Dynamics CRM – Recommended Theme Logo Size

Themes with Dynamics CRM were introduced with CRM Online 2015 Update 1 and CRM 2016 (on-premises). Themes were a great addition to CRM and help ‘theme’ your system to suit your business.

Themes allow you to add a logo to the top of your Dynamics CRM system.  I recently did a blog post on how to add a theme to your CRM system, you can see the details at the below link:

https://yellowduckguy.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2015-you-can-now-add-a-theme-to-your-crm/

Addition to this blog post, the Microsoft recommended Logo size when adding the image as a Web Resource is:

400x50px (Width x Height)

I also personally recommend using a .PNG file format as the image type.

For more details about the other settings on the Theme page within CRM, head over to the link below:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn932133.aspx 

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Dynamics CRM – The end of CRM, the beginning of Dynamics 365

The time has come for CRM to be rebranded for the very first time to make way for the launch of Dynamics 365.

Therefore, lets take a look back on the history of CRM:

 

• Microsoft CRM 1.0, released Jan 2003
• Microsoft CRM 1.2, released Dec 8 2003
• Microsoft CRM 3.0, released Dec 5 2005
• Microsoft CRM 4.0, released Dec 2007
• Microsoft CRM 2011, released Feb 2011
• Microsoft CRM 2013 Online, released Oct 2013
• Microsoft CRM 2013, released Nov 2013
• Microsoft CRM 2015, released Nov 30 2014
• Microsoft CRM 2016, released Nov 30 2015
• And then … Dynamics 365, launched 11th Oct 2016

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Dynamics CRM – New Ideas Portal Launched!

Microsoft are excited to announce the new Ideas Portal for CRM and its related family of products.

Ever wanted to let Microsoft know your thoughts or suggestions to improve CRM or one of its related family of products? This site will let you do that. 

Simply head over to: https://crmideas.dynamics.com/ideas/ and start posting!

With the launch of this new site, Microsoft is discontinuing the legacy “Dynamics Product Suggestion” connect site as their ongoing product suggestions site.

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Dynamics CRM – Billing FAQ for CRM Online

You may have questions that are related to billing when working with CRM Online, if so, keep reading. 

Microsoft has an online page on the CRM Help & Training site where there a quite a few of these common questions are answered, like “How do I extend my CRM Online Trial” or “How to I apply for not for profit / non-profit pricing”.

FAQs answered on the page URL below are:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/billing-faqs-for-crm-online.aspx

• How do I find the correct CRM Online billing and subscription support team?
• What billing activities do I need to contact CRM Online Billing Support to manage?
• When I renew my subscription, can I change my payment method?
• How do I purchase CRM Online through Volume Licensing?
• How do I extend my CRM Online trial?
• How do I migrate from CRM Online to the on-premises version of CRM?
• How do I cancel my CRM Online subscription?
• How do I reactivate my expired CRM Online account?
• How do I apply for a credit due to a CRM Online service outage?
• How do I apply for non-profit pricing?
• How to change the Bill to country/region
• I’m a CRM Online customer and I have learned there is a minimum of 5 Professional users that I need to purchase. What if I only require 3 Professional users?

Quite commonly the question of “How do I extend my CRM Online Trial” is asked. Hopefully this helps solve this and other questions you may have with CRM Online.

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Dynamics CRM – Important Changes Coming in Future Releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft continues to evolve their software using the latest technologies, however this means some older features or technology components are deprecated or discontinued to help keep the software current. What does this mean? Well here is the Microsoft summary:

Deprecation means that we intend to remove the feature or capability in a future "major" release of CRM. The feature or capability will continue to work and is fully supported until it is officially removed. This deprecation notification can span a few years. After removal, the feature or capability will no longer work. We are notifying you now so that you have sufficient time to plan and update your code before the feature or capability is removed

 

Below are some important changes coming in future releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which include deprecation:

• CRM 2011 Endpoint i.e. Web Services API
• Knowledge Management Entities
• Removal of Legacy Form Rendering Option
• Updates to the SDK Assemblies

Information in detail about the above areas can be found here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/dn281891.aspx

Other areas include:

• Removal of Support for Some Android Versions
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component is Deprecated

Information in detail about the above 2 areas can be found here: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn265924(crm.8).aspx

Make sure you read these two articles and take into consideration the changes coming to aid forward planning and any execution of upgrades or re-implementations of CRM.

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Free eBooks for Download

Great collection of eBooks available for download below.  These are all courtesy of the Microsoft Blog site found here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/mssmallbiz/2016/07/10/free-thats-right-im-giving-away-millions-of-free-microsoft-ebooks-again-including-windows-10-office-365-office-2016-power-bi-azure-windows-8-1-office-2013-sharepoint-2016-sha/ 

 

Administration Guide for Dynamics CRM 2016 DOWNLOAD	Deploying and Administering Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 DOWNLOAD	Reporting Guide for Microsoft Dynamics CRM DOWNLOAD
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365 Integration Guide   DOWNLOAD	Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online SMB FAQ DOWNLOAD	Setup Guide: Server-side synchronization for CRM Online and Exchange Server DOWNLOAD
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Performance and Scalability DOWNLOAD	Scalable Customization Design in Microsoft Dynamics CRM DOWNLOAD	Dynamics CRM 2015 User Guide DOWNLOAD

 

Extra eBook Collection Pack. Zip file contents displayed below.

Dynamics CRM eBook & Quick Card Collection                DOWNLOAD

 

Enjoy the eBooks!

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Updates and Hotfixes for CRM 3.0 – 2016

Today I commented on a community post on Facebook which asked:

Hello, Hope somebody could help me in finding the various UR files for MS CRM 2011 from UR6 …. up to last one in order to migrate to CRM 2016.

Therefore this got me thinking that I should add a blog post with links to all the CRM Update and Hotfixes for versions 3.0 – 2016.

So here they are listed below.

CRM 3.0

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/908951

CRM 4.0

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/949256

CRM 2011

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2555051

CRM 2013

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2917899

CRM 2015

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3018363

CRM 2016

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3142345

Hope that helps?

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Trial Sign-ups for NZ, Default Currency, Fixed

Each time you signed up for an online trial of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for the Country of New Zealand, the default currency wasn’t set to New Zealand Dollar (NZD, $).

Therefore I put a request here via Microsoft Connect to have this fixed. Well, once again, Microsoft has listened and made the change and now all Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online sign-ups for the country of New Zealand now have their currency set to New Zealand Dollar (NZD, $).

Its a small fix, but an important one.

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Outlook Synchronization in CRM 2015

Microsoft has just released a new whitepaper which outlines “how” the data is synchronized between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015.

 

To get access and to read more about the new whitepaper, head to the Microsoft link listed below.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48718

For future storage, I have made this whitepaper available here.

Enjoy!

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Outlook Tracking Emails Warning

You can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook (add-on to Microsoft Outlook) to track email, contacts, tasks, and appointments. When you use the track option in Microsoft Outlook to track an email message, contact, task, or appointment record, a copy of that record is saved as an activity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and synchronised with the Outlook record. They are now linked. You can now view and edit that record in Outlook or CRM. If you have Outlook on your laptop or tablet etc, you can view that same tracked record.

Tracking records in CRM for Outlook is a manual process.  Therefore, CRM gives you the ability to keep your personal Outlook records separate from your CRM records. You don’t want your email to your wife about what’s for tea tonight ending up in your CRM system!

So tracking emails in CRM from Outlook is a great feature. However if not set up correctly, you could run into issues. Some of us have multiple email addresses or CRM organisations we manage or maintain, therefore keeping these all separate at times on one device can be a challenge, especially if you perform demos or testing multiple CRM systems.

So what do you do when you receive the following warning when setting up Outlook, possibly from an existing configuration? Keep reading.

To track emails and perform synchronization, your Outlook email address should be the same as your email address in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

The error message will be displayed as:

 

The scenario I am normally faced with is because the email address I am using is different from the email address of my CRM organisation.  The simple fix is to update your associated email address in CRM on the user record and Approve the email address.  You may find if your tracking of email is not working, approving the email may fix your tracking issue as well. Once your email address is updated in CRM, use the Approve Email (found on the command bar in CRM 2013 and 2015) to accept the email change and allow CRM to process emails using this address.

To note, you may also see this error message if you are configuring Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook, but you don’t have an Outlook email address, or you haven’t set the primary email address field in CRM.