by Gustaf Westerlund | Nov 11, 2013
The Mobile Client App (MoCA) that Microsoft have made as part of the CRM 2013 release is really nice but it is still an early version so to get it up and running on a non-English CRM here is what you need to do. As I Work in Swedish, this is based on my experiences in Swedish and you might have different experiences in other languages.
Install MoCA
First of all, the Store in Windows 8 is by default set to only showing Apps in your local language, as the MoCA hasn’t been released in Swedish, in my case, I have to change this.
To do this, open the Marketplace from the Tiles-screens, and swipe from the right or put your mouse on the Lower right hand corner. Select settings (or what ever it is called in your language).
You should now see a screen that looks something like this, but in you language:
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| Store settings – make sure the one about finding apps in your language is set to “No” |
There should be two selectors, one with the caption saying something like
- Make finding apps in your language easier
- Make it easier to find apps which aid disabilities
Make sure that the first one is set to “No”.
After this, click on the back-Arrow in the top left-hand corner.
You should now be back in the Store. Just type the following text (without citation marks):
“Microsoft Dynamics CRM” and press enter.
You should now see a list of Apps and the first one should be the right one, or otherwise it should be in the list any way. It looks like this:
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| The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile Client App (MoCA) |
Now, all you have to do is install the app.
Add English Language
What I noted was the that MoCA client will not work if you try to connect it to a Swedish version of CRM Online unless you first enable English in it. Hence this is what we have to do.
If you are running an On-premise, you will have to install the English MUI-pack/language pack and you will also have to configure your CRM to be Internet Facing (IFD) which I will not go into in this article but is described in the implementation guide in great depth.
Before continuing with configuring the MoCA, go back to your CRM and enable English. This is done by going to Settings->Administration->Languages. Select English and then press “Use”.
A spinner will show and it will take some time until the language has been provisioned for the organization.
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| Adding English to the CRM Organization |
Configure MoCA
When English has been added, the MoCA can be configured. It will be in English but it will at least work. Let’s hope Microsoft will probably release MoCA in other languages soon.
Gustaf Westerlund
MVP, CEO and owner at CRM-konsulterna AB
www.crmkonsulterna.se
by Gustaf Westerlund | Oct 26, 2013
Just provisioned a CRM Online with Swedish settings and if you had not noticed it before, you will now be getting the new and beautiful CRM 2013 and in Swedish. With the previous releases we had to wait for a month or two, but not this time.
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| Main dashboard of CRM 2013 – I guess asking for demo data in Swedish would be stretching it |
For those of you who have not had the time to look that much into CRM 2013, there are some main areas that you should notice.
1. New navigation. The navigation has moved from the left hand side to the top, and folds out. I Think this is great as it removes a lot of the clutter on the screen an frees a lot of real estate. From a more subjective perspective it also makes the application be perceived as simpler to use which will increase user adoption.
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| The new navigation on Dynamics CRM 2013 – expands from the top |
2. Flat browsing. Almost all pop-up windows have been removed. This is a huge change, and some might be scared now and wonder how am I going to be able to compare to accounts, not to worry, just press the right button and select “Open in new Window” and it will open in a separate window, but in general everything will happen in the same window. This is also a huge plus when using the system on a tablet.
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| Flat browsing in CRM 2013 – Ex. when adding a phone call in an account, this is done in a small inline window. |
3. Auto save. Previously, in CRM 2011 and earlier versions, users were required to save each form explicitly, the data inputted was not “sticky”. This has now changed and the data inputted will now remain as inputted without any need for pressing save buttons from the users. I think this is a great feature as it makes the use of the application faster and easier, however, for users coming from CRM 2011, you do have to be a bit aware as the system does behave a bit different in this perspective. For example, if you open an account, check which values exist in a picklist/dropdown and just happen to pick one and then move to some other part of the system, you selection has been saved. This was not the case in earlier versions.
4. Processes driven UI. This is really a great feature of CRM. It allows you to see where in a processes you are. This can be any process which can span across several different entities. There are two processes included from the beginning, one for Lead-Opportunity and one for Case. The processes are of course customizable and can be put into solutions (solution aware).
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| Processed driven UI as seen in the Lead entity. When qualified, the process will continue in the opportunity entity. |
There are of course heaps of other new features around, including a mobile client MoCA, that is now included in the CRM license, but I think these features are among the most outstanding additions to the system. We did already see a preview of some of these in Polaris, but they were very limited at that time. And as Always, this is a brand new version of an extremely dynamic product, if Microsoft have missed getting a corner right, report it on Microsoft connect, ask your friends to vote for it and have faith that it will be rectified, after all, Rome was not built in a day, and I do love Dynamics CRM a whole lot more than Rome!
Gustaf Westerlund
MVP, CEO and owner at CRM-konsulterna AB
www.crmkonsulterna.se
by Gustaf Westerlund | Sep 13, 2013
Yesterday I was interviewed by Markus Erlandsson who has just started up a new blog called CRM Rocks which is an audio-blog, which is quite uncommon in the Dynamics CRM Community.
He asked me if I would consent to do an interview, I thought it was an interesting new take and I am also a big fan of anybody trying to bring value to the Dynamics Community. It doesn’t have to be bleeding edge or include 5000 lines of C# code to be good, there is good use for blogs and other content of a lighter level as well.
Markus’ initiative with his new audio blog brings a personal side to the CRM Community and I hope he gets to interview some of the other interesting personalities around so if he asks you, please try to make time, it’s for the good of the Community!
I would also like to wish Markus the best of luck with his new blog. Give it your best, and be persistant!
Gustaf Westerlund
MVP, CEO and owner at CRM-konsulterna AB
www.crmkonsulterna.se
by Gustaf Westerlund | Sep 6, 2013
Many people often ask me, “what is the most important thing to think about when implementing CRM?”
Some might think that getting the right features in place or having the coolest colours is the most important thing or maybe to have it integrated with the ERP system. This is not my belief, I think it is all about making a system that your users love to use. This might sound a bit strange coming from a Tech junkie like myself but there is really sound logic behind it.
Many other systems, like ERP-system (Dynamics AX, SAP etc.) require their users to use them. If they don’t they cannot do their job. However, when working with CRM systems, this is usually not the case. There are usually other ways of recording customer information for your own purposes, like in Excel, Word, OneNote or in an old fashioned notebook with a pen.
The number of companies that have tried to force users to use the CRM system by pain or gain methods have almost always failed. If you tell your salespeople that if they don’t enter their won opportunities into the CRM system, they won’t get any bonuses, usually results in a system that has a huge rise in opporunties with really short start-to-end time and no lost opportunities. If you then try to figure out the ratio the the Company has between sent quotes and won quotes, you will get very strange numbers. The data in the CRM system will be very hard to use or unusable as it only represents a small portion of the real world data.
However, if you make the CRM system so good, that all the users, really see their own performance increase by using the system, not decrease their performance, they will want to use the CRM system for their own purposes, and let’s face it, people in general are a bit egocentric and salespeople are even more so.
As many people really like using Excel for their own productivity, keeping track of things, I like to put it to the point, the CRM system, has to make each user more productive than Excel, that is what we are combating. If we do not succeed, they will just go back to using Excel again, and the entire investment is lost.
And if you hadn’t thought about it, this has been the driving thought behind Microsoft Dynamics CRM since version 1.2 which has now been crystalized into making the users love CRM.
So, let’s spread the passion! CRM 2013 is soon here and it will blow your mind! (not to talk about the competition’s :))
Gustaf Westerlund
MVP, CEO and owner at CRM-konsulterna AB
www.crmkonsulterna.se
by Gustaf Westerlund | Jul 1, 2013
First of July might mean different things to different people. For MVP:s the first Award you get, sets you the phase (beginning of a quarter). As I got mine on the first of July 2012, my nerves we on high today.
When I received my first MVP Award, it arrived in my inbox at about 11 am CET. Hence I naturally was looking very keenly in my inbox at that time, and the following hours.
For those of you not very familiar with the process, if you are awarded, you are sent a letter, however, if you are not renewed, you will be sent nothing. No “you-will-not-be-an-MVP-any-more-email” or similar. You will just not get anything. On top of this, the MVP Award emails are notorious for getting stuck in spam filters, so you had better keep checking there too.
Hence, I was checking my inbox, and my spam-inbox, every 5 minutes, or every 3 minutes, or maybe it was every minute to see if I got any email. But nothing, I got some leads, some new customers, someone wanted to come worked at my Company, someone wanted to send me huge amounts of Money, who cared, no MVP letter.
The time reached 3 pm CET. They say that you can sometimes see the nerves on the outside of someones skin, well, that wasn’t the case anymore, my nerves had crept out like Trichinella worms, made a nest in a nearby tree, fallen down, been eaten by a hungry panda and then shot by a crazy Russian on killing Spree. Close enough.
At about 4 CET, I managed to rewire my brain (like T2 in Terminator) and remembered that I could check the MVP website. Which I did and my surprise was palatable, this is what I saw:
Now most of you might have noticed the really stretched image of me or the fact that I look almost bold (which I am on the front part of my head). But what I noticed was the small “2” just below the Picture where it says “Awards since 2012”. Hurray! I had been renewed! But why hadn’t I received the email? Which was answered about 5 seconds later when the email arrived.
So if you are looking for a more exciting July 1:st, I would suggest contributing to the CRM Community and sending me an email describing why I should nominate you for an MVP, then you might very well have just as exiting July 1:sts as I, with Pandas, crazy Russians and Everything!
I am also very happy that Jukka Niiranen got awarded the MVP Award as I got the honor to nominate him. It is a a great honor for me to be able to nominate someone that gets awarded the MVP Award as that is a great confirmation of my judgement which is very gratifying. Jukka has been a great contributor to the Community and very well deserves the Award. The NDA that you are required to sign as an MVP due to the fact that you get to see a lot of classified information, put us under a lot of restriction on what kind of news we are allowed to blog about. Jukka has been very good at drawing out the bleeding edge info from hazy photos from Convergence, eXtremeCRM and similar and I hope he will be able to continue this without too much hindrance from the very strict NDA.
Do read his blog about his MVP Award if you have not done so already!
http://niiranen.eu/crm/2013/07/mvp-award-why-communities-rock/
Gustaf Westerlund
MVP, CEO and owner at CRM-konsulterna AB
www.crmkonsulterna.se
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