Microsoft Lystavlen - the Online display board

Lystavlen is the danish word for 'the display board'. This blog is all about sharing the beauty of Microsoft Online Services

December, 2013

  • Should you go for Enhanced Support?

    Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online support provides flexible, industry-leading support, services, and resources that enable you to quickly address technical issues, deepen your professional expertise, and maximize ROI.

    Included for all Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customers that subscribe through the Microsoft online services environment are Community Forums, Service Dashboard, Web & Phone Support Incident Submission, Access to self-help customer portals, Unlimited Break/Fix incidents, Response Time (on or earlier then next business day), and access to Get Started & Self-Help Resources. 

    If you want more, CRM Online support lets you choose a plan that best meets your business needs, and gets you back to work faster whenever issues arise. Click here for more.

    I've gotten many questions about access to E-Learning material. Clicking the above link you'll see that you can subscribe to a plan called Enhanced. On top of the above mentioned (included) benefits, the Enhanced plan will get you a faster response time and access to E-Learning on CustomerSource (a secure site for our customers).


    *Default benefit for trial and paid customers

    So to answer my own question - if you want a faster response time and access to eLearning, then you might want to consider the Enhanced plan.

    See also

    • "Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013" - New eLearning Course - link

    Notes:

    • How to sign into CustomerSource - link
    • Customers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada can purchase a plan called Professional Direct giving them priority handling and more - link

  • How to save 30-40% on first years license

    If you are an Office 365 customer with a Midsize (M) plan you are eligible for a 30% discount on new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional licenses.

    Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online alongside your Office 365 empowers your teams to engage more effectively with your customers. This combined power of customer relationship management (CRM) with already-familiar Microsoft Office tools helps your employees achieve goals across sales, marketing, social, and customer care.

    So if you are considering empowering you staff with the best service to go with Office 365 - CRM Online - now is a good time to onboard.

    How to buy

    1. Open a browser and navigate to http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/offers/CRMM.aspx. This opens a page with information about the discount and, in the lower right corner, an option to "Buy Now" (the blue box).

    2. When ready click Buy Now and you'll be taken to the Office 365 login page. You'll need to login with the credentials of the Office 365 administrator in your organisation.

    The minimum number of licenses (5) is preset, as well as the already discounted license price.

    If you input a license amount lower than the minimum number of licenses (5) you'll get an error message

    If you input a number higher that the maximum number of licenses you'll get an error message.

    3. When decided on the amount of licenses you want to buy, click Check Out to proceed with the order.

    4. Provide or confirm address info and VAT number if applicable.

    5. Review the order.

    6. Sign the Legal Agreement.

    7. Choose the payment frequency and payment type of your choice

    8. Finally click Place Order

    The above offer is for Office 365 customers with an M (Midsize) plan. See the full set of terms and conditions below.

    Please note we have a similar offer to existing Office 365 customers with an E3 or E4 plan (40% discount for purchases of 50 licenses or more). Click here to read more about the offer for E3/E4 customers

    Details for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Office 365 M Customers: 

    • Geographies: 42 markets where Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service is available.
    • Licensing programs: Microsoft Online Services Program (MOSP)
    • Effective dates: October 1, 2013 through March 31, 2014. 
    • Offer eligibility: New and existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customers with Office 365 M plans.

    Offer terms and conditions:

    • 30% discount on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional plan. 
    • The number of promotional licenses purchased cannot exceed the total number of Office 365 M licenses and 300 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Professional USLs.
    • A minimum purchase of 5 Professional users is required.
    • No discount on Basic plan, Essential CAL, and subscription add-ons.
    • This promotion is available under the following licensing programs on the price list: Microsoft Direct Online Services.
    • This promotion cannot be combined with any other discount. 
    • Office 365 service must be acquired prior to requesting this promotion.
    • Discounted price will expire when coverage on the qualifying licenses expires or one term whatever is shorter. Upon expiration of that coverage, customers may renew their software assurance or subscription.

    See also

    • Office 365 + Microsoft Dynamics CRM - link

  • Stay up-to-date on the status of your CRM Online and Office 365 on your mobile device

    Last month we introduced the Office 365 Admin App. This app is designed to keep Office 365 admins and Dynamics CRM Online admins up-to-date on the status of their service on their mobile devices while they are on the go.

    The app can be installed by anyone on a supported device, but only the following Office 365 administrators will be able to sign-in to the App.

    • Global Administrators
    • Service Administrators
    • Password Administrators
    • Users Administrators
    • Billing Administrators

    As mentioned above the app launched on the Windows Phone 8 platform late November 2013. On 12th December 2013 it was also launched for iOS and Android.

    Read more:

    • Office 365 Technical Blog - link
    • Windows Store - link
    • Manage O365 - link
    • FAQ on O365 Community wiki - link
    • Community Blog Post - link

  • CRM for Tablets with CRM On-Premises - IFD On and IWA Off

    As stated in the Known Issues list, Internet Facing Deployment (IFD) is required if you are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 (on-premises version) with your CRM for Tablets app.

    IFD
    Your system administrator must configure claims-based authentication before your users can access their Microsoft Dynamics CRM data with their CRM for tablets app. If you have your Microsoft Dynamics CRM website available over the internet but it is not using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM IFD configuration, it is not supported. To verify that your on-premises deployment is configured for IFD, open Microsoft Dynamics CRM Deployment Manager on your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server. The Authentication Summary section should show that both Claims-Based Authentication and Internet-Facing Deployment are enabled.

    Authenticaton Method
    To ensure you have a smooth login experience from the outside of you network please make sure you have disabled Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) on you ADFS server so that Forms Authentication is happening.

    See also

    • Known Issues for CRM for Tablets and Phones - link
  • Looking for estimated pricing on CRM 2013?

    Looking for estimated pricing on CRM 2013? Volume Licensing as well as Microsoft Online Services Program (MOSP)? 

    Microsoft Dynamics Resource Library to the rescue. Using the filter "Topic = Licensing" you get a list of brochures and guides on the topic. If you click eg. the "Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Licensing and Pricing Guide" you'll find the estimated pricing on page 20.

    Access the Resource Center here

  • Comparison of the CRM Online 2013 Subscriptions (December 2013)

    Since my blog post "Comparison of the new CRM Online 2013 subscriptions" (written early July 2013) I've gotten many questions about how to make the comparison even more clear; which entities are available/allowed to which user subscription licenses (USL)?

    For what its worth here is how I see the differences between the Essential, Basic, and Professional USL now.

    From the below diagram you see that users with the Essential USL have no access to Opportunities, users with the Basic USL have read-only access to Opportunies, and users with the Professional USL have full (read-write) access to Opportunities.

    Another question I get a lot is if users with the Essential USL have the right to append to built-in entities (eg. Contacts or Accounts). And the answer is no; Essential does not have rights to read, write or append to eg. Contacts or Accounts.

    *Create, Update, and Delete actions via automated or on demand workflows can only be performed against records corresponding to entities included in the USL.

    Please note:

    • New customers enrolling in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription should purchase a minimum of 5 Professional user licenses to activate the paid subscription
    • Upon meeting this requirement customers can add any number of Basic and Essential user licenses to the online service subscription

    Always consult the latest Licensing and Pricing Guide for authorative answers to licensing quesions.

  • Pinning Contacts in CRM for Tablets

    CRM for Tablets is free for all licensed CRM 2013 users. Its available for Windows 8 tablets and iPads.

    Once of the nice things you can do in CRM for Tablets to save you time and clicks is pinning records to the very left area of the Sales Dashboard (the "Pinned Tiles" area).

    In the screen shot below I've pinned an Opportunity ("Stormende CRM") for easy access. You can pin all types of records to the area. All pinned tiles will be of the size shown below - except for records of the Contact type. Pinned contact tiles can be expanded in size to display the contact in the so called Communication Card (displaying image, additional info, mail icon and phone icon).

     

     

    To pin a contact I navigate to the Contacts grid using the entity chooser in the upper left corner of the Sales Dashboard

     

    In the list of available entities I click "Contacts"

     

    In the Contacts grid I click the contact I'd like to pin

    The contact form is displayed. In the Contact form I swipe up from the bottom to display the command bar

     

    In the command bar I click the "Pin to Dashboard" command

     

    The pinned contact is immediately displayed in the Pinned Tiles section on the Sales Dashboard. If I click and hold the pinned Contact tile (or right-click using a mouse) I get the command bar

     

     

    In the command bar I click the "Larger" command

     

     

    And voila, the contact is now displayed in the full Communication Card tile.

     

    Using the communication card tile I can communicate with the contact, eg. place a call using Skype (if you have the Skype app installed)

     

    Happy pinning.

     

     

     

     

     

  • 20% improvement in productivity thanks to CRM 2013

    Everybody wants productivity improvements. Every vendor claims their new product/service will improve your productivity.

    But how do you measure how a new CRM system will help your productivity? Well, one measure could be the time it takes a sales user to complete a task in CRM.

    The table below lists measures taken in a focused lab environment for each CRM version that Microsoft created.

    The table shows a 20% improvement in the (average) time it takes to perform tasks in CRM.

    So if your sales people spends 5 hours a week doing tasks in CRM they will free up 1 hour of selling time per week. How much revenue will this added selling time generate for your organisation?

    To learn more, please download this brand new whitepaper "User Experience in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Fall ’13" authored by Ted Cyrek