Enabling Quick Access to CRM2011 Entities for Outlook Client

 

In CRM4, adding frequently used CRM entities (such as Account and Contact) to Outlook’s favourites folder list was part of the routine client setup for me.  All users like it as it allows us to access CRM information quickly.  In CRM2011, due to the Solutions Module, users may find they would have to use the CRM Solutions or the very long Outlook Mail folder list to access CRM data. 

Picture 1: Solutions Module in Outlook 2010

Solution module is an added feature in Outlook 2010. For users still using Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003, you can still add CRM2011 entities to your Outlook Favourites folder list by right click the CRM entity and select Show in Favorites. 

Picture 2: Showing CRM entity in Favourites list.

To enable quick access to CRM2011 entities in Outlook 2010, I have found 2 work-around so far. 

* Disable the CRM2011 Outlook client solution module as per Microsoft KB article KB2494600 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2494600 .  So we can have the “Show in Favourites” options when right click any CRM sitemap items in Outlook.

* Use Outlook2010 Shortcuts instead of Favourites

Option 1) Disable the CRM2011 solution module as per KB2494600

1) Close Outlook

2) Click Windows icon and type regedit in the search box, then hit Enter on your keyboard

3) Click Yes if User Account Control windows pops up

4) Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient

5) Right click MSCRMClient, select New and then select DWORD (32-bit) Value.

6) Enter DisableSolutionsModule as the name.

7) Double click the newly created subkey DisableSolutionsModule, replace value 0 to 1. Click OK.

8) Exit regedit.

9) Restart Outlook.  Now you will see the Solution Module is not available anymore.

10) Navigate to Outlook Mail folder list, expand CRM2011 and select any CRM sitemap item (ie. Dashboard).  Right click on the sitemap item and now you will see Show in Favorites option appears.

Option 2) Use Outlook2010 Shortcuts instead of Favourites

I have found this work-around from Frank’s blog. http://mscrmonline.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/shortcuts-setup-in-microsoft-crm-2011-outlook-client/

1) From Outlook 2010 Navigation Pane, click Shortcut

2) Right click shortcuts heading and select New Shortcut

5) Add to Navigation Pane window pops up.  Select the CRM sitemap item and click OK.

6) Repeat the above step 4 and 5 to add more items

7) Use New shortcut group and drag and drop items to groups to organise shortcut items.

8) Use Outlook Navigation Pane options to re-organise your navigation options

Hope you find this helpful too!

CRM2011 On-Premise Installation Failure: The SQL Server ‘{0}’ is unavailable

I have been trying to install CRM2011 On-Premise on a brand new Windows2008R2 Server connecting to a brand new SQL2008R2 server and getting installation failure: The SQL Server ‘{0}’ is unavailable.  After doing some testing and troubleshooting, found out to be Firewall related and here is what I do to open up port 1433 on a Windows 2008 Server. 

To open a port in the Windows firewall for TCP access

1. On the Start menu, click Run, type WF.msc, and then click OK.

2. In the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, in the left pane, right-click Inbound Rules, and then click New Rule in the action pane.

3. In the Rule Type dialog box, select Port, and then click Next.

4. In the Protocol and Ports dialog box, select TCP. Select Specific local ports, and then type the port number of the instance of the Database Engine, such as 1433 for the default instance. Click Next.

5. In the Action dialog box, select Allow the connection, and then click Next.

6. In the Profile dialog box, select any profiles that describe the computer connection environment when you want to connect to the Database Engine, and then click Next.

7. In the Name dialog box, type a name and description for this rule, and then click Finish.

While I was troubleshooting, also found these information from CRM2011 Planning Guide to be really useful.

Network ports for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web application

The following table lists the ports used for a server that is running a Full Server installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Moreover, except for the Microsoft SQL Server role, and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services server role, all server roles are installed on the same computer.

Protocol	Port	Description	Explanation
TCP	80	HTTP	Default Web application port. This port may be different as it can be changed during Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server Setup. For new Web sites, the default port number is 5555.
TCP	135	MSRPC	RPC endpoint resolution.
TCP	139	NETBIOS-SSN	NETBIOS session service.
TCP	443	HTTPS	Default secure HTTP port. The port number may differ from the default port. This secure network transport must be manually configured. Although this port is not required to run Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we strongly recommend it. For information about how to configure HTTPS for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, see "Make Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 client-to-server network communications more secure" in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Installing GuideMake Microsoft Dynamics CRM client-to-server network communications more secure .
TCP	445	Microsoft-DS	Active Directory directory service required for Active Directory access and authentication.
UDP	123	NTP	Network Time Protocol.
UDP	137	NETBIOS-NS	NETBIOS name service.
UDP	138	NETBIOS-dgm	NETBIOS datagram service.
UDP	445	Microsoft-DS	Active Directory service required for Active Directory access and authentication.
UDP	1025	Blackjack	DCOM, used as an RPC listener.

Network ports that are used by the SQL Server that runs the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services server roles

The following table lists the ports that are used for a computer that is running SQL Server and has only SQL Server and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for SQL Server Reporting Services server roles installed.

Protocol	Port	Description	Explanation
TCP	135	MSRPC	RPC endpoint resolution.
TCP	139	NETBIOS-SSN	NETBIOS session service.
TCP	445	Microsoft-DS	Active Directory required for Active Directory access and authentication.
TCP	1433	ms-sql-s	SQL Server sockets service. This port is required for access to SQL Server.This number may be different if you have configured your default instance of SQL Server to use a different port number or you are using a named instance.
UDP	123	NTP	Network Time Protocol.
UDP	137	NETBIOS-NS	NETBIOS name service.
UDP	138	NETBIOS-dgm	NETBIOS datagram service.
UDP	445	Microsoft-DS	Active Directory service required for Active Directory access and authentication.
UDP	1025	Blackjack	DCOM, used as an RPC listener.

Buy or Build

I have been helping with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 tender and through the process I found a really interesting article.  Although this article is rather old (produced back to 2004), it has some really interesting statistics.  Here is the abstract of the article:

When developing software, research has shown that there is an inverse correlation between the size of a project and the probability that it will actually be completed (see fig. 1.0). It’s not uncommon to hear about a large bank that lost $7 million after pulling the plug on a $30 million project. The likelihood of success is greater for outsourced projects when compared to in-house development, most likely because software development is the core competency of third party developers. This means that projects that are larger in scope should most likely be developed by a third party developer or you should scour the landscape for COTS application that can be customized to your requirements.

Project Size	People	Time (months)	Success
<$750k	6	6	55%
$750k-$1.5M	12	9	33%
$1.5m-$3m	25	12	25%
$6m-$10m	250+	24+	8%
$10m+	500+	36+	0%

The actual source of the document is here http://www.insidus.com/BuyorBuild.pdf Hope you find this interesting too!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 installation–wrong icons

 

Today, I am going to share my CRM 2011 on-premise installation experience with wrong icons been referenced by the CRM Server..

Immediately after a fresh installation, CRM sitemap is referring to different icon sets. Both for the default organisation and all other sub-sequent imported or upgraded organisations.  For example: The expand icon - instead of using the standard black triangle, it is using a yellow arrow as shown here.

After researching and found limited information on this issue, I decided to run a repair and it is not showing the right icon sets.

How strange!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Keyboard Shortcuts

Today I read the Quick Start Guide for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and found the top keyboard shortcuts are very handy, so want to re-quote and also add a few others that I often use.

Top keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

To do this	Press
Select all text in the current field or current list	CTRL+A
Close an active form	ALT+F4
Move forward through a form's fields	TAB
Move backward through a form's fields	SHIFT+TAB
Save a form	CTRL+S or SHIFT+F12
Save and New	CTRL + SHIFT + S
Open the Lookup Window through a form’s lookup field	Enter
Wildcard character to search on partial text on a form’s lookup field	*text
Through a form’s picklist field, if you have a very long picklist and just want to go straight to the picklist item without seeing the entire list	Type the first few letters of the picklist item

Enjoy!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online Change User License Step by Step

 

From time to time, organisations may have staff change over.  In this case, you want to transfer the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online license from the departed user to a new user.  In summary, it involves 2 main steps.

1) Disable the exited user in CRM Online

2) Add new user to CRM Online

Disable the exited user in CRM Online

You must have System Administrator role to disable other users in CRM Online.  To disable a user (not yourself) in CRM, follow steps below:

Step 1) Log onto to CRM Online.  Go to Settings – Administration – Users

Step 2) Highlight the user and click Disable.  You have now successfully disabled an existing user from CRM Online and spared 1 user license for reallocation.

Add New User to CRM Online

There must be at least 1 spare user license before you can add a new user to CRM Online. 

Step 1) Log onto CRM Online.  Go to Settings – Administration – User

Step 2) Click New button to add a new user.  You will see a new user screen pops- up.

Step 3) Assign the appropriate role( s )  and click Next.

Step 4) Populate the new user form (First Name, Last Name, Email Address) and click Add to New users pane.  Click Next to continue.

Step 5) Check Add new users and send invitations now, then click Create New Users

Step 6) Click Close to complete the add user wizard.

You have now successfully change the CRM Online user license from 1 user to another.

Sharepoint 2007 URL referencing Lotus Note database

 

With one of the recent projects, I got the chance to experience Lotus Note.  To a everyday Outlook user like myself, I have certainly found lost of productivity at the beginning.  However, I must admit Lotus Note impressed me with what it can do.

Back to my subject, a user was asking me about an error they experienced with Sharepoint 2007 Summary Link web part.  “invalid hyperlink” when they use note:/servername/databasename.nfs . 

Sharepoint 2007 accepts url in the following format by default.
-http://
-https://
-mailto://
-file://

To workaround the error, I’ve asked the user to use Sharepoint 2007 Content Editor web part instead. 

Step 1): Add a web part –  Content Editor web part

Step 2): Modify Shared Web Part

Step 3) Rich Text Editor, add the text, highlight the text, use the hyperlink button to insert http://tempurl.  Save

  Step 4) Click on the Source Editor – replace http://tempurl with your note url note:/servername/databasename.nfs

Save and publish.  It should work now.