IFD or service provider licensing agreement (SPLA) deployments, you must modify the authentication code within the portal.

• This portal is single-tenant, and so it will point to only one organization within a CRM deployment. If you’re running multitenancy, you need to deploy a web portal for each organization.

This accelerator modifies the following CRM entities:

• Adds new campaign attributes

• Adds new campaign response attributes

• Adds many new CRM entities for events

• Adds new CRM views

• Adds new CRM plug-in

• Modify campaign forms

• Adds new JavaScript functions

• Adds ASP.NET user controls

For a detailed breakdown of modifications, review the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Event Management Accelerator Installation Guide.doc that’s included in the Documentation folder included with the download files. All files can be downloaded from the Codeplex website at http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com.

Once the eService accelerator is downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following in the Source folder:

• Documentation for installation and extensibility

• All required customization files

• Sample HTML, CSS, and images for a sample website portal

• Visual Studio source code for all examples

Event Management Installation

There are four main components to the installation:

• CRM entity customizations

• ASP.NET user controls

• Custom CRM workflow assembly

• Interface for configuring the eService user controls

The following subsections outline the steps for a standard installation.

Create an Event Management Accelerator User

1. You will need to assign a user for which the Event Management accelerator will use for authentication. You can either configure your own user, or you can create a user specifically for use with the accelerator. Within Active Directory, create a user whose logon name is crmwebuser or similar. This can be done by right-clicking an administrator user and selecting Copy (to inherit all the administrator permissions).

2. If your user does not exist within CRM, add it. Within CRM, create the crmwebuser and assign the appropriate email address if necessary.

3. Assign the appropriate role to this user (for example, System Administrator).

Prepare the Installation

1. Run the installation executable that you downloaded from Codeplex. At the time of this writing, this is EventManagement_V1.0_RTW.exe.

2. Once you’ve extracted the files, you can use the wizard to configure most of the necessary components (see Figure 11.36).

Figure 11.36 Event Management accelerator Installation Wizard.

Wizard Step 1: Install CRM Customizations

1. Within the Event Management accelerator Installation Wizard, click Step 1: Install CRM Customizations. The InstallationStep 1 - CRM Customizations folder is displayed. Copy the EventManagement-Customizations.xml file to your desktop.

2. Open CRM and navigate to Settings, Customization, Import Customizations.

3. Click Browse and open EventManagement-Customizations.xml on your desktop. Then click Upload, and the Event Management customizations will display (see Figure 11.37).

Figure 11.37 Import Event Management customizations.

4. Select all displayed customizations, and then click Import Selected Customizations. All customizations should import successfully.

5. Navigate to Settings, Customization, Customize Entities. Ensure that the new event customizations are present within the list of CRM entities, and then click More Actions, Publish All Customizations.

6. Run msa_eventmanagement.Install.exe.

7. Within the InstallationStep 1 - CRM Customizations folder, open the register.xml file (see Figure 11.38).

• Set Server to the CRM web service URL, which is the URL you use to access the front page of CRM; for example, http://localhost:5555.

• Set Org to the name of the organization. Remember not to use spaces in the name. (For example, MicrosoftCRM is used if the org name is Microsoft CRM.)

• Set Domain accordingly. Within the standard virtual PC image for CRM, use a period (.).

• Set UserName to your logged-in username or a CRM user with a high level of privileges, such as a user with a System Administrator role.

• Save your changes.

Figure 11.38 Editing the register.xml file.

8. Before running the msa_eventmanagement.Install.exe, make sure you’re logged in to Windows as a user that exists within CRM, and you have appropriate permissions to make the customizations, such as System Administrator.

9. Navigate to the InstallationStep 1 - CRM Customizations folder and run the msa_eventmanagement.Install.exe.

10. You’ll be prompted to enter your password. Type it and then press Enter. After authenticating, the program will create a CRM connection, delete duplicate solutions if detected, and then register the MSA_EventRegistration.

11. When the program has completed successfully, you are prompted to press Enter to continue (see Figure 11.39).

Figure 11.39 Successful Installation of msa_eventmanagement.Install.exe at the command prompt.

12. If you encounter any problems during the installation, additional information may be available within the msa_eventmanagement.Install.Log.txt file located within the same directory as the EXE.

Wizard Step 2: Install CRM Reports

1. Within the Event Management accelerator Installation Wizard, click Step 2: Install CRM Reports. This displays the location of the CRM reports you’ll be importing next.

2. Within CRM, navigate to Workplace, Reports, New. You’ll be prompted with a New Report screen. Configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: InstallationStep 2 – ReportsEvent Attendee List.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Event Attendee List

• Description: Optional text describing the report

• Categories: Marketing Reports

• Related Record Types: Campaigns and Campaign Responses

• Display In: Reports Area, Forms for related record types, Lists for related record types

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.40.

Figure 11.40 Adding the Event Attendee List report.

3. Click Save and Close to create the new CRM report.

4. Within CRM, navigate to Workplace, Reports, New. You’ll be prompted with a New Report screen. Configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: InstallationStep 2 – ReportsEvent Name Badges.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Event Name Badges

• Description: Optional text describing the report

• Categories: Marketing Reports

• Related Record Types: Campaigns and Campaign Responses

• Display In: Reports Area, Forms for related record types, Lists for related record types

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.41.

Figure 11.41 Adding the Event Name Badges report.

5. Click Save and Close to create the new CRM report.

Wizard Step 3: Full Sample Portal

1. Create a new folder for the sample portal (for example, C:Program FilesMicrosoft Dynamics CRM Customer PortalEventMgr).

2. Within the Event Management accelerator Installation Wizard, click Full Sample Portal. This displays the location of the full sample portal files. Copy all files within this folder, and then paste them to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer PortalEventMgr folder you just created.

3. Within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer PortalEventMgr folder, edit the web.config file and modify the following entities (see Figure 11.42).

• msa.CRMOrganizationName so that it matches your organization name

• msa.CRMServerURL

• msa.CRMWebServicesUser

• msa.CRMWebServicesPassword

• msa.CRMDomain

Figure 11.42 Edit the Web Config file.

4. Save your changes to the web.config file and then close it.

5. Open Internet Information Services Manager (inetmgr).

6. Create a new website named Microsoft Dynamics CRM Event Manager.

7. Select port 4444 as the default TCP port this website should use.

8. Select the folder (for example, C:Program FilesMicrosoft Dynamics CRM Customer PortalEventMgr) as the website home directory, making sure to Allow Anonymous Access to This Web Site.

9. Allow the following permissions:

• Read

• Run scripts (such as ASP)

10. Once created, navigate to the Properties window of the new website, click the ASP.NET tab, and select ASP.NET version 2.0.50727.

11. Within the Properties window, click the Documents tab and add Default.aspx.

12. Click OK to save your changes and close the Properties window.

CRM Customizations

1. Within CRM, we need to ensure that the Event Management Configuration entity is displayed within CRM Settings. Navigate to Settings, Customization, Customize Entities; open the Event Management Configuration window, and place a check mark within the Settings check box.

2. Close your browser and reopen it and then open CRM.

3. Navigate to Settings, Customization, Customize Entities, Campaign, and open the Campaign entity.

4. Navigate to Attributes and open the statuscode attribute.

5. Within the Type section, edit the following types and note their list value:

• Launched: Default value is 2.

• Waitlisting: Default value is 200,000.

• Sold Out: Default value is 200,001.

6. Close the Campaign entity windows.

7. Navigate to the Campaign Response entity and note the following list values for the responsecode attribute:

• Registered: Default value is 200,000.

• Waitlist: Default value is 200,002.

• Registration Canceled: Default value is 200,001.

8. Navigate to the Campaign Response entity and note the following list values for the channeltypecode attribute:

• Web: Default value is 200,000.

9. Close all open entity windows; navigate to Settings and then to the Event Management Configuration entity (see Figure 11.43).

Figure 11.43 Event Management configuration.

10. Click New, and the New Event Management Configuration window will display. We’ll now apply the settings we’ve just recorded within previous steps. Configure the window with the following settings (see Figure 11.44):

• Name: Event Management Config V1

• Event Is Open Status Code: Launched

• Event Is Waitlisting Status Code: Waitlisting

Figure 11.44 New Event Management configuration.

• Event Is Sold Out Status Code: Sold Out

• Registered Response Code: Registered

• Waitlist Response Code: Waitlist

• Cancellation Response Code: Registration Canceled

• Web Registration Channel Code: Web

11. Click Save and Close to save your configurations.

Publish the CRM Workflow

1. Open CRM and navigate to Settings, Workflows. There are four new workflows listed that begin with MSA and should be in a Draft status.

2. Open the MSA-Event Management. Attendee Post-Event Process workflow and edit the Campaign Response: Attended Event equals [Yes] step (see Figure 11.45).

Figure 11.45 Edit workflow.

3. Click Set Properties and edit the From field so that the email is sent from a valid CRM user (for example, CRM Web User). The click Publish to save your changes and publish the workflow.

4. Open the MSA-Event Management: Event Management Process workflow and scroll down to Stage 2: Invitations and Registration Management, and then change the Create: Marketing List drop-down list item to Task. Then click Set Properties. The Create Task for This Workflow screen then displays. Type the following within the Subject field: Create segmented marketing list for prospective attendees. While you’re in the screen, scroll around to note all portions of this comprehensive workflow. Then click Publish to save your changes and publish the workflow.

5. Open the MSA-Event Management: Event Registration and Acknowledgement workflow (see Figure 11.46). You’ll be editing each of the four Set Properties buttons to assign the proper CRM user within the From fields.

Figure 11.46 Edit Event Registration Acknowledgement workflow.

6. Scroll down to the Set Properties button of the Campaign Response: Response Code Equals [Registered] step. Click Set Properties and assign an appropriate CRM user within the From field (for example, CRM Web User), making sure to remove Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web User user.

7. Scroll down and edit the From fields within each of the remaining Set Properties buttons. After you’ve made the four edits, click Publish to save your changes and then publish the workflow.

8. Publish the MSA-Event Management: Update Event Address workflow.

Testing the Portal

1. Within CRM, navigate to Marketing, Campaigns and click New to create a new campaign.

2. Configure the following fields:

• Name: Test Seminar

• Status Reason: Launched

• Campaign Type: Event (Note that when you select Event, the Event Details tab is enabled, as shown in Figure 11.47.)

Figure 11.47 Create a new campaign.

3. Once the Event Details tab is enabled, you can configure your event (see Figure 11.48).

Figure 11.48 Create a new campaign.

4. Save and close the campaign.

5. You’re now ready to test the portal. Open your browser and navigate to the portal (for example, http://moss:4444/). Once open, click Events within the top navigation bar. This will display your events, as shown in Figure 11.49.

Figure 11.49 Events calendar within the sample portal.

6. Click Register Now to register to the event. Note the required fields, and then register for the event (see Figure 11.50).

Figure 11.50 Register for an event.

7. Once registered, you should receive a successful confirmation screen.

8. Within CRM, we can review the Campaign to see the new attendee details (see Figure 11.51).

Figure 11.51 Event details with new attendee

9. Within the campaign or event, the campaign responses will also display event attendees and their details (see Figure 11.52).

Figure 11.52 Campaign response with new attendee.

Extended Sales Forecasting Accelerator

The Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator is composed of the following components:

• Custom goal and goal audit entities

• A script function to retrieve Fiscal Period Reporting settings

• A set of reports for viewing goal and attainment information

• A new role to support the new goal entity

• The addition of the Goal Lookup field on the opportunity form

• Four workflow definitions to handle notifications and approvals of goals

• Documentation of the goal-creation process, reports, and custom entity and installation instructions

The Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator (shown in Figure 11.53) provides an easy-to-use process to monitor revenue goals and track sales performance against the goals, using a hierarchical approach if desired (VP Sales, then Sales Managers, and then Salespeople). This approach is frequently referred to as goal-based forecasting.

Figure 11.53 Sales Forecasting accelerator.

Prerequisites and Modifications

The following prerequisites exist for the Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator:

• Fiscal settings must be configured within CRM. If not configured, they will not be used by the script, and the goal period will have to be set manually.

This accelerator modifies the following CRM entities:

• Adds new goal entity

• Adds new goal audit entity

• Adds script to retrieve Fiscal Period Reporting settings

• Adds new reports

• Adds new role

• Modifies opportunities

• Adds new workflows

For a detailed breakdown of modifications, review the documents within the Documentation folder included with the download files. All files can be downloaded from the Codeplex website at http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com.

Once the eService accelerator is downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following materials in the Source folder:

• Documentation for licensing, solutions, and installation (and a user guide)

• All required customization files

• Custom reports

Extended Sales Forecasting Accelerator Installation

1. Run the installation executable that you downloaded from Codeplex. At the time of this writing, this is ExtendedSalesForecasting_V1.0_RTW.exe.

2. After you’ve extracted the files, a wizard is displayed that you can use to configure the accelerator, as shown in Figure 11.54.

Figure 11.54 Extended Sales Forecasting Accelerator Installation Wizard.

Wizard Step 1: CRM Customizations

1. Before you can use this accelerator, you must configure your organization’s fiscal year settings within CRM, Settings, Business Management, Fiscal Year Settings. Be sure to review the Documentation Microsoft Dynamics CRM Extended Sales Forecasting Installation_Guide.doc before attempting to configure the fiscal year settings.

2. Within the Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator Installation Wizard, click Step 1: CRM Customizations. The InstallationStep 1 - CRM Customizations folder displays. Copy the extended_sales_forecasting.xml file to your desktop. You’ll perform this step because the default installation directory of the accelerators contains too many characters for the CRM Import Customizations entity.

3. Within CRM, navigate to Settings, Customization, Import Customizations and browse to the extended_sales_forecasting.xml file on your desktop. Upload the customizations, and then import (see Figure 11.55). You may receive an alert about localization while importing; it’s safe to ignore.

Figure 11.55 Import customizations.

4. Within CRM, update the Goal entity so that it is displayed in CRM’s navigation panes. Navigate to Settings, Customization, Customize Entities, Goal and add check boxes to Areas That Display This Entity (for example, Sales or Workplace).

5. Edit the Opportunity entity so that the new Goal field is displayed. Edit the main Opportunity entity form and add the Goal field (msa_goalid), as shown in Figure 11.56.

Figure 11.56 Opportunity customization.

6. Within the Customize Entities window, select More Actions and then Publish All Entities to publish the new Goal entities and opportunity modification.

7. Within Settings, Workflow, publish the four newly imported workflows beginning with MSA-Extended Sales Forecasting.

8. After adding the Goal entity, only the system administrator has access to the entity. Grant access to the security roles of users who need to view the Goal entity. A detailed explanation of how to administer the proper security roles is provided within the Documentation Microsoft Dynamics CRM Extended Sales Forecasting Installation_Guide.doc file.

Wizard Step 2: CRM Reports

1. Before adding these two reports to CRM, make sure you do not modify the original filenames.

2. Within CRM, navigate to Workplace, Reports, New. You’ll be prompted with a New Report screen. Configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: InstallationStep 2 – CRM ReportsMSA Goals – Graph.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Sales Forecasting Graph

• Description: Optional text describing the report

• Categories: Sales Reports

• Related Record Types: Goals

• Display In: Reports Area, Forms for related record types, Lists for related record types

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.57.

Figure 11.57 Adding the Sales Forecasting Graph report.

3. Click Save and Close to create the new CRM report.

4. Within CRM, navigate to Workplace, Reports, New. You’ll be prompted with a New Report screen. Configure each field as follows:

• Report Type: Existing File

• File Location: InstallationStep 2 - CRM ReportsMSA Goals - Matrix.rdl (making sure the full path to your extracted files exists)

• Name: Sales Goals Matrix

• Description: Optional text describing the report

• Categories: Sales Reports

• Related Record Types: Goals

• Display In: Reports Area, Forms for related record types, Lists for related record types

• Administration Tab, Viewable By: Organization

After you’ve completed the configurations, your New Report screen should match Figure 11.58

Figure 11.58 Adding the Sales Forecasting Graph report.

5. Click Save and Close to create the new CRM report.

6. Optionally, you can configure the default filters for these reports. Highlight either report within the Reports window and select More Actions, Edit Default Filter. This can prove helpful if you’re reporting against time periods or other criteria that requires filtering.

Testing the Extended Sales Forecasting Accelerator

1. Within CRM, we will create a new parent goal. Navigate to Sales, Goals and click the New button.

2. Select the Owner, Start Date, and Meet fields, and then click Save (see Figure 11.59).

Figure 11.59 Creating a new goal.

3. Now create a subgoal using the following settings:

• Owner: Select an appropriate owner, making sure that their security role allows that owner to access the Goal entity.

• Start Date: Set an appropriate start date.

• Meet: Set a sales goal.

Creating a subgoal allows for sales managers to compare their sales goals against the salespeople they manage. It also provides drill-down capabilities within the Goal reports.

4. Within Workplace, Reports, run the Sales Forecasting Graph report. Once you run the report, the parent goal is displayed (for example, the Sales Manager). Then click the Goal section of the report to open the subgoals; the salesperson’s goals will display (see Figure 11.60).

Figure 11.60 Goal reporting.

5. To view metrics against sales goals, we can assign a goal within an opportunity. Create a new opportunity, and then set a goal with a goal you’ve previously created (see Figure 11.61).

• Workflow. When a new sales goal is created, a task is assigned to the owner, and the owner can review the goal.

• If you mark the task as Completed, a workflow will send an email to the user who assigned the goal. The goal will be marked as Signed Off.

• If you mark the task as Canceled, the user who assigned the goal will be notified that the goal has been rejected.

Figure 11.61 Create an opportunity and assign goal.

Newsfeed Business Productivity Accelerator

The Newsfeed Business Productivity accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 could possibly be the answer to organizations whose users have not successfully adopted CRM 4. This accelerator has an appealing and easy-to-understand interface that provides insight into business data, for any level of user.

The Newsfeed Business Productivity accelerator provides the following solutions:

• Newsfeed report showing current CRM user activity

• Sample workflows used to add items to the newsfeed

For a detailed breakdown of modifications, review the documents within the Documentation folder included with the download files. All files can be downloaded from the Codeplex website at http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com.

Once the newsfeed accelerator is downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following materials in the Source folder:

• Documentation for installation

• Source code

• Custom report

• Workflow

Installing the Newsfeed Business Productivity Accelerator

1. Open CRM and select Settings, Customization, Import Customizations. Import the SourceCodeWorkflows ewsfeed_oob_workflows.xml file into CRM. You’ll be importing four workflows, as shown in Figure 11.62.

Figure 11.62 Import the Newsfeed workflows.

2. If using the Extended Sales Forecasting accelerator, import the SourceCodeSF Workflows ewsfeed_esf_workflows.xml to also display Sales Forecasting results.

3. Publish the workflows.

4. Import the custom report using the following configuration (see Figure 11.63):

• Existing File, which is found within C:Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0AcceleratorsBusProdNewsfeedV1.0BusProd_Newsfeed_RTWSourceCodeSSRSCRM Newsfeed.rdl.

• Update Categories to include Sales Reports. You could use all categories or none.

• Set the Related Record Types to Activities.

• Set the Display In to Reports Area and Lists for Related Record Types.

• Click the Administration tab and set the report to be available to the organization. CRM user permissions will still apply so that users will see only records for which they have permission to view.

Figure 11.63 Import the Newsfeed report.

5. Optionally, you can modify the list of activities that appear in the Newsfeed dashboard by adding the string newsfeed: to any note within a record.

This accelerator can be extended easily by building workflow to enhance the data displayed within the custom report, or by updating the CRM site map, you can set the newsfeed report as the “home page’ for all CRM users.

Notifications Accelerator

The purpose of this accelerator is to allow the publisher (CRM) to post timely CRM-centric updates to the reader’s RSS reader of choice. For example, if a new lead is assigned to a salesperson, rather than send an email or expect the salesperson to check his leads within CRM, the lead is published, and the salesperson sees it the next time he opens his RSS reader. RSS publications can apply to any entity within CRM if users desire.

The Notifications accelerator uses RSS to drive information via any RSS reader client. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and enables content publishers to syndicate or post information automatically. RSS provides readers a way to aggregate their favorite feeds with timely updates within Outlook or many other types of RSS readers, including readers that can live within cell phones or PDAs.

In other words, rather than create a CRM workflow that pushes email to CRM users when a new CRM lead is assigned to them, add an RSS feed to CRM users’ Outlook, Windows Vista gadgets, or RSS applications on their cell phones so that they may consume this data on demand.

The Notifications accelerator is composed of the following components:

• Salespeople see when a new lead has been assigned to them.

• Customer service can see when new cases have been assigned to them.

• Keeps up-to-date on events happening across the organization.

• Custom RSS pages can be managed via a custom dynamic link library (DLL) within the ISV folder (fully automated installation, including source code).

• Eliminates email; now users choose what they receive.

• Embedded within toolbar is an RSS menu. Subscribe or choose subscription.

• Select almost any entity within CRM and then any subset of the entity: My Active Accounts, My Active Contacts, My Open Leads, My Campaigns, My Active Cases, and so forth.

• Use any RSS reader, including mobile phones, or Outlook 2007 or Vista gadgets.

• Within Outlook 2007, you can configure New Item Alerts that pop up and show that you have a new RSS feed item.

Figure 11.64 shows the Notifications accelerator.

Figure 11.64 The Notifications accelerator.

For a detailed breakdown of modifications, review the documents within the Documentation folder included with the download files. All files can be downloaded from the Codeplex website at http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com.

Once the notifications accelerator is downloaded and unzipped, you’ll find the following materials in the Source folder:

• Documentation for installation, data flow, and licensing

• Source code (Visual Studio 2008 is required to work with the solution files.)

Installing the Notifications Accelerator

The following steps walk you through the installation of this accelerator:

1. Download and run the executable, CRMNotifications_V1.0_RTW.exe. This contains detailed instructions and an overview of the accelerator, and all files required to install the accelerator.

2. Within the Installation Wizard, click Fully Automated Installation.

3. Run the Setup.exe.

4. When prompted for the organization, place a check mark next to your organization, and then click Install, as shown in Figure 11.65.

Figure 11.65 Notifications installation, organization selection.

5. You must enable ISV.Config customizations for the RSS drop-down to appear within CRM. Within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, select Settings, Administration, System Settings, Customization and set the Custom Menus and Toolbars section to reflect which clients you want the RSS menu to appear within (Web/Outlook/Outlook Offline), as shown in Figure 11.66.

Figure 11.66 Enable ISV customizations.

Using the Notifications Accelerator

The Notifications accelerator can be applied to many scenarios. For example, you could enable Windows Vista gadgets on your desktop and then display all your active cases, or you could use the Outlook RSS reader and view them in Outlook.

Figure 11.67 shows how to configure the Notifications accelerator to subscribe to My Active CRM Cases, and Figure 11.68 shows how they will appear in Outlook if Customer Issue is selected.

Figure 11.67 Subscribe to My Active Cases.

Figure 11.68 View active cases within Outlook.

You can easily see the power of this accelerator as it quickly and effortlessly pushes information out with little configuration necessary from the end user. Organizations have used this accelerator to publish information to their internal intranet sites and to external websites.

Summary

In this chapter, we covered the CRM accelerators and the wide array of applications and features they provide.

It is important to remember that although accelerators are supported across different deployment scenarios, they frequently leverage complementary technology, such as SQL Server, MOSS, and so on. In addition, while the accelerators are free, it is important to plan on spending time and resources on their configuration, because the solutions they bring are generic in nature and will require customization of the solution to your particular needs and environment.

The goal of this chapter was to provide insight into the power of CRM’s integration capabilities and into the feature-rich functionality of the CRM accelerators. If you’ve ever been exposed to the complexities of extending CRM, you’ll certainly appreciate the enormous amount of effort that’s gone into these accelerators and the enormous amount of time and energy you’ll save by implementing them instead of building a solution from the ground up.