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

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – CRM 2016 Courses and Exam Guides

The Microsoft Dynamics Learning Portal has the following CRM 2016 courses and exam preparation material available. You will need to set aside some time to go through the course material to become familiar with each area relating to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Note: You will need a valid login to access this information.

80734AE: Social Engagement in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016
80726AE: Customer Service in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016
80727AE: Sales Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016
80736AE: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Online Deployment
80735AE: Installation in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016
80728AE: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016
80729AE: Customization and Configuration in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016

 

 

 

Exam Preparation guides listed below are also available. These guides include information and tools to assist you in preparation for the exam.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Installation Certification Exam MB2-711 Preparation Guide
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Customization and Configuration Certification Exam MB2-712 Preparation Guide
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Sales Certification Exam MB2-713 Preparation Guide
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Customer Service Certification Exam MB2-714 Preparation Guide

 

Enjoy!

Greg Olsen
YellowDuckGuy

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Roadmap for 2015

I got to Microsoft Convergence this year once again and there was a session delivered by Jujhar Singh titled ‘Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Roadmap and Strategy’.  This session delivered information to customers and partners in the room to give them a steer on the roadmap for CRM.

This blog post will outline some of the content of the roadmap which came out of convergence.

Before

Let’s take a step back. We can visually see in the illustration below, CRM, Parature, Social Listening and Dynamics Marketing code releases from Convergence 2014. This roadmap was shared with us all in 2014.

The Fall 2014 wave was delivered by Microsoft. CRM ‘Vega’ became the CRM 2015 release. Known as version 7.0. If you are in the APAC region, you can sign up for a CRM 2015 instance from the new Australia Data Center. Read more here: https://yellowduckguy.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/office-365-office-365-and-crm-now-available-from-australia-data-center/

Now and Beyond

Now moving forward into the next CRM Roadmap the next releases can be illustrated below. Social Listening is now known as Social Engagement. Focus with ‘Now’ lies with the Spring Wave release with beyond aligning to the Fall Wave release.

The Spring 2015 release (v7.1) brings us the following code releases:

• Carina – Dynamics CRM (known release as CRM Online 2015 Update 1)
• Hydra – Social Engagement (formally Social Listening)
• Spica – Dynamics Marketing
• Atira – Parature

If you would like to know more about the new features in the Spring 2015 release, then head to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/get-ready-for-the-next-release.aspx and click on the Spring 2015 tab (if is not already selected).

I also did a couple of blog posts which might be of interest:

• Microsoft Convergence 2015 – Opening Keynote (screenshots of the cool new stuff!) https://yellowduckguy.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/microsoft-convergence-2015-opening-keynote/
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 – Global Navigation UI Changes https://yellowduckguy.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2015-global-navigation-ui-changes/
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 – You can now add a Theme to your CRM https://yellowduckguy.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2015-you-can-now-add-a-theme-to-your-crm/

So what is next?

Not confirmed by Microsoft, but it is likely that On-Premises installations will have to wait for the CRM ‘ARA’ release during the Fall Wave in order to get the Carina new features and others.

The next ‘wave’ in the galatic journey is the Fall Wave, coming at the end of 2015. The codenames for this release are:

• Ara – Dynamics CRM
• Corvus – Social Engagement (formally Social Listening)
• Capella – Dynamics Marketing
• Hercules – Parature

As always Microsoft will deliver updates to these areas – this is where the investment lies.  Microsoft also announced a number of other improvements scheduled for the Fall release in 2015 of CRM. I could list them here but it is awhile away and Microsoft has the ability to change the scope.  So it’s best you wait for the Fall 2015 announcement.

Also, as a matter of clarification, the seasons Spring and Fall relate to USA. So if your reading this outside of the USA then adjust these seasons to match yours i.e. Spring 2015 Release lands in Autumn 2015 for New Zealand.

Will CRM ‘ARA’ be CRM 2016 i.e. v8.0? I’ll let you decide.

Exciting year ahead!

Greg.