Authored by Jason Foerch - Wipfli's Microsoft Dynamics CRM Technical Lead
Microsoft recently rolled out the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Service Update: November 2009 (R4). This new service update not only incorporates most of the great new updates found in Dynamics CRM 4.0 Rollup 7 for any companies utilizing Dynamics CRM On-Premise, but it also provides new features that were previously not available in Dynamics CRM Online. These features attempt to improve the overall user experience with the Dynamics CRM Online offering. Below is a quick listing of these features:
- Improved CRM Online Sign-up process
- Improved CRM Outlook Client accessibility
- Pre-populated sample data
- Get Started Pane
- Streamlined Outlook data import
- Enhanced Data Import Wizard
- Home Page with Embedded charts
- Chart designers
- Mobile Device support
Although it is a rather simple update, the overall process for signing up for CRM Online has been improved greatly. Previously, a person interested in CRM Online would be required to navigate through multiple steps including providing their credit card number. To simplify this process, Microsoft has removed the need to provide your credit card number, and has ultimately reduced the sign-up process to three steps:
- Enter your email address & tie it to a Live ID
- Accept the Terms of Service
- Enter your Company Name (CRM Organization Name) & base currency
Again, this is a simple change, but as most of us know, its often the simplest things that stop users from adopting a system.
One of the most compelling new features in this service update is the enhanced Data Import Wizard. This wizard has been completely overhauled to allow even the most novice user to get their information into CRM quickly and easily. Below is a quick list of the new capabilities provided by the Data Import Wizard:
- Ability to import multiple CSV files from a central Zip file
- Simplified data mapping experience
- Ability to easily create new entities, attributes, pick-lists, and lookups from your data import
- Ownership of the created records can be driven directly from the import file
- Automatic population of Lookup attributes without the need of GUIDs
You can find a detailed overview and screen shots of some of these capabilities at the following Microsoft CRM team blog entries:
The other new feature that greatly enhances the capabilities of CRM Online is the new Home Page / Embedded Charts. This new feature extends the out of the box CRM Online reporting capabilities by providing inline charts and graphs. As of the November Service Update, there are 30+ charts that come without any need of configuration. However if you have a need to create new charts or even customize the existing charts, this can all be easily done via CRM with out any need of writing a single SQL query or line of code. Instead the charting component utilizes system defined views that are created via the Advanced Find interface.
This allows a CRM administrator or Power User to quickly create new compelling views (charts) of their CRM information with ease. These new charts can then be utilized by CRM users to build out their homepage view (the default view used when accessing CRM). This new homepage supports up to 4 charts along with 1 system view.
Overall the November Service Update has greatly increased the functionality of CRM Online from start to finish. If you are evaluating CRM or even have an existing CRM implementation other than Microsoft Dynamics CRM, I would highly recommend taking a look at Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and these new features, as they could be potential game changers.