Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization or Third Party Product - Overview for Consultant

With version 3.0 MS CRM will be more exposed to end-user tuning, software development, customizations. Microsoft CRM SDK is becoming more sophisticated with post-call-out technology reconsidering, deprecating a lot of 1.2 CRM SDK methods, replacing Crystal Reports Enterprise with MS SQL Server Reporting Services, changing MS CRM Exchange Connector functionality, etc. Microsoft itself has to be very flexible and freed up to change/adjust development standards if required. In such situation end customer should be very knowledgeable and savvy to predict the future, when he needs to deploy custom solutions/modules. In this small article we will consider pros and contras of deploying third parties or just go ahead with customer specific unique customization.

Third Party Product.

o Pros: The cost is normally controllable, because product is already developed and ready to be implemented. Plus it is possible to get references on the reliability of the product from all the kinds of user groups, product reviews, etc. Also - sometimes it is referred as weakness but it might be considered as the plus - if product is developed and supported by the known vendor - you should believe that it will be upgraded and available for future MS CRM releases.

o Contras. The first minus we would like to mention is usually not described in the textbooks - this is the problem when, say product A is purchased by Microsoft itself and inaugurated as from now on 'official' solutions, and if you historically selected product B - coming from the competitor - you are in a problem - you will see you software vendor to be weakened and slowly phasing out alternative product B

Unique Customization.

o Pros. You will have so-called source code, if you negotiate it right with the custom developer or custom development company - then you can transfer version upgrade or product modification to the market leader (who will be giving you better price and quality assurance in the future). Other pluses might be cost saving, due to the fact that you are paying for required functionality only, not for something you will never use.

o Contras. Cost might be crossing the budgeted line, because you might not be able to select reliable software developer (all of them might be in the learning curve, because MS CRM is relatively young product) - this is very strong argument, when you have just purchased the CRM and yet not know the players on the customization market.

Production Environment Challenges. When you are already in production - be sure that MS CRM needs testing, if you introduce custom logic. You should try to isolate custom logic, and test it in the isolated space - again MS CRM doesn't have parallel test company environment - opposite to what you have in ERP system, such as Great Plains/Dynamics GP.

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com [http://www.greatplains.com.mx] ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Customization, Reporting Integration Highlights

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM has now new name, Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics product series also include Microsoft GP (Great Plains),

Microsoft NAV (Navision), Microsoft AX (Axapta), Microsoft SL (Solomon). However

version number was not changed, Microsoft just mentioned that MS CRM 1.2 was

actually version 2, due to large number of new features, comparing to first

version Microsoft CRM 1.0. In this small article we would like to share our

impression and as we see Microsoft messages to potential and existing customers

with this new version of Microsoft CRM.

o Buyers are tired with complex and expensive traditional CRM solutions, MS CRM

brings to the customers very attractive price and is very easy, we would say

intuitive to use

o Users should spend most of their computer time, working with MS Outlook. Both

- customer and Microsoft could capitalize on the large number of experienced MS

Office / Outlook users. Microsoft made its CRM with Outlook client. In version

3.0 you can be assured that majority of the functionality is available in

Outlook and only specific tasks would still require MS CRM web client interface.

Technical directions:

o Reporting. From Crystal Reports to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting

Services. You can still deploy Crystal, if you purchase Crystal Report viewer or

designer license. If you do not have report you need in SRS reports set (and you

do not want to create new report in Visual Studio.Net), you can export one of

CRM views to MS Excel Pivoting Table and use it as report generator and data

analysis tool. Both SRS reports and Excel Pivoting work in MS CRM security

realm. The reason why? - MS CRM views have security restriction check in where

SQL clause - you can check it by looking at the views definitions.

o Customizations. Before we dive to MS CRM SDK level we should mention

that you can now store your Javascript and MS CRM SDK C# or VB code in Pre/Post

callouts (to check for duplicate records, when you save new contact, for

example). Plus end user can create custom MS CRM entities (stored in tables) and

relate these custom entities to MS CRM objects. Imagine you need to create bank

accounts table, which will store multiple accounts per account-customer. Bank

account is custom entity and it might be made available for synchronized

off-line Outlook client.

o Messaging. In version 1.2 messaging was tracked and automatically moved

to MS CRM by adding and checking GUID in the message header. Antispam filters

were blocking such messages under certain conditions. Now in 3.0 instead of GUID

we have tracking token: CRM:0001001 or like this. Please, note, if you have

custom messaging Exchange connector, based on GUID - you should consider redo

this custom connector for version 3.0, based on tracking token or simply

contact, account, lead email scan (matching with sender email address)

o Integration. IFrame will allow you to integrate all the types of URL

with your CRM . Also Sharepoint is the future of advanced workflows and

collaboration of your CRM and domain users

o Data Migration. The tool was improved substantially, however if you

need history integration plus certain logic on checking duplicates, you still

should consider third party solutions.

Happy implementing, customizing and modifying! If you want us to do the job -

give us a call 1-866-528-0577!

help@albaspectrum.com 

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) ? Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials, SAP Business One and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay

MB2-631 - Benefits of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration Exam

Microsoft is one of the reputed vendors in the information technology background and the certifications offered from Microsoft are accepted worldwide and has its international value. Candidates in both IT as well as non- IT background are willing to study these certification courses in order to have their careers to be in a right path as well as in successful path. This certification can be said as the most technical and complex in nature among all Microsoft certifications. So, it requires maximum training to the candidates to practice for this exam for successfully passing.

Exam topic outline/ objectives:

For all examinations, objectives/ exam topic outlines play an important role for the candidates to practice for the examination. The following are the MB2-631 exam objectives and they are:

1) Configuration deployment

2) Forms and customizing views

3) Entities and customizing attributes

4) Relationship and customize mapping

5) Maintenance of organization

Examination consists of 50 multiple choice questions and no adaptive or case study type questions. Exam includes questions from all sections and candidates should concentrate on all sections because marks are calculated from each section. Minimum mark should be scored in each section in order to pass the MB2-631 exam.

Benefits of MB2-631 exam:

The benefits of MB2-631 exam are as follows. They are:

1) Candidates who hold this certification are capable of dealing with several aspects as well as problems in the networks

2) Candidates can also able to perform with various aspects such deploying, controlling and troubleshooting the branch network in any organization (maybe for a standard level organization).

3) If any network problems persist in a company, then professionals who have their MB2-631 certification can solve these problems. Thus, all companies are hiring to take care the networking operations in an organizations because big multinational companies should always be in touch for giving updates and the work should not postponed because of network issues. From this, it is guaranteed that the candidates can get placed in any company after certifying with this certification.

As Microsoft is a reputed organization, the certificates from Microsoft have international value and also it is accepted worldwide. So, candidates can use this certification in any part of the world for searching jobs.

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