Blogs

Don’t Miss: Upcoming Dynamic Communities and Microsoft Events

By Janet Lampert
Dynamic Communities and Microsoft are working closely together to bring you a series of great learning opportunities in the coming months. Here are two events we want to make sure are on your calendar:   CRMUG Summit Phoenix Join us October 15-18 in Phoenix for  CRMUG  Summit Phoenix.  Attend this event for over 175 dedicated sessions to Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement, legacy Dynamics CRM, and complementary Microsoft technologies like Power BI, PowerApps, and Flow. At   CRMUG  Summit , you’ll team up with user group peers, All Stars, and MVPs to turn your online support network into real-life connections! You’ll dive in to share your knowledge… ...
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Summit EMEA’s Pre Conference Academy is Complete! Hear what 60+ attendees had to say…

By Kaylie Verhagen
Summit EMEA , just like our other user group conferences and events, is packed with opportunities to learn skills that will support you in your day to day so you can be at your best. A great example of that is the Pre-Conference Academy programme, which happened earlier today at Summit EMEA in Dublin, Ireland. Besides filling their agenda’s with inspiring breakout sessions, attendees had the opportunity to enhance their Summit EMEA experience by joining Pre-Conference Academy. With over 60 attendees participating in eleven classes, it was a great success! Not familiar with Pre Conference Academy? Pre-Conference Academy is a focused, instructor-led classroom ...
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Final Reminder: Only 6 Days Until Summit EMEA, Registration Closes Soon!

By Kaylie Verhagen
Summit EMEA is about to happen, but we don’t have you on the list of attendees yet! Join nearly 1,500 Dynamics users and partners from all over Europe at the Convention Centre in Dublin from 24-26 April. At the moment there are still some seats left, claim yours today before they run out! Register Now Some Fast Facts Here are some fast facts that will show why Summit EMEA is a can’t miss event. Did you know that…. ….Summit EMEA offers 81 D365UG/AXUG sessions and 72 D365UG/CRMUG sessions across 16 tracks ….12 Academy classes are offered within Summit EMEA’s Pre-Conference Academy ….Summit EMEA also offers an Executive Programme specifically ...
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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement vs NAV CRM

By Cory Johnson
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement vs NAV CRM The key factor in determining whether to deploy Dynamics NAV or Dynamics 365 Sales to meet your needs will depend on where the data is held that the CRM processes need to access. If sales & marketing is mainly transactional or   draws heavily on data in an ERP system,   then Dynamics NAV CRM is likely to be the better choice. If sales & marketing is longer duration, with more complex Customer interactions, then Dynamics Customer Engagement will work better. Unique System Features Dynamics 365 Sales NAV CRM Dynamics 365 App for Outlook Outlook Add-in ...
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How to Compare CRM Options for the Employee Benefits Broker Industry

By Ryan Plourde
Insurance benefits brokers know that using a good CRM system can make them more productive. But, finding one can be easier said than done.  A good CRM system can help any business quickly identify new sales opportunities, manage follow-through from lead to close, and nurture existing customers. But the methods and terminology used in the insurance industry for employee benefits brokers are unique.   Not using any system is ineffective. Just choosing an off the shelf CRM system can prove to be disappointing. But building a custom solution written just for your company can be prohibitively expensive. Let’s compare the options and the solution.  Managing ...
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Attract new Employees with Dynamics 365 for Talent

By Stefano Tempesta
In my “ Introduction to Dynamics 365 for Talent ” post last February 7th, I introduced Attract , the recruitment module in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent that guides candidate through key touchpoints during their recruitment process: Application confirmation Assessment and screening Interview timing Interview scheduled Decision Attract is a tool for candidates and recruiters to quickly and easily share tasks and keep track of progress. In this post, I present how to create a seamless recruitment experience using Attract, step by step. First steps When launching Attract for the first time, a quick guided tour introduces you to the core ...
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Dynamics 365 User Adoption and the K.I.S.S. Principle

By Heidi Neuhauser
I will wager that you are familiar with the Keep It Simple (K.I.S.S.) Principle, which encourages simplification over complexities. It's no surprise then that the K.I.S.S. Principle goes hand in hand with User Adoption. So how can we incorporate K.I.S.S. into planning our CRM projects?   Streamline Business Processes Dynamics 365 and previous versions of Microsoft CRM incorporate Business Process Flows on Cases, Leads, Opportunities and other areas. There's no easier way to streamline your business process than by implementing Business Process Flows! Often times, we are brought into organizations without a streamlined business process. How do ...
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11 Webinars to Elevate Your Career

By Liz Shine
Calling all mid-career managers and high-level performers! We are thrilled to bring you an exciting new Executive Series. Dynamics Communities has teamed up with Concordia College Offutt School of Business to provide mid-career managers and high-level performers with practical, real-world skills to advance to senior leadership. A series of short noon-time "mini" webinars will be offered exclusively to you through the Upcoming Webinars > New to 365/CRM Series > Elevate Your Career in 2018. Learn from top industry and academic talent from across the nation. Join us starting TOMORROW for the webinar on Skills to Attract, Retain, and Elevate Staff ...
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How to Survive the 4 Stages of CRM User Adoption

By Ryan Plourde
Just like a good marriage, user adoption for your new CRM system takes work. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can be done. And the results are worth the effort.   Whether you’re starting a new CRM initiative or salvaging an existing one, you must start with the mindset that implementing a new CRM system is a transformative process. It involves organizational culture, project rigor and perseverance from your CRM project leaders.    Your organization will ultimately go through each of these four CRM adoption stages; the goal is to get through them as quickly as you can.   1)      The Honeymoon ...
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User Adoption: End Users are the Most Important! (But Management is Important, too)

By Heidi Neuhauser
End users of your CRM system (or any other system!) are the most important building blocks to a successful implementation. Why then are they so often overlooked? Why does management so often dictate requirements without a single consideration of how the end user will react? "They need to learn how to use this to do their job; they will figure it out." - Management Picture this: An organization gathers all major decision makers and managers into a room for a requirements gathering session. The Project Manager says, "what metrics do you want to report on?" The Sales Manager wants 15 fields. The Customer Service Manager needs another ...
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What's being Deprecated in Dynamics 365 Version 9

By Ashish Mahajan
Microsoft is deprecating certain CRM features. Meaning Microsoft will be removing these features completely from future releases of Dynamics 365. As of now these features will continue to work. By announcing these deprecated features, Microsoft is providing enough notice for all of us to either remove or replace them.   Dialogs are deprecated Dialogs are now being deprecated and can be replaced by using Business Process Flows or the new Mobile Task Flows. Dialogs were introduced by Microsoft starting Dynamics CRM version 2011. Standard SLAs for Customer Service are deprecated   Service level agreements (SLAs) are a ...
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Dynamics 365 for Phones App: Offline Mode

By Heidi Neuhauser
The Dynamics 365 for Phones app is fantastic for an on-the-go sales team. Salespeople love the ability to bring up their CRM database via their mobile device anytime it's needed. Some common scenarios we see include: A sales rep is cold calling an Account and needs to look up the name of the contact they talked to a year ago. Leaving an appointment, the sales rep is able to capture post-meeting notes immediately and save it to their Opportunity Walking into a meeting, a sales rep can review Account sales metrics and get a better idea of what to focus on during a sales pitch. The App is designed to provide the right ...
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Assigning Team(s) to recipient fields in workflow emails

By Taylor McDowell
Hi there, This has been very difficult and I couldn't find documentation for this anywhere online. How do I assign a team to a Form Assistant field in a workflow's Send Email? I added a local business team via Settings > Security > Teams, and it's called ER Product Managers : Now how do I include that team in the email, so that all users of the team will receive the email? The closest field I could find in the Form Assistant is Owning Team - {Administrator(Owning Team)} (sorry, the below pics below are terrible) Any help will be appreciated. Thanks, Taylor McDowell #CustomerEngagement
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Designing a Custom App for Dynamics 365

By Aaron Back, MCP
Over the past couple of years, Dynamics 365 has become a much broader application. As such, Microsoft introduced various apps to help organizations focus on the areas they need to utilize for their business. Examples of these include the Dynamics 365 for Sales app and the Dynamics 365 for Service app.However, many organizations need a way to have a custom app that allows their users to see and access the specific areas of Dynamics 365 they need. This is where the App Designer comes in. The App Designer allows you to create a new custom app and add in the entities that you need for your organization. So, let’s look at how to design a custom app using the App ...
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13 Features Being Removed From Future Releases of Dynamics 365

By Ryan Plourde
Normally we hear about all the great new features being added to Microsoft Dynamics 365. But you also need to be aware of the features and capabilities that are being deprecated  Technically "to  deprecate " means "to express disapproval of (something)". In the software world, it means something that is “usable but regarded as obsolete and best avoided, typically because it has been superseded.”  According to Microsoft deprecated means “we intend to remove the feature or capability from a future major release of Dynamics 365.” However, the feature or capability will continue to work and is fully supported until it is officially removed.  It is important ...
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Compare Dynamics 365 for Outlook versus Dynamics 365 App for Outlook

By Ryan Plourde
The name is almost the same, but there are specific differences. Microsoft has two CRM applications that integrate with Microsoft Outlook. Dynamics 365 for Outlook Dynamics 365 App for Outlook Late in 2016 Microsoft released their latest Outlook add-on, Dynamics 365 App for Outlook (not to be confused with the original Dynamics 365 for Outlook) to address issues the community has with the original version and to offer an improved user experience. In this post we review the highlights, differences and prerequisites you need to know. Dynamics 365 for Outlook - Highlights The Outlook client only works with the full ...
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Who are Data Scientists and What they Do

By Ashish Mahajan
Now-a-days the buzz word is Data Analytics. Customers are savvy and want to know how we can help analyze their data. I feel Data Analytics should be part of every medium to large Dynamics 365 project. This is first of many blogs I will start writing for Data Analytics. Good news is that Microsoft is already leading the way in Data Analytics through extreme investments in Dynamics 365, Windows, Azure, Machine Learning, SQL Server and IoT.  Data scientists are a special breed who work on data and have the art of making some sense out of it. Having said that it is not as simple as picking customer's SQL ...
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Use of ILSpy in Dynamics 365

By Ashish Mahajan
If you are part of any Dynamics migration project, you sometime can face this typical issue. Your customer's previous vendor provided the source code without supplying all the required Proprietary DLLs. This applies to Visual Studio solutions for plugins or custom workflow activities. When you open these solutions, they will not compile and give errors about missing references.  In these cases there is a workaround "ILSpy". ILSpy is an open -source .NET assembly browser and decompiler. This can be used to view source code and namespaces for a Dynamics CRM plugin/custom workflow DLLs. ...
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How to get started with 30-Day Free Online Dynamics 365 Version 9.0 Trial

By Ashish Mahajan
You can easily create a 30-day free online 'Dynamics 365 version 9.0' trial through Microsoft. 1) Go to  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/free-crm-trial.aspx 2) Click on "Get Started". Microsoft Online CRM Trial Page 3) Select a relevant Dynamics 365 app. For example, I selected "Dynamics 365 for Sales". If you are creating this ORG in your company Office 365 tenant, enter your work email and phone number. I am creating a personal ORG for myself. Therefore, I will select "Sign up here". Select an App ...
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4 Time Management Tips Connected to Project Management Inside Dynamics 365

By Ryan Plourde
Time management requires an understanding of how to use your time to achieve desired results. But an important element is how to use organizational tools to help you reach your goals. Some people use apps or Excel lists. But for companies that use Microsoft Dynamics CRM (now Microsoft Dynamics 365) there is a tool that assists with Time Management, right inside your CRM system. Here are 4 steps to time management: Step 1: Analyze Where Your Time is Spent Look closely at where you are spending your time Make an effort to analyze your days Log your time for one week Search for pockets of time, items to cut, time of day tasks are done, ...
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