Here's what's happening on this week's live webcast schedule for this week & next. Register to attend live or get access to the recorded event.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Dynamics 365 for High Tech Manufacturing: Rev Rec, Complex Supply Chains and More12:00 PM ESTRegister

Join this webinar to hear how high tech manufacturers are using Microsoft Dynamics 365 to support mission-critical processes - from sales to operations - within industries like Semiconductor / Fab...

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What is great to see with Dynamics 365 is the concept of the Application User. This means that subscribing systems can be connected to external systems using a 'Service Account' style user rather than the previous technique of providing username and passwords.

One of the knock on effects of this is the new 'Application User' form on the User record. I've had some questions from people who see this form by default. You simply need to change the form back the standard 'User' form:

If you try to save the user record on this form you will receive the error 'You must provide a value for Application ID' since this is a mandatory field.

If you want to learn more about the Multi-tenant server to server application user integration scenarios that are used by App Source, then check out the following article:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt790170.aspx

There are situations where the label for a field is longer than usual. In these situations the default label width length cuts off the label only showing the beginning. The following are instructions for how to increase that label width to show the whole label of a field on a form. You must have customization privileges to do this.

1. Open the form that contains the field you want to increase the label width for.
2. Click on the FORM button in the ribbon

3. Locate the section that the field is located in, and select it. Then click the Change Properties button in the ribbon to change the section properties

4. Locate the Field Label Width section on the “Display” tab

5. The default width you start with is 115. You will need to increase this number as needed until the field label has been displayed in its entirety. Note – the maximum width allowed is 250. For this example, 160 was enough to display the full label on the form.

6. Be sure to save and publish your changes!

The post Increase Dynamics CRM Field Label Width appeared first on Ledgeview Partners.

Have you ever wanted to create a view of cases that have not yet been assigned to a queue in Microsoft Dynamics 365? Today’s blog will walk you through a method using workflows that can help you identify these cases. You can use this method to build a custom view of cases not yet assigned to a queue. Let’s get started!

Create the Fields
The first step is to add a field to the case noting the queue that it is assigned. Since this field is only meant to be a flag to help you determine the cases that are not assigned to a queue, you can make this a text field.

While we are at it, we sometimes also want to report on the original queue to which the case was assigned. In that case, we can create an Original Queue field as show below.

Create a Workflow
The next step is to create a workflow that populates the above fields. Navigate to the system customizations > Processes area.

Click on the New button to create a new workflow. Give the workflow a name of your choice, set the category to workflow and set the entity to Queue Item. See example below.

Set the Header of the Workflow to Run
Set the workflow to run on create of the Queue Item and check “Record fields change” in the “Start When” section.

Click on the “View” link next to the “Record fields change” to select the “queued” as show below.

Add Workflow Steps
Since we only want the workflow to run when queue items are created for cases, we can add a conditional step to only execute the steps if the workflow has a type of “Case.” Below is a screen shot showing the if condition statement.

If it doesn’t have a type of case, we can exit the workflow and set the status to be cancelled.

See below for the detailed workflow steps.

The first step after the “if” statement updates our custom queue text field with the name of the queue. To do this, you can set select the Queue field in the form assistant and add it to out custom queue field. See below.

Field on Form:

Next, we can populate our custom original custom queue field. First, using an if statement, we test to see if the Original queue field contains data. If it does not, we update the field just as we updated the custom queue field and then stop the workflow as succeeded. If it does already have data in it, then we stop the workflow as succeeded since we don’t want to overwrite the data in the original queue field.

Create a Custom View to Show Cases not Assigned to Queues
Now that we have setup the fields and workflow to populate the fields on the case, we can create a custom view to show the active cases that are not in a Queue.

An easy way to do this is to open the active cases view and save as “Active Cases not in a Queue”. That way, you already have the same columns that you have in the active cases vies. Next, you want to change the filter criteria. If you click on the “Edit Filter Criteria” link on view, you will get a pop-up allowing you to set the filter criteria. You only need to add the filter criteria of where Queue does not contain data. See screen shot below.

Click “OK” and save the view. Once you publish, you will be able to see the new custom view showing you all the cases that have not been assigned to a queue yet.

And there you have it! If you are interested in learning more CRM tips and tricks for Dynamics 365, check out our wide range of educational offerings!

Happy Dynamics 365’ing!

Today’s customers expect a seamless and consistent experience across the growing number of channels they are using to interact with organizations. In today’s episode of The CRM Minute, hear from Greg, our Customer Service Superstar, about some of the trends we are seeing in the industry!

As Greg mentioned, the primary service channels we are seeing used within the industry are the most traditional ones: phone, email, and chat. However, alternative channels like self-service, SMS, IoT, and social media have started to outpace the growth trajectories of these traditional channels.

The global average for 2016 shows that more than half of all customer interactions now begin online and more than a quarter begin on mobile devices. Not only should organizations be broadening their channel offerings, but they must also ensure they are providing true omni-channel service.

Happy Dynamics 365’ing!

Additional Resources

• Register for the Webinar: Sharpening Your Omni-channel Service Strategy.
• Learn More About Customer Service with Dynamics 365
• Watch the Webinar: High Performance Service

Thanks for checking out my blog post Let Meg and Mark’s Travels Begin, Australia, New Zealand if you want to see more like this please take a look here Mark Smith (nzCRMguy) - things I have learned on the way... if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me direct nzCRMguy

Sydney is our current home Meg and I currently live in one of the most beautiful cities in all the World.  We moved here almost four years ago from New Zealand.  We love the people the city and the places we have worked. We live in the CBD in an apartment that [...]

CRM can provide significant benefits to any sales-driven organization that’s focused on customer service. And it can have a profoundly positive impact on internal processes and performance, both individually and organizationally. Despite CRM’s inherent ability to boost profits and deliver insights, there are some things that CRM simply can’t do on its own.

Time and again, CRM fails because organizations think implementing the software is all that’s needed to effect the changes they seek. That’s not how it works. CRM and its ability to automate processes can never replace human effort. CRM is a tool – and a very important one, but if the entire organization does not actively embrace CRM, its anticipated results simply cannot manifest.

Manage Expectations

Whether you’re implementing a new CRM system or trying to fix CRM that hasn’t lived up to its promise, it may be helpful to step back and look at the interplay between the technology and the people using it. It’s important to manage everyone’s expectations up front, and clearly understand what’s required to make CRM a success.

• Users must be willing to change old behaviors.
  “We’ve always done it this way” must become a thing of the past. If CRM is configured and implemented to support the nuances of your business, the transition to embracing new processes will make sense and align with individual and organizational goals. Managers must step up and monitor staffers who cling to old, inefficient processes and any other behaviors that must change to ensure everyone’s success.
• Data will not maintain itself.
  Customer and prospect data is the lifeblood of any organization. If data is to hold its value for everyone, it must be updated and maintained by everyone. Information should be scrubbed and updated regularly. Notes should be added routinely so everyone has a single, comprehensive view of what’s happening. Blank fields should be completed to ensure meaningful analyses. When data is inaccurate, outdated or incomplete, the potential benefits of CRM are greatly diminished. A simple task like mailing holiday greeting cards can be difficult without good data. Imagine how much worse it can be dividing up a sales territory or launching a new product campaign.
• Automation alone will not fix inefficient or missing processes.
  There’s no magic wand to eliminate inefficiency. However, CRM does provide a solid framework for establishing new and more efficient work flows. Consider that CRM is the engine and people are the energy that power its potential. Only when CRM guides everyone’s actions will the organization improve productivity, increase sales, and strengthen customer satisfaction.
• CRM is everyone’s responsibility.
  CRM doesn’t “belong” to IT or any one department. At its core, it is a business solution that uses technology to deliver benefits to the entire organization. Everyone is a stakeholder in CRM’s success because everyone benefits, not just those responsible for implementing it. Conversely, every group should have input into how the system is configured to make sure it reflects their day-to-day reality. Collaboration throughout CRM’s lifecycle is essential to deriving every benefit possible.
• Executives must lead by example.
  Any system forced on end users will be rejected. It’s human nature. This is especially true if managers and leadership don’t use CRM to inform decision making or assess the relative health of their business. CRM offers flexible dashboards, reports and analyses that benefit every functional area. If managers don’t use or value CRM’s output, users are less likely to care about the quality of their input and will revert to old habits. Leaders should make CRM the “one truth” about the customer relationship and the reference point for every sales meeting, marketing campaign, and service analysis.

Prepare for Success

Besides having a realistic perspective of what CRM does and what your teams must do, there are a few more criteria that are essential for CRM success.

CRM includes functionality and data structures that can – and should – be modified to support how you do business. An out-of-the-box implementation with no personalization will likely lead to abandonment because it doesn’t meet your needs. Be sure you work with a strategic consulting partner that understands the nexus between business and technology, and has the resources to deliver a CRM system that’s “just right” for your organization.

On the people side, training should be a top priority. Not just operational training, which is how to run this and do that, but value-based training, which emphasizes how they will benefit from CRM. When each type of user understands how their investment in CRM pays off for them, they are more inclined to embrace its changes and reap its rewards. And be sure to follow up with advanced training. The deeper users go into CRM, the greater its value to the organization.

Ongoing operational and strategic support is another key consideration. Users should be free to ask questions that maintain productivity and resolve any issues that arise. For executives, having a vision and strategic roadmap for optimizing CRM is essential. It allows you and your technology partner to continuously refine CRM and integrate other applications to meet evolving needs.

Done right, CRM can be a game-changing solution that significantly improves sales, profits, customer satisfaction, and productivity. It takes effort to realize its benefits, before, during and after implementation, but it yields ongoing dividends far into the future. Call me at 330-929-1353, extension 224, to discuss your goals for CRM success.

Bob Sullivan - President, InfoGrow, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

The post What CRM Won’t Do For You appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

It goes without saying that growth and a positive reputation are good things in business. However, when you organization is in this enviable position, you can bet your competitors won’t be far behind. The challenge then turns to staying out front and continuing to grow—without sacrificing the quality of your products and service.  You need to scrutinize your operations, looking for ways to improve and optimize.

Often, even the most successful organizations find room for improvement when it comes to the technology they’re using to manage critical processes. Just ask Bemis Associates what they were able to accomplish Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Bemis Associates is a major manufacturer of next-generation adhesives that replaces sewing in the world’s most recognized performance, luxury and lifestyle brands. With operations around the globe and a reputation built on market innovation, Bemis Associates needs to ensure their increasingly complex business processes run smoothly while they continue to expand.

Upon examination, Bemis Associates realized that their challenges would be mostly in the areas of re-engineering their business processes and updating tools to provide increased visibility and communication. Their ultimate goal was to integrate marketing, sales and development aspects of their global organization to take advantage of opportunities and build loyal customer relationships.

Bemis did their research and after evaluating several CRM solutions, including Salesforce and OnContact, they chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online (now known as Microsoft Dynamics 365). Their decision was based on Dynamics’ compatibility and integration with other Microsoft products. This provides a familiar framework for team members around the world, and the online option is ideal for global accessibility and scalability in the face of rapid growth. Bemis was also impressed with the multi-language and multi-currency capability, which is necessary in an international operation.

Working with the CRM experts at AKA Enterprise Solutions, the team at Bemis was able to re-engineer and optimize their business processes and achieve their goals which included:

• They now have detailed tracking to help team members visualize the connections between customer, factory and brand. This is especially important as a single factory might be processing orders for several customers and numerous brands.
• Sales and development teams around the globe are now able to track test products for numerous brands. Knowing what is coming next allows the sales team to contact customers proactively to ensure samples are tested, results delivered, and initial orders entered into the opportunity pipeline.
• Trade show leads are now prioritized and assigned automatically. Identification of potential customers and initial requests for custom samples is now handled in a portal interface.
• ClickDimensions was integrated right into Dynamics CRM in order to streamline marketing
• Having access to the same data, teams work together more efficiently and effectively and a fully automated sales pipeline assures that opportunities are not overlooked.
• As they had intended, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online increased transparency, collaboration and communication throughout the global organization.

Read more about Bemis Associates and their positive experience with AKA Enterprises Solutions and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.  Contact our team at AKA Enterprise Solutions to discuss how your organization can optimize your business processes and communication with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

By AKA Enterprises Solutions

The post How Market Leader Uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to Innovate, Create Global Visibility & Stay Ahead of Competition appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

Do you have consulting experience as a Project Manager, Business Analyst, or Data Analyst/Specialist? Are you passionate about delivering CRM for Microsoft Dynamics 365? Do you want to be part of an award-winning team who proudly appears on multiple “best places to work” lists, year after year? If so, we want to meet you! Join us in Atlanta on December 7th or Washington DC on December 8th for a PowerObjects Happy Hour Recruiting Event!

This happy-hour-style interview process will give us an opportunity to show you what we truly mean when we talk about our Core Values and Proven Process. It will also give you a change to “talk shop” with PowerObjects team members and learn how you might be able to jump in and become part of our unique and high energy team. As an HCL Company and Microsoft Gold Partner, we think you’ll be excited by our vision and abundant growth opportunities.

We are in need of the following skills:

Project Management: Are you able to drive a team of professionals toward a vision and manage the resources, budget, scope, and timeline of mid to large sized projects? Have you managed IT projects in the consulting space? Are you familiar with what it means to work on an “enterprise” project? Are you able to communicate across teams to manage expectations, workloads, and scope?

Business Analysis: Our BAs are the key to eliciting the business needs and problems of our clients; and they are central to translating that business need to our technical resources to create a vision for our clients. Can you drive meetings around the CRM subject areas? Can you facilitate and lead requirement meetings with large groups of client SMEs and business stakeholders? Are you able to architect and document business requirements in a way that is translatable to technical teams? Are you able to focus on the business yet keep solutions churning in the back of your head?

Data Analysis: Our Data Center of Excellence within PowerObjects drives our capabilities with data integration and migrations. We are in need of building this team with technical data analysts and specialists that thrive on using ETL tools to migrate and integrate CRM data within Dynamics 365. Are you familiar with data modeling, mapping, and analysis? Are you able to understand a CRM data model and design and build an approach and solutions to move data in/out of it? Do you thrive on helping clients make the most of their data to improve services to their clients and their sales organization?

CRM Specialties: The CRM landscape for Dynamics 365 is rapidly growing into broader and more complex solutions like Field Services, Project Services, Unified Service Desk, CRM Portals, Business Intelligence, and Enterprise-Ready Platform solutions to extend the system. If you have deep experience or knowledge in these specialty spaces, we at PowerObjects would love to add your expertise to our team.

If you or someone you know processes these skills, contact us today.

We hope to see you at one of our upcoming recruiting events and as always, happy Dynamics 365’ing!

With the changes in Dynamics 365 and the introduction of AppSource as a way to showcase apps, it was time for Metablast to make a few changes. We are happy to announce that we have launched a Managed Solution version of Metablast, now available in the AppSource and download from our website for On-Premise Microsoft Dynamics CRM users! 

The Managed Solution version of Metablast supports Dynamics CRM 2016 and up, so if you are on a previous version of CRM the previous version of Metablast will work for you. All the features of our prior versions detailed in prior posts are included, with the addition of two new output columns:

• Global Option Set – Displays Yes or No for Option Set fields to show the field is a global option set reference (Yes) or a local option set (No)
• Formula – Displays Yes or No based on whether or not the field is a formula field (editor’s note: an update will be posted soon, at the original time of posting the output is the XML formula itself and not a Yes or No)

Once the solution has been added to your org, you can open the solution and view available entities in the configuration page. The left list contains available entities not yet selected for the export, and the right list contains entities you have previously selected.

Typing in the search box filters the list of entities to make finding and making selections easier. Note that the check mark in the list denotes whether or not an entity is custom versus native.

Selecting each entity will add it to the export list. The Add All link will add all unselected entities to the export list. Removing entities from the export list can be accomplished by clicking the red X or the Remove All link to do so en masse.

Once your list is complete, you can click the Export button and download the same CSV format as your prior Metablasts.

We hope you find the same great uses out of this tool with an easier way to access the schema information right from your organization!

Whenever a new version of Dynamics CRM and now Dynamics 365 (the XRM part) are released, the first thing you should review is the “what’s new” documentation that Microsoft produces for three different audiences: users, admins/customizers and developers. For the “December 2016 update for Dynamics 365” a.k.a version 8.2 of what used to be called CRM, these articles can be found from the following links:

• Dynamics 365 Help & Training: What’s new
• What’s new for administrators and customizers in Microsoft Dynamics 365
• What’s new for developers: Microsoft Dynamics 365

As always, there’s way more goodies in there that a single blog article could ever hope to cover in meaningful level of detail. One area that deserves a mention in terms of the core XRM platform enhancements is the way activities can now be presented in the UI, so let’s focus on those in this here post.

Display the associated activities of the related entities

If you’ve happened to read my ancient CRM 2011 era blog post about how subgrids ain’t what associated views used to be, then the concept of activity rollup may be familiar to you. The way Dynamics CRM has worked up to this point is that for out-of-the-box core entities like Account and Opportunity the activities from under the child entity were presented also under the parent entity’s Associated Activities View. If you created a custom entity under the Account, though, then none of the activities linked to it would show up in the rollup view. A major inconvenience for any XRM scenarios where you then had to instruct the users not to track their activities against any of the child entity records but rather put them all to the Account level.

In v8.2 this limitation has now been addressed by the product team:

“We added a new flag called Rollup View in the customization user interface, on the Relationship Behavior form. It lets customizers indicate that associated activities of the related entity should be included in the Activity Associated View for the primary entity.”

Woo-hoo! Let’s go and try this one out in an example scenario with a custom entity called “Account Plan” that we’ve linked to the standard Account entity via N:1 relationship. Meaning: there can be several Account Plans (per year, for example) for a single Account. Being the “plan” and all, you’d find it pretty natural to track tasks and other upcoming activities against this record, but also would probably prefer to have access to them from under the parent Account of this plan.

When we open up the relationship configuration screen and have a look at the Relationship Behavior section, we find our usual list of actions where cascading behavior can be configured. Down at the bottom there’s a new option: Rollup View. This is where the magic will happen for activity rollup between the two entities.

With the Rollup View behavior set to “Cascade All”, we can now go and do some activity entry on the Account Plan form. Let’s use the Social Pane to add some tasks that are set regarding this particular plan. Normally this would be the only place where we’d see them (aside from the owner’s My Activities view and their task list synced to Outlook, of course), but thanks to our cascading relationship behavior this will no longer be the case. Let’s navigate up in the hierarchy towards the Account record.

Now, in addition to the activities that have been either directly set regarding the Account or one of the built-in roll-u enabled child entities, we also see those activities created from the Account Plan form listed in the Social Pane of the Account record. A tiny step towards the mythical “Customer 360”, but a major improvement nonetheless for ensuring the complete communication history for a particular customer account is easily accessible for the Dynamics 365 end user. In case you were wondering: yes, these child entity activities also roll up the account hierarchy, so a global group’s top account may end up having a BIG list of emails in its Social Pane.

As for another follow-up question related to the article from five years ago: no, the activity subgrid still won’t show any of these “special” relationships. The feature is specific to the Activity Associated View, which is also a “special” thing in the XRM platform, supported by another “special” component called the Social Pane. The implications from this are laid out bare in the feature documentation:

“The primary entity for the relationship must be Account, Contact, or Opportunity. This is because these are the only entity forms in the system where the Activity Associated View appears. You can’t specify any other primary entity for activity rollups.”

So, this is not a generic Holy Grail to presenting activity data in XRM just the way we’d want to, but one big rock rolled in the ditch from that long road at least.

Control how activities are sorted by date

Another new feature in v8.2 that touches upon the same functional area is related to the Social Pane configuration options. Traditionally, these words would not have existed anywhere near each other – aside from the countless feature requests on MS Connect CRM Ideas forum. Everybody liked the CRM 2013 feature in terms of rich presentation and inline editing capabilities, and simultaneously loathed it for being a completely uncustomizable component placed smack in the middle of most XRM entity forms.

It’s not just the business process specific requirements like the ability to add custom fields into the activity cards shown on the Social Pane that have caused pain in many projects (“sure, we could add an optionset field to categorize the phone calls, but most users will never see it”). One particular behavior has been downright destructive when it comes to activity history preservation for your customer data: the activity sort order. You see, up until now the Social Pane has insisted on showing the records in a descending order based on the Modified On date. This works in most scenarios, but where it fails miserably is when some specific event causes the old activities to be updated – be it the reassignment of records to a new CRM user, a data migration from CRM on-prem to CRM Online Dynamics 365, or any similar mass update that touches the modification timestamp (which you can’t directly manipulate even via the API).

Now in the December 2016 update for Dynamics 365 (online and on-premises) there is a new sortdate attribute on the activitypointer entity that you can use to control how activities are sorted by date. That previous sentence has been copy-pasted from the developer documentation of the new version, but in case you don’t spend too much time with the SDK, you’ll be glad to know that the configuration options in the entity form customization UI have been extended, too. In the Social Pane control (or Activities Tab, to use the term shown in the modal dialog instead of the label of the form component), there’s a new Activity Wall tab with an option for “sort the activity wall according to”. No longer are you forced to use the Last Updated default option, but rather can select from a whole host of activitypointer date fields like Date Created or Actual End.

Is this now the Holy Grail for activity management? Well, it would be a comforting conclusion to make, but if you know me, I tend to spot the rain clouds behind every ray of sunlight. In this case, just having a single sort date to be applied by the system customizer for showing all the activities may not satisfy all the users. In fact, this is also implied by Microsoft in the developer documentation describing the enhancements in v8.2:

“Whenever you display a list of activity entities and order them by date, you can only use the common date attributes defined in the activitypointer entity. However, sometimes you want different sorting behaviors depending on the type of activity. For example, with the email entity you might want to sort by the senton attribute value rather than the modifiedon attribute value.

Use the sortdate attribute to control how activities are sorted by date. By default, the sortdate attribute value is null. You must include business logic to populate the date value that will be set for this attribute and then use the sortdate attribute within the query defined for the view. You can set the sortdate attribute value using a workflow or a plugin. For consistent results you should set this value for every type of activity and any existing activity data in the system.”

If I read this correctly, it means that there is now a place in the data model to put the “right” sort date value for each entity. However, to update the value you’ll need to customize the system to populate it. In a data migration scenario you’d probably insert the right value there during the activity record create event. During the normal use of the system, you’d need to have a workflow process (or a plugin for lower performance overhead) running on every single event that can affect the position in which the activity should be listed in relation to the rest of the activities in the views. Yes, this new Sort Date field is now visible for activities even in workflow process editor, so achieving the perfect sort order for your activity history is in theory possible.

The post Activity Management Enhancements in Dynamics 365 (v8.2) appeared first on Surviving CRM.

Task flows are an awesome feature available in Microsoft Dynamics 365, and in today’s blog, we’re giving you the 411 on everything you need to know about them!

What are Task Flows?

Task flows are a user-level approach to managing business processes on the mobile device. In fact, they’re actually a subcategory of Business Process flows. Task flows are different from business process flows in that they can be executed by multiple users at the same time on the same record. They also benefit your users by making the underlying CRM data model transparent in the Mobile user interface. User level task flows offer guidance in the mobile UI where the full business process flow form might just be too much information to manage.

Before we get started, you should be aware of three important points:

1. Task flows are currently available for Mobile CRM Mobile app only.

2. Task flows are officially in preview mode (meaning this feature has not yet been completed, but has been made available with limited or restricted functionality with the goal of soliciting feedback from customers).

3. Task flows must first be enabled or turned on and you must accept the license terms before the feature can be used.

Now we can get to the good stuff! First off, let’s take a look at how to create a task flow.

How to Create a Task Flow

To create a task flow, you need to access the Processes area under Settings.

1. First, navigate to Settings> Processes> New.

2. For the Category, select Business Process Flow.

3. Then, select the Type Run the process as a task flow (Mobile only).

How to Enable Task Flow Functionality

As we mentioned earlier, task flows must first be turned on or enabled before they can be used. As you can see in the image above, the option to create a task flow is not available since it has not been enabled. To turn on task flows, you need to access the Preview section under System Settings.

1. First, navigate to Settings> Administration.

2. Next, go to System Settings and select the Preview tab.

3. Check that you have read and agreed to the license terms.

4. Select Yes for the Enable Task Flows for Mobile Preview section.

Once enabled, the option to create a task flow will be made available:

1. Navigate to Settings> Processes> New.

2. For the Category, select Business Process Flow.

3. Then, select the Type Run process as a task flow (Mobile only).

That’s it! For more tricks and tips, make sure you subscribe to our blog and check out some of PowerObjects’ awesome webinars, where we delve into all that’s new and exciting with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Happy Dynamics 365’ing!

If you are ready to make your business more productive and to begin on a digital transformation, maybe it's time to look at Dynamics 365. Whatever the size of your business, Dynamics 365 can be beneficial. Dynamics 365 is the only cloud-based solution that provides what you need for CRM and ERP all in one place. Dynamics 365 integrates with the tools you are already using and fuses digital intelligence in all your decisions.

One of the best things about Dynamics 365 is that you only pay for the apps you need to begin and then you can build on it and add more later.

enCloud9 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner located in Omaha, NE with experienced consultants throughout the United States. enCloud9 helps small to medium-sized businesses lower their costs and boost productivity through Microsoft’s powerful range of cloud-based software. Contact us today to see how we can help your business to be more productive and to help your get started with Dynamics 365.

To watch more videos about Dynamics 365, click here.

The post ISN’T IT TIME TO GET STARTED WITH DYNAMICS 365? appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

Automatic testing is a bit of a niche skill and every application is different in terms of what is needed or what tools can be used. In this situation I depend on knowledge shared, because there is absolutely no reason that we can't learn from each other. Following please find some notes from the field on Microsoft Dynamics "CRM" Automated Testing

Knowledge shared is a powerful skill in the world of technology. It requires that you admit that you might be wrong, that you might have more to learn and that being vulnerable is worth the risk. Yes, it is very much worth the risk in this crazy fast paced world of growth.

Tools that the field mentioned:

• Microsoft Visual Studio Coded UI  and Coded UI Best Practices
• StresStimulus
• FakeXRMEasy
• Daryl LaBar's OpenSource XRM Unit Test (check version compatibility)
• Selenium
• Telerik Test Studio

Sessions discussing Automated Testing

• XrmVirtual User Group discusses automated testing
• CRMUG National Summit Automated Testing Session (requires membership to CRMUG to watch)

Other Videos in this arena

• Tool Comparison between FakeXRMEasy and XRMUnitTest
• Automating using Test Complete
• Selenium Webdriver for testing CRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM & Selenium
• Performance Testing using StresStimulus
• How to Test a CRM Plugin with FakeXRMEasy