Most recent blog entries

Making most from your SharePoint investment

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:57:39 GMT

Power of SharePoint truely surfaces when it is customized for your needs

Does Your CRM Still Support Your Business Processes

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:27:03 GMT

CRM techology is intended to support a firm's processes and strategies. Often, a firm will find a CRM implementation done several years ago is not supporting the business. The reason is that the CRM processes are no longer in sync with the business processes.

Blank.aspx in Internet Explorer 6 with CRM 4

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:11:54 GMT

If you are seeing a dialog box asking to download Blank.aspx on every popup window in the CRM, this article is for you:

Recently, a KB cumulative hotfix (KB953838)from windows update has apparently damaged the aspx association link within Internet Explorer 6.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953838

If you're seeing this issue, you can resolve the problem in either the following ways:

1) Try to first save Blank.aspx as a file to your desktop. Right-click on it, and choose to open with 'Internet Explorer'. Make sure to check on 'always use this...' Failing this try either of the following:
2) Uninstall the KB patch from the user's Add/Remove Programs
3) Install Internet Explorer 7 overtop of IE 6
4) Remote into the CRM server, and open Blank.aspx in notepad. (note: Blank.aspx can be found in: My Computer -> Program Files -> Microsoft Dynamic CRM -> CRMWeb -> _root -> Blank.aspx
On the header of Blank.aspx, add the word test and save Blank.aspx. Restart IIS, and then clear the temporary internet files of the user with the issue.

Either way, the popups should cease.

Enjoy.

Outlook fails during synchronization

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:55:32 GMT

We have seen this several times, and wanted to give our clients the update on what may be happening.

When you synchronize contacts between CRM and your users Outlook profile, if the contact to by synchronized has a birthday prior to Jan 1, 1970 Outlook will fail during synchronization.

You can test this on the offending machine by temporarily disabling synchronizing of contacts, and forcing a manual synchronization of contacts. If the sync works without issues, take a look into the application event log, and if the error resembles the following:

Grab the MS hotfix #948045 from here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948045

CRM for Outlook V4 is crashing multiple multiple times a day

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:50:21 GMT

Several of our clients have reported that for some of their users, their Outlook is failing multiple times per day.

If your users are experiencing this condition, and you are reading this blog, take a look into the user's Application Event Log.

If the error messages resemble the following:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Microsoft Office 12
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: Date
Time: Time
User: User_Name
Computer: Computer_Name
Description: Faulting application outlook.exe, version 12.0.6023.5000, stamp 46574050, faulting module outlook.exe, version 12.0.6023.5000, stamp 46574050, debug? 0, fault address 0x0001386a.

Head on over to the Microsoft Support site below to download KB-954800 hotfix:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954800

Tips for installing CRM 4.0 on Windows Server 2008

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:07:36 GMT

Having installed CRM (both v3 and v4) on Windows 2003 Server-based systems literally hundreds of times over the past few years, you get into a routine of being able to fix things before they break. On Win2003 there were a few settings you could check before you installed CRM that would ensure the installer finished the first time.

Yesterday I did my first install on Windows 2008 Server. Luckily, I spend some time in the CRM Public newsgroups and knew there were a lot of people that ran into a lot of snags while trying to get CRM 4.0 working on Win2008. But their misfortune was my good fortune - Microsoft had received enough questions that they created a KB article on common issues resolution. Armed with this KB, I went in with my usual 'what could possibly go wrong?' attitude.

To be honest, the CRM installation went pretty smoothly, but I am getting ahead of myself. My first task was to get SQL Server and SSRS installed on the database server, which was also running Win2008. There is surprisingly little in the way of quick references for installing SQL2005 on Win2008.

Undaunted, I ran the setup.exe for SQL2005 Standard, only to be told that I was missing some features: namely IIS. But I had installed IIS (and even the IIS6 compatibility components), so I was stumped by this one. Eventually I came across this KB, which described how to install SSRS on Windows 2008. Turns out there was one option I had not selected when installing the IIS Service Role, and as soon as I followed the instructions in the KB, the SQL installer finally recognized IIS.

So for Installing SQL Server 2005 on Win2008, here are my recommendations:

Follow the steps in this KB to set up IIS properly.
Also install the "Application Server" role, so that .Net 3.0 will be installed (SSRS doesn't use it, but the CRM Data Connector that you will install after the CRM will require it)
Install SQL 2005 including the database engine, SSRS, and any other modules you like.
During installation, check the box that says to 'install SSRS but do not configure'
After SQL is installed, download and run the SQL2005 SP2 (this is mandatory).
Reboot
Configure Reporting Services as per normal

Once SQL is installed, you're nearly home-free. Earlier in the article I mentioned a Microsoft KB that details the resolution of a number of common issues. Being the pragmatic sort, I decided to go through each 'resolution' before I installed the CRM in the hopes of avoiding the big red X during installation. This proved to be worthwhile, as there were a few settings that I had to tweak.

For installing CRM 4.0 on Win2008, here are my recommendations:

Review each resolution in this KB, and ensure your server settings match up to what's documented
Also install the "Application Server" role, so that .Net 3.0 will be installed
Run the CRM installer - it should all go well from this point

Hope this helps someone with their installation!

Dave

CRM Case Study - When life hands you lemonade...

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:55:53 GMT

I was searching the internet for something the other day, and stumbled across a rather unconventional Microsoft CRM Case Study on YouTube of all places. The video was from 2006, but I'd never seen it before.

If you have 3 minutes and don't mind some satire, it's well worth the time.

Check out the YouTube video here.

Dave

SharePoint Business Data Catalog (BDC) to present MS CRM Data

Thu, 29 May 2008 17:33:54 GMT

Business Data Catalog (BDC) - of SharePoint 2007 allows to present data from non SharePoint system on SharePoint UI. Not only display, BDC can also crawl and index data!

We use BDC to extract data from MS CRM database (using API, direct database access or web service) and display on SharePoint Site using out of the box business data web parts shipped along with BDC. SharePoint Designer is then used to edit XSL of BDC web parts as needed for rich formatting.

Combination of BDC and SharePoint Designer allows us to cater MS CRM Data in customized style and format as required by our customers.

Connecting to SharePoint 2007 Calendar from Outlook 2007 vs. Outlook 2003

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:46:46 GMT

One more reason why upgrade to Office 2007!

Allowing CRM for Outlook to act as the e-mail agent for CRM e-mail activities

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:25:01 GMT

The way in which a user’s e-mail is sent from within the Microsoft CRM is configured on the user profile in the Microsoft CRM.
CRM -> Settings -> Administration -> Users -> User Profile Record

For both the incoming and outgoing access types, you can select to have CRM e-mail activities use the E-mail Router (if installed), or Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook to act as the sending agent. In CRM4, you can configure the CRM for Outlook to deliver standard Outlook e-mails, CRM-tracked e-mails, and e-mail activities created from within the CRM.

To allow CRM for Outlook client to send all CRM e-mail activities:

1) Navigate to CRM -> Settings -> Administration -> Users -> User Profile Record

2) Select Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook on both Incoming and Outgoing e-mail access types in the E-mail Access Configuration for each User Profile Record that should use the CRM for Outlook to send CRM e-mail activities.

Click ‘Save and Close’

3) On each Outlook profile, open the Set Personal Options by clicking CRM -> Options

4) Switch to the E-mail tab

5) Under ‘Check how CRM for Outlook should integrate e-mail with Microsoft Dynamics CRM’ check on: Allow Microsoft Dynamics CRM to send e-mail using CRM for Outlook

When an e-mail activity is created and sent by that user, this e-mail activity will be sent through Outlook on next synchronization.