Looking for self-paced training for Microsoft Dynamics CRM?

Check out the CRM Basics eBook for a quick run-down of essentials for new users. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Basics guide contains the essentials you need to know to navigate the system, enter data, and move your customers through the sales cycle or resolve a service issue successfully.

We only included just what you need to know to get productive right away, and we kept every topic as short as possible.

Get valuable learning even if your system has been customized

Even if your system has been customized to match your business (and you use different names or your screens look different), you’ll still find the CRM Basics guide useful, because we only included tasks that anyone using the system would do, no matter how the screens have been changed.

You can read the guide straight through in order, or only read the topics you’re interested in. Or, if you’re the person responsible for training people at your organization, you can walk through the topics in the training sessions you do with employees.

Use this guide to create your own training materials, if you want

To make it easier for you to create your own training materials, we’re even giving you a link to our editable files, so that you can replace screen shots, change the text, or use your own logo – whatever works to make the training materials match your system and style. You can use an editable Word version of the eBook as your starting point, and customize it to create your own instructor-led training.

The Training and Adoption Kit also includes other great content that you can customize to fit your needs.

Find more answers and training online

To find more eBooks, videos, and other great content to help you get the most out of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, check out the CRM Customer Center from a connected computer, tablet, or phone.

With Microsoft Dynamics Marketing you can unleash your marketing potential. You can easily plan, execute, and measure campaigns from start to finish. Bring your marketing vision to life—engage customers across channels, build pipeline, and demonstrate the impact of your marketing.

Now you can spin up your own free 30 day trial of Dynamics Marketing - just go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/marketing-test-drive.aspx and we will get you started quickly.

Click either "Brand Manager" or "Campaign Manager" under "Microsoft Dynamics Marketing" (1) and then click "Start TestDrive"

You are presented with the TestDrive offering - a guided click-through showing some of the features in Dynamics Marketing. To start the test drive click the yellow dot (1) and follow the steps

After the test drive you can click "Start Free Trial" (1) to spin up a free 30 trial of Dynamics Marketing

Fill in the information (the below screens is from a danish trial experience, my native language - you'll be presented with dialogs according to your language)

When the information and authentication is done you are taken to the admin area of the Office 365 tenant.

IMPORTANT

You'll notice that the "Marketing" link in the blue navigation bar (2) is inactive.
You will need to access the Dynamics Marketing Settings page to set a default currency and accept the license agreement in order to activate the "Marketing" link

To access the Dynamics Marketing Settings page, open a new tab in your browser and type:

https://(your tenant name).marketing.dynamics.com

A minimum requirement is for your to provide the currency (3), and accept the license agreement (4). When that is done you can click "Submit" (5) without being presented with warnings

You are now ready to pick the role you'll play in Dynamics Marketing (eg. Media Buyer) (1) and start your Dynamics Marketing experience (2)

For at series of blog posts to help you explore the features of Dynamics Marketing click here

As always I'd encourage you to contact your preferred Microsoft partner for a managed trial experience.

Enjoy.

Note:

• if you want to skip right to the trial you can click http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=399078&clcid=0x409
• If you are presented with an error message when you click the trial link you can try pasting the above link into a browser in which you are in a private/incognito session

With Microsoft Dynamics Marketing you can unleash your marketing potential. You can easily plan, execute, and measure campaigns from start to finish. Bring your marketing vision to life—engage customers across channels, build pipeline, and demonstrate the impact of your marketing.

Read more about Dynamics Marketing in this series of blog posts

One question I get a lot is - how do I set up users and security in Dynamics Marketing. In this blog post I'll cover user types, priveleges, and access levels in Dynamics Marketing

User Types

In Microsoft Dynamics Marketing there are three types of users that require an Office 365 user account:

1. Regular User
2. Media Buyer
3. Web Portal User

A fourth user type is "Public" users, which are individuals that do not require being added to Office 365 to access select publically available Microsoft Dynamics Marketing functions.

"Regular User" and "Media Buyer" users are created by an Office 365 portal administrator and must be assigned a Dynamics Marketing license. "Regular User" is the default user type. You can change this to "Media Buyer" on the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing user form if the user requires advanced media buying or planning roles. The user Type defaults to Regular. "Web Portal" users are created by creating the user in Office 365 as well but not assigning a license.

Users without priveleges in Dynamics Marketing can not log into the application.

Setting up a user

1. Add a user record to the Office 365 admin portal (you'll need to be a portal Administrator to do this)

Next you must must assign a role or privileges to the new user before he/she can log into the application

2. Click Settings and then Users

3. Double click the user to open the priveleges dialog

4. In the upper right select the user Type. Note since I didnt provide the user any licenses in O365 I cannot select the user Type - its preset to "Web Portal"

For each of the areas in the left side of the dialog (eg "Media") you can set one or more priveleges (eg. to work with "Tear Sheets"). A privilege includes an access level associated with a specific function.

There are five access levels. Not all privileges have all five levels of security.

1. "View My": View records belonging to the user
2. "Edit My": Create and edit records belonging to the user (also requires View My)
3. "View All": View all records
4. "Edit All": Edit all records (requires View All)
5. "Approve all": the user can approve all Component Requests, Project Requests, and Equipment Requests.

5. Set the priveleges and access level needed and then click Submit

When a user is created in Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing does two things. First, a contact record is created. Then, a user record is created and associated to the contact record. Data is associated with the contact record. If a user record is deleted from Office 365, the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing contact record remains intact along with the data.  A contact record cannot be deleted if a user record is associated with it. User detail is edited in the admin portal, such as First Name, Last Name, and Display Name.

Contacts added through Office 365 are added to the Staff contact group in Dynamics Marketing

The following fields are read-only in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing and must be updated in Office 365: First Name, Last Name, Display As, Title, Address 1, City, State/Province, Zip/Postal Code, and Country/Region. Office Number and Mobile Number fields are added to the contact form for Users and are also read-only. Phone 1 (Primary) and Email 1 (Primary) are available to complete in Office 365 and are also editable in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing.

User Experience

In the above example I added the user "Anders" as a web portal user (which doesnt require a MDM license - note in the O365 screen its says No licenses). I can grant Anders a few priveleges, eg to Notes

When Anders logs into MDM his user experience will look like this

He sees no widgets, he has no ability to add widgets, and can only access "Notes" in the "Projects" area.

I can go on and provide Anders with priveleges to the "Files" area too

Now when Anders logs back into MDM his user experience will look like this

Now he has the widget "Site Favorite Files", and access to "Files", "File Libraries", and "File Usage" under "Assets & Media" too.

Licensed user

Lets look at another user, Jesper, who is a licensed user in Dynamics Marketing

Jesper has the "Regular User" role, and as such has (only) a few "Media" priveleges

Now if I change Jespers user role to "Media Buyer" I can provide Jesper with several additional "Media" priveleges

I hope this gives you an idea about how you can work with user types, priveleges, and access levels in Dynamics Marketing.

Note

• Users without priveleges are blocked and will display a red icon next to their name
  
• The User dialog also presents you with a "Roles" button and dropdown.
  
  Roles are predefined collections of privileges, collected and named to map to real-world roles within a marketing organization. They make it fast and easy for you to set up a new user with exactly the right collection of features. They also enable you to manage that role centrally so that when you update a role with new (or fewer) privileges, your changes will instantly apply to all users that have that role. You can fine-tune access permissions for specific users by adding more than one role and/or granting specific privileges using the Privileges tab. Privileges are added together, never subtracted, so a given user will receive the sum of privileges from all roles and privileges granted to them.

See and manage which messages are reaching your contacts in the new Seller Portal

The Seller Portal in Dynamics Marketing gives you an overview of which marketing messages are reaching which specific contacts. This is important information for salespeople, making sure that they are well informed about which communications their customers have been receiving when they meet with them.

The portal also enables salespeople to remove specific contacts from campaigns and/or emails that they think will not interest those contacts. The display is similar to the marketing calendar in Dynamics Marketing and includes much of the same functionality, plus extra features designed for salespeople (see also Keep track of company-wide projects with the marketing calendar).

The seller portal is designed to be accessible by Microsoft Dynamics CRM users, with handy links and integrated functionality available inside CRM. If you are a CRM user or administrator, then see Dynamics Marketing for Dynamics CRM users for an overview of how to set up the integration and find those features of Dynamics Marketing that are most likely to be useful and available to you.

To open the "Contacts Seller Portal"

Use the "Contacts Seller Portal" to view and manage marking communications targeted at each contact. You can access it from Dynamics CRM as well as Dynamics Marketing

To open it, do one of the following:

If you are working in Dynamics CRM
x

1. Go to Sales -> Contacts in CRM and filter to find the contacts you wish to inspect
   
2. Mark the contact(s) you wish to inspect
   
3. Click the More button (...) at the top of the screen to open a menu and then click View Marketing Portal
   
   x

If you are working in Dynamics Marketing

1. Go to Marketing Execution -> Marketing Database -> Marketing Contacts to view a list of all marketing contacts in the database.
   
2. Mark the check boxes for each contact you want to inspect
   
3. Click the "Seller Portal" button in the toolbar.
   

The "Contacts Seller Portal" page opens.

You'll see a a Gantt chart with a linear calendar next to a column that lists the contacts you selected. See below for tips and details for working with the portal.

To open the "Accounts Seller Portal"

The "Accounts Seller Portal" looks very similar to the "Contacts Seller Portal", but focuses on companies rather than individuals. An important difference is that you can view all of the individual contacts associated with a given company and also choose which of them should be included in a given campaign.

Just like the "Contact Seller Portal" you can access it from Dynamics CRM as well as Dynamics Marketing

To open it, do one of the following:

• If you are working in Microsoft Dynamics CRM
  1. Go to Sales -> Accounts in CRM and mark the Accounts you wish to inspect.
  2. Click the More button (…) at the top of the screen to open the menu
  3. Click View Marketing Portal

• If you are working in Dynamics Marketing
  • Go to Marketing Execution -> Marketing Database -> Marketing Companies to view a list of all companies in the database.
  • Mark the check boxes for each company you want to inspect 
  • Then select the Seller Portal button  in the toolbar

The "Accounts Seller Portal" page opens, which displays a Gantt chart with a linear calendar next to a column that lists the companies you selected. See below for tips and details for working with the portal.

Working with the seller portals

View, scroll and zoom the Gantt chart

Both the "Accounts Seller Portal" and the "Contact Seller Portal" display a Gantt chart showing a linear calendar next to a column that lists the companies or contacts you selected to inspect. Adjust the view options so that you can see all of the information you need as follows:

• Use the time-range controls (Today, Year, Quarter, Month, or Week) to control how many days you can see in the chart, essentially zooming in and out.
  
• Use the left and right scroll arrows, located above the upper right corner of the chart, to slide the view forward or backward in time.
  
  
• Use the Filter button to adjust the set of campaigns displayed as needed.
  
  

Drill down to view campaign and messaging details

Both the "Accounts Seller Portal" and the "Contact Seller Portal" provide the following features:

• Each of company or contact targeted by at least one campaign displays an Expand button (+) to the left of their name in the left column.
  
  
  
• Select the Expand button (+) to expand the display of all campaigns that target the listed company or campaign. A timeline for the campaigns will now be shown as a Gantt chart on the calendar.
  
  
  
• You can continue to drill down into a campaign either by using the Expand buttons (+) in the left column or by selecting the down-arrow in the Gantt chart. Here you will be able to see any emails and other communications that have or will be sent to contacts.
  
  
  
  
• Hover the mouse pointer over any item in the Gantt chart to see a tooltip displaying summary details for that item.
  
  
• To see complete details about any campaign, email, or other campaign element select its name in the left column or on the Gannt chart. The details will open in a fly-out window, so you can view the details without leaving the Seller Portal.
  
  
  
  
• Past and future emails are handled slightly differently. All emails scheduled for future delivery are shown for each contact or company. However for emails already sent, the portal only shows those mails that were actually received; bounced emails and emails blocked due to cross-campaign rules will not be shown.

Special features of the "Accounts Seller Portal"

The "Accounts Seller Portal" focuses on companies, each of which may have one or more contacts working for them. However, not all campaigns targeted a given company are necessarily of interest to all of that company's contacts. Therefore, you are able to see a list of contacts working for each company and to block specific contacts from campaigns that have not yet started, thus preventing all associated mails and other initiatives from reaching them.

Each campaign includes an Edit block list button to the right of its name in the left column (the button also shows a number indicating how many contacts are blocked);

You can select this button to open a pop-up that displays all of the contacts from that company and campaign.

The window includes two columns: contacts in the left column will-receive/have-received communications about that campaign, while contacts in the right column will-be/have-been blocked. For future campaigns, you are able to move contacts between the columns; to do so, select a contact and use the arrow buttons between the columns to move contacts back and forth as needed.

To view a summary of all the ways a given contact has engaged with your marketing messages, select the contact's name in the blocked/not-blocked pop-up. A fly-out will open showing that contact's Marketing Engagement. See also See how contacts are engaging with your campaigns for more information about this display.

Special features of the "Contacts Seller Portal"

The "Contacts Seller Portal" focuses on individuals rather than companies, and therefore provides a more detailed engagement analysis for individuals while also enabling you to remove individuals from campaigns and/or messages that are unlikely to interest them.

• To view a summary of all the ways a given contact has engaged with your marketing messages, select the contact's name in the left column. A fly-out will open showing that contact's Marketing Engagement. See also See how contacts are engaging with your campaigns for more information about this display.
• You are able to remove specific contacts from campaigns that have not yet started, thereby preventing all associated mails and other initiatives from reaching them. Campaigns that were/will-be sent to a given contact show a Check button to the right of its name in the left column; campaigns that were/will-be blocked for a given contact show a Blocked button  here. For future campaigns, you can select this icon to toggle the blocked/not-blocked status for a given contact and campaign; for past campaigns, this is read-only.

Add alerts to track contact interactions

Once you have an overview of which contacts will receive which messages in connection with which campaigns, you might also like to receive alerts when key contacts interact with the messages by opening emails, claiming offers, registering for events, etc. See Work with alerts for details about how to configure alerts for these types of events and more.

Note

The seller portal is an add-on solution for the Dynamics to CRM connector. After the connector is installed and set up, you can install the seller portal solution. Please note that MDM and CRM must be in the same tenant for the Seller Portal integration to work.

For more information see Install the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Seller Portal solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

.

Thanks to Dynamics CRM 2015 and Dynamics Marketing, Sales and Marketing are now closer than ever.

See also

• More blog posts on Dynamics Marketing - link
• More blog posts on Dynamics CRM 2015 - link

Dual Use Rights allow CRM Online User Subscription Licenses (USL's) to access on-premises CRM servers - eg. CRM Online Pro includes Pro CAL rights, etc.

All server licenses are still required, as are all other Client Access Licenses (CAL’s) e.g. Windows CAL. Dual use rights are provided by the CRM 2015 Server license

Use Dual Use Rights to:

• Add new on-prem users when planning a cloud migration
• Supplement a CRM Online Deployment with a CRM Server for eg. Dev/Test purposes
• Access a licensed CRM Server instance running in Azure