Profiles International chooses Microsoft Dynamics CRM to replace Pivotal software

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Profiles International Inc., which provides Web-based employee-assessment and talent management solutions to companies across the globe, has chosen Microsoft Dynamics CRM to replace its Pivotal CRM software.

The new Microsoft technology replaces the company’s CDC Software Pivotal CRM, Pivotal ePartner portal, Pivotal MarketFirst electronic marketing application and basic intranet site. Profiles International found the Pivotal architecture difficult to customize and develop. As a result, the company’s IT staff, which has used .NET technology extensively, decided to move toward an expanded Microsoft foundation to increase flexibility and ease of development. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will integrate all of Profiles International’s delivery systems, a benefit the Pivotal CRM solution had not achieved. Profiles International evaluated software from Oracle’s Siebel, Salesforce.com, SAP, Sage CRM Solutions, Netsuite Inc. and CDC’s Pivotal before selecting the Microsoft Dynamics solution.

Continue at source [Microsoft PressPass]

Re-release Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0

Microsoft has re-released Update Rollup 3. This is a tested, cumulative set of updates for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Server and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 client for Outlook, including performance enhancements, that are packaged together for easy deployment.

Download [Microsoft Download Center]

Microsoft takes the beta tag off its Salesforce competitor

Microsoft has now taken the “Early Access” label off its Microsoft-hosted Dynamics CRM Online service. Starting today, Microsoft will be offering two different versions of its hosted service: Dynamics CRM Online Professional and Dynamics CRM Online Professional Plus. (The main difference between the two, besides the $20 price differential, is the Plus version provides offline data-sync and expanded storage.)

Dynamics CRM Online was formerly known as Dynamics CRM Live. Microsoft changed the name of the service last month, so that it would be consistent with other Microsoft-managed services, such as Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online.

Microsoft is offering the Professional version of Dynamics CRM Online for an introductory price (an offer that lasts throughout calendar 2008) of $39 per user per month. The Professional Plus release is $59 per user per month.

Continue at source [ZDNet]

EmailSignature for Dynamics CRM 4.0 available

Email Preview
This new feature gives you the possibility to look through the emails of a contact, account ,.. custom entity as you normally know it from MS Outlook. The look and feel is similar to MS Outlook with a list of all emails and a preview pane so that you don’t have to open each Email to see its content. You can see and even open the attachments from the preview pane.

Default signatures
With only a few steps you can generate a default email-signature for all your users. Such standard signatures help to get a uniform email layout within MS CRM. This signature will be added to the email automatically. The user has no extra work.

Set a standard sender
The possibility to set a standard sender for your emails is often very useful if all emails should be sent from one email address.(e.g. support teams, sales teams)

WYSIWYG Editor
We provide a WYSIWYG Editor to generate your signatures in MS CRM. By using this efficient editor, which is capable of working with HTML as well as with plain text, it is very easy to create personal signatures. Existing signatures can be imported by copy & paste.

Continue at source [MSCRM Addons]

Microsoft Announces General Availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, an on-demand customer relationship management service hosted and managed by Microsoft. The new Internet service delivers a full suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities through a Web browser or directly into Microsoft Office and Outlook.

It provides “instant-on” access to businesses that want a full-featured CRM solution with no IT infrastructure investment or setup required. Businesses can learn more about Microsoft’s strategy for delivering next-generation CRM solutions from a new webcast being launched today at http://crmchoice.com, featuring Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Martha Rogers from the Peppers and Rogers Group.

“At Microsoft, we’re revolutionizing how companies deploy marketing, sales and service solutions to users within their organization,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM at Microsoft. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivers the power of choice to customers, with a familiar and productive user experience and a multitenant platform that enables fast on-premise implementations or ‘instant-on’ deployments over the Internet.”

Continue at source [Microsoft PressPass]

Microsoft Helps Media and Entertainment Companies Move Into the Digital Distribution Age

This week at the NAB Show 2008, Microsoft Corp. is showcasing several innovative deployments of Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM that help enable media and entertainment companies to streamline and automate manually intensive processes in the digital supply chain.

These deployments span the film, broadcast and music industries, all of which share common challenges arising from the explosion of digital media. Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that help businesses work more effectively.

Paramount Manages Digital Distribution With Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Paramount Pictures launched its digital business in June 2006 to capitalize on new media opportunities and partnerships resulting from the evolution of how content is consumed. These opportunities have created new challenges in content production and delivery, deal tracking, and maintaining real-time insight into digital content licensing and distribution across multiple business models and territories.

Read more [Microsoft PressPass]

See also this NAB news: Microsoft Extends Its Vision for Creating, Managing and Experiencing Content at the NAB Show 2008

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide update (4.1.0)

This guide contains comprehensive information about how to plan, install, and maintain Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Download [Microsoft Download Center]

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Update Rollup 3 withdrawn!

Today I wanted to download UR3, but the file wasn't available on the download site: "We’re sorry, but we were unable to service your request. You may wish to choose from the links below for information about Microsoft products and services."

By searching the internet I found this post on the blog of MVP Guy Riddle:

"Please be advised that you should not install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Update Rollup 3 (UR3) on any sites as it has been withdrawn due to a regression discovered in one of the included fixes."

Read more about this on his blog

New Release of Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D is now Live!

Live Maps / Virtual Earth 3D are great tools and can easily be integrated into Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (The picture below shows our integration of Live Maps / Virtual Earth 3D into MSCRM).

The latest version of Live Maps is now online. There are a lot of improvements across the application tiers including Geocoding enhancements, browser compatibility (Safari and IE8), parsing improvements, reverse geocoding, printing improvements and tons more. There will also be an upgrade of Map Control to version 6.1 for developers.

 Read more

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online downloads

There are new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online downloads available on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM download site.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online E-mail Router

The E-mail Router is an interface between Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and one, or more, Microsoft Exchange servers, or POP3 servers, for incoming e-mail, and one or more SMTP servers for outgoing e-mail. E-mail messages come into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online through the E-mail Router.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Readme

Find important, late-breaking information about Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and related functionality in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Web application.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Data Migration Manager

Using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Data Migration Manager, you can convert and upload data from another CRM system to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Microsoft Office Outlook

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Outlook enables access to the same data through Outlook as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online E-mail Router Installation Guide (Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online editions)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online E-mail Router installation instructions.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Outlook Installation Instructions (Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online editions)

This document has installation instructions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Microsoft Office Outlook.

Design an audit log by using workflow

Guest blogger Guy Riddle explains on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team site  how to design your own CRM audit system by using a custom entity and the new workflow engine.

Read more

There's also a very good example of how to design your own audit log system in the 'Working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0' book.

uBid Chooses Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Chicago-based uBid, which helps sellers and manufacturers liquidate excess inventory, has chosen Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to replace both its Oracle E-Business Suite enterprise resource planning system and its Siebel CRM software. uBid, which operates uBid.com as well as live auctions and other channels, anticipates that Microsoft Dynamics solutions will enable it to create efficiencies in its IT platform specifically by supporting hardware, operating systems and databases, while reducing hiring needs.

Read  more

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Resource Center Video

With the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, customers and partners now have a convenient, comprehensive, and configurable resource center easily accessible from within their CRM application.

This well-produced 2 minute, 11 second video showcases how this compelling new product feature can positively impact customers and partners.
The video is available in 6 separate resolutions from 'smartphone ready' to 'presentation grade'.

Read more

Windows 7, the next major version of Windows, could come within the next year!

Bill Gates indicated that Windows 7, the next major version of Windows, could come within the next year, far ahead of the development schedule previously indicated by the software maker.

In response to a question about Windows Vista, Gates said: "Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version." Referring to Windows 7, the code name for the next full release of Windows client software, Gates said: "I'm super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways."

Read more here

(Source: CNET Networks)

Screenshot of Windows 7:

More screenshots here

(Source: Paul Thurrott's SuperSite)

CRM Picklist Generator for CRM 4.0

 Beatnik's tool to save time when creating large picklists is now Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 compatible. This tool enables you to generate the needed XML-Code for creating picklist items.

Read more

Fast demo Hosted Microsoft CRM 4.0 by Streamline Solutions

Streamline Solutions offers a very fast, fully functional demo environment for Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Click here for login screen, read the instructions and sign in with one of the users to start the demo environment.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Call Center Demonstration

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Call Center Demonstration. This demo is a differentiation disk based on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Virtual Machine.

The base virtual machine can be downloaded here

Update: This download has been removed from the Microsoft download site.