Reasoning Theorems of Success

Microsoft CRM is now on the scene and it is increasing its market share, due to the Microsoft Business Solutions muscles and marketing strategy. It is tightly integrated with other Microsoft Business Solutions products such as Microsoft Great Plains, Solomon, Navision.

If you are programmer or database administrator who is asked: how do we modify Microsoft CRM - read this article and you will have the clues for further research.

1. Microsoft CRM SDK - this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net code samples - it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support. It is based on web service calls, if you are C# .NET developer - you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations. This is the preferred modification scenario and this should be easily upgradeable customization. VB.Net examples will be available soon.

2. Legacy SQL Data integration. This is also easy and safe. If you have SQL database, sitting on the same or linked SQL Server - you can create ASPX .Net application and simply integrate it into CRM. You can place it on the navigation bar or menu in isv.config - please refer to MS CRM SDK

3. Legacy ASP integration - this is somewhat more sophisticated. You have to deploy HTTP handler to be a middle party between CRM which is .Net based and ASP which is legacy IIS. The trick is - you have to have INI file with security settings to penetrate into MS CRM with proper credentials, calling web service.

4. Microsoft Exchange Programming. Microsoft CRM has Exchange connector - which moves CRM incoming email to MS if it has GUID in its subject. You can alter this logic (for instance - move email to CRM if it doesn’t have GUID but it is from the sender who is contact or account in MS CRM). Refer to MS Exchange SDK onsyncsave event handling. Then simply apply some MS CRM SDK programming - you need some COM+ objects creation and VB programming experience.

5. Direct SQL touch - in #4 above I described you the scenario with MS Exchange handlers - this would be ideal world if MS CRM SDK does the job. But - in real world this is not always true - you have to do direct flags correction in CRM database (like making Activity closed, moving email attachments/octet streams, etc). This is not supported by MBS technical support - but you can rescue to this technique if you have to get job done.

6. MS CRM Customization tool - this is rather end-user tool and we don’t describe it here - read the manual. We’ve described above the options to use when this tool doesn’t do the job

7. Crystal Reports - feel free to create Crystal report - tables and views structure is self explanatory. Try to avoid the temptation to create your own SQL view or stored procedure in MS CRM database, instead - create custom database and place your view and stored proc in it.

Happy modifying!

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally www.albaspectrum.com, he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

akarasev@albaspectrum.com

If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Most people can write. Some can even write well. But only a few individuals can write as quickly and persuasively as a professional writer. Effective communication requires a well-crafted message that is interesting to your audience. Anything less is a waste of your time and money.

Professional writers can develop a wide variety of documents including proposals, advertising and design copy, content for websites, sales letters, strategic plans, brochures, and newsletters. An organization looking for the best value should consider the following benefits of hiring a professional writer:

1. Save time: Your time is valuable. Effective writing and editing is labor intensive and can constrict your already-tight schedule. Hiring a professional writer allows you to focus on your many other priorities.

2. Meet your deadlines: Professional writers thrive on meeting deadlines. They can help your organization complete that pressing project on time.

3. Get your message across: Perhaps you are intending to sell a product, educate your audience, or improve staff morale. Your brochure, proposal, report, newsletter, or website should be effective and produce your desired results. Powerful and clear writing will work to inform, persuade, and motivate your reader to take action.

4. Research the topic effectively: Writing about a service, product, program, or person often requires fact gathering such as online research, interviews, supporting anecdotes, and statistics. Writers are experts in obtaining background information.

5. Clean and polish: Once you’ve written your rough draft, a professional writer can help you organize its structure, add additional information, tighten the copy, and spice it up with creative details. They can also help make your writing more compelling and persuasive.

6. Improve the effectiveness of design: A well-designed promotional piece requires strong copywriting. If you have compelling graphics, you’ll invite people to begin reading. However, powerful content is what will keep them reading. Professional writing can ensure the success of your design efforts by keeping your audience interested.

You can decide to write your own content for your marketing materials. However, unless you are a strong writer and enjoy the process, hiring a professional writer will allow you to focus on your core business competencies. An experienced professional will create content designed to sell your products/services, drive traffic to your website, and make people sit up and take notice of your company. Like many other marketing costs, a professional writer is an investment in your business that, over time, will bring in many times more than you spent.

Wendy Maynard, your friendly Marketing Maven, publishes REMARKABLE MARKETING, a free weekly ezine for entrepreneurs, business owners, and freelancers. If you’re ready to skyrocket your sales, easily attract customers, and make more money, sign up for her FREE ezine and marketing report now at http://www.gomarketingmaven.com.

Call accounting and telecom billing software provides many business benefits that can both save money, as well as help businesses generate revenue

Call accounting and telecom billing software provides many business benefits that can both save money, as well as help businesses generate revenue. A feature-rich call accounting software can provide many business benefits, such as:

Long Distance Bill Verification: Was the bill from your chosen long distance phone company accurate? Mostly, it isn’t. Using a call accounting system to check your long distance gives you some peace of mind - and documentation to back up your request for a refund of overpayments you may have made.

Motivate sales people: The more phone calls they make, the more they sell. Keep track of their call volume and manage them accordingly.

Bill Clients and Projects back for telephone charges incurred on their behalf: Every lawyer, government contractor, etc. does it. It makes sense.

Allocate telephone calling costs among departments and divisions: Telephones - voice, data, video and imaging - are some of your biggest expenses. They’re a cost that should be allocated to the products you are making, or the departments and divisions in your company. Telephone costs can determine which product is profitable. Which isn’t. A software company recently dropped one of its three “big” software packages because phone calls for support got too expensive.

Control Telephone Misuse: The rates for calling can vary widely depending on your carrier rate, the route the call takes, who makes the dialing decision… a call accounting system is a good check to see if you are spending money needlessly.

If your business isn’t using a call accounting or telecom expense management software, you could be losing money.

Author, Karen Ritz, VP Business Development for TelSoft Solutions, writes on the business benefits of call accounting and call detail record technology. More information can be found at http://www.telsoft-solutions.com

Backing Up Your Email

It’s really too bad that Microsoft didn’t include a simple one-click backup option in Outlook Express. After attempting it myself, I began to think that they purposely made it hard to make a backup of your emails and address book. Here’s a step by step guide to burning a backup CD with your Outlook Express goodies…

Start by putting a blank CD in the computer. You should see a little popup window asking what you want to do next. Select “Open Writable CD Folder” and press OK. If your computer doesn’t prompt for an action when you insert the CD, just go to My Computer and open the CD Drive folder.

To backup your Outlook Express email messages, follow this procedure:

1. Open Outlook Express. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Maintenance tab, click Store Folder.
3. Select the folder location (hold down left mouse button and drag across the folder name from left to right) then press CTRL+C to copy the location.

   Note: Part of the folder name may be hidden, so be sure to copy the entire string. In a typical Outlook Express installation, the folder name will be something like this, but the characters in the brackets will be different for each computer:

   C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/Local Settings/Application Data/Identities/{3D3B1757-A978FC42}/Microsoft/Outlook Express

4. Click Cancel twice to close the dialog box.

5. Close Outlook Express.
6. Click Start, and then click Run.
7. In the Open box, press CTRL+V to paste in the folder name, then click OK.
8. When the folder opens in a new window, click Edit, then Select All.
9. Drag the selected email folders to the CD Drive folder.

To backup your Microsoft Outlook Express address book, follow this procedure:

1. Click File, Export, then Address Book.
2. Click Text File (Comma Separated Values), then Export.
3. In the File Name box, type C:addrbook.csv, then click Next and Finish.
4. Locate the C:addrbook.csv file using My Computer, then drag it to the CD Drive folder.

If you want to go beyond backing up your messages and address book, you can also back up your email account information. This includes your email username, password, mail servers, and other settings that you specified when creating the account in Outlook Express. To backup your account data, follow this procedure:

1. Click Tools, then Accounts
2. Click the Mail tab, then select the account you want to export
3. Click Export
4. In the Save In box, type C:ACCTNAME.iaf, then click Next and Finish. (The “ACCTNAME” will be the actual account name, already filled in for you — no need to change it.)
5. Locate the C:ACCTNAME.iaf file using My Computer, then drag it to the CD Drive folder.

Note: If you have multiple Identities in Outlook Express, you must repeat the message, address book and account backup process for each identity, storing them separately, so you can identify them later in case they need to be restored from backup.

Now go to the CD Drive folder, click on “Write these files to CD” and the CD Writing Wizard will help you complete the process of burning the CD in just a few clicks.

Reprinted from: http://www.askbobrankin.com/backup_outlook_express.html

BOB RANKIN… is a tech writer and computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several computer books, and creator of the http://LowfatLinux.com website. Visit Bob Rankin’s website for more helpful articles and free tech support.