Search: ERP

Knowing CRM

by Sherie Cavicchia on February 2, 2012

It used to be that only big businesses needed to make use of Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, software. Small businesses, taking advantage of new web-based CRM software, are finding that they can do business more efficiently and quickly surpass their competitors with these new solutions. If you don’t use CRM software, even if you are a small business, your are losing out on not only a great organization tool. In order for your smaller business to compete with bigger businesses with more resources, you need things like CRM software so you are able to provide the excellent service that your customers will love.

The disadvantages that come with a small business can paint a sobering picture for the owners and employees. The average small business doesn’t have the connections or the financial power to reach all their goals. However, big companies move slowly and often have lots of red tape that inhibits change, while small businesses have the benefit of being nimble and able to quickly take advantage of new ideas.

Building up better relationships with your clients is the best way to stand out from the pack. Of course, the exceptional experience that you should be providing will bring your customers back for more, but think of the other benefits. Referral business from your ecstatic clients can really propel your business into a new era of prosperity. Friends, family members, and coworkers of your current customers are just some of the new business you will open yourself up to with a solid customer service policy.

You can use CRM software to provide the top of the line customer service that will reinvigorate business. CRM software has traditionally been prohibitively expensive and difficult to use, making it our of reach for most small and even medium sized businesses. Even if the perfect tool was available, it won’t be of use if the price would bankrupt most small businesses. The free or inexpensive solutions required their own hardware to run, which can be expensive, and their installation and configuration process is arcane and difficult.

Online CRM software has given small businesses the means and ability to compete with bigger ones, while continuing to provide their trademark customer service and attention to detail. In addition, there are other benefits above and beyond the obvious that they offer in place of standard enterprise solutions.

Online CRM software is perfect because it can be used from any computer, in the home or office, whenever it is needed. When you don’t need to be at the office, or at a particular computer, to do work, you ability to get things done will increase beyond expectations.

The price of online CRM software is incredibly low, making the choice to use a CRM solution even easier. Imagine having the perfect CRM, and then imagine it being low-cost or even free. If you aren’t convinced that online CRM software is for you, feel safe knowing that it won’t require an IT department to configure and use your new tool.

The moment you query web based contact management software into Ask.com, do you discover the thing you need?

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Significance of Enterprise Content Management System

by Tali Park on January 28, 2012

Have you heard of Enterprise Content Management System? This system may be defined being a multi-user interface that could be utilized by several folks at any given time to entry just one document. This interface permits a number of consumers to share and edit content material with no confusion. Numerous customers can handle precisely the same content material in the far more effective and orderly method.

Why Use Enterprise Content Management System? These days one can not think of any corporate office that doesn’t use ECM system. In a corporate office many employees need to work on the same document at a time.

They usually have to update a spreadsheet or database. When many individuals operate within the same document, odds are there which they will think of numerous variations of the exact same document. This makes the job tough and confusing. 1 can keep away from this dilemma by using enterprise content management system.

It allows many individuals to deal with precisely the same document concurrently and thus minimizes the chance of creating different versions of the document. Access Presented by ECM: It is possible to get an ECM program with various capabilities. It is possible to obtain a system that offers equal entry to all users. If which is not whatever you require, then you can pick a system that offers minimal entry to folks. The one who has originated the venture may have complete access to it. Other people can have restricted accessibility to the project. This program also enables the person who has originated the project to get rid of other customers if she or he would like.

Nevertheless, in the event you run a giant business that requires intricate document administration, heading for a paid out Enterprise Content Management System will probably be the best selection for you personally.

Learn more document management workflow

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Benefits And Drawbacks Of ERP Software

January 4, 2012

ERP software implementation integrates all divisions in an organization into a single system. Every division has its own module under the enterprise resource planning system. Each module is then customized and links added to other modules in a bid to replicate the company’s business process data flow.

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Canadian Feds announce DTAPP to Fund Technology for Small and Medium Businesses

November 21, 2011

The Canadian Industry Minister recently announced an exciting new program for Small and Medium Business (SMB) named the Digital Technology Adoption Pilot Program (DTAPP). The Digital Technology Adoption Pilot Program (DTAPP) delivers funds, as much as $99,999, meant for companies to build and implement systems that were designed to improve their power in the global market. The qualification specifications will be rather straightforward. To meet the criteria, your company will have to:

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Hosted CRM applications in business organizations handles potential customers and projects.

November 16, 2011

Customer Resource Management (CRM) can be a customer-centric strategy for large and small businesses that has started out larger and much more expensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and techniques. In large Fortune 500 companies, CRM is part of the larger ERP package. This can be a company-wide strategy which is designed to lower costs while increasing profitability and providing a higher level of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The achievements CRM for Business is determined by a company-wide commitment from top management on down to the shop floor and warehouse.

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Hosted CRM software in business organizations controls buyers and projects.

November 8, 2011

Customer Resource Management (CRM) is really a customer-centric strategy for minor and major businesses that has evolved from larger plus much more expensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and methods. In large Fortune 500 companies, CRM is part of the larger ERP package. This is a company-wide strategy that may be designed to lower costs while increasing profitability and providing to the next stage of customer support and loyalty. The prosperity of CRM for Business will depend on a company-wide commitment from top management on right down to the shop floor and warehouse.

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FAQ for Customer and Partner Portals

June 27, 2011

This post addresses the most common issues that occur with the Customer and Partner Relationship Management Portals. If the problem you’re running into is not in the list below, please post a message to the CRM Labs Solutions Forum here: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/crmlabs/threads?filter=alltypes.

1. Solution Import

1.1 Getting started with the portals

Portal installation instructions are as follows:

  1. Download the cab file from the marketplace and save it to disk
  2. Unpack the cab using instructions above
  3. Navigate to the “Documentation” folder
  4. Follow instructions for On Premise or Azure Deployment

1.2 Unpack the cab file downloaded from the marketplace

The cab file can be unpacked in two ways:

  1. If you have a third party unzipping program, you can right click on the cab file and use the unpacking tool.
  2. If you don’t have a third party tool, follow these steps:
    1. Open a command prompt. Start->run-> “cmd”
    2. Navigate to the location you stored the cab file
    3. “md CustomerPortal”
    4. “expand CustomerPortal.exe.cab –f:* CustomerPortal”

1.3 Solution Import: Error about cab files not being signed

“The cab file is not signed or digital signature cannot be verified”.

This error occurs for one of two reasons:

  • The incorrect cab file is being imported
    MicrosoftXrmCustomerPortal.cab
    and MicrosoftXrmPartnerPortal.cab are the solution cab files. Please make sure you’re importing one of these. They are in the root directory once you’ve unpacked CustomerPortal.exe.cab or PartnerPortal.exe.cab.
  • The root cab file was not unpacked correctly
    Please follow instructions above for unpacking the cab file

1.4 Solution Import: Schema validation error when importing the correct cab file

"The selected file is corrupted or it does not use the correct schema. Either select another file or modify the file to use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM migration template schema"

This error occurs when you are running on pre-RTM version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. The portals were developed against version 5.0.9688.583, so please make sure you’re running on a build greater than that.

Note: You can check the build you are running by going to your CRM client and navigating to File -> Help -> About Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

1.5 Installing both Customer and Partner portals in the same CRM instance

The steps are as follows:

  1. Install Partner Relationship Management Portal following the Partner Portal Deployment Guide. The PRM solution contains all the necessary components that are required for both portals to work.
  2. Install the Customer Portal website. Note – don’t install the CRM solution, just host the website on Azure. Skip to step #3 in the Deployment Steps section of the Customer Portal Deployment Guide.

You can install both solutions in step 1 as well if you’d like.

2. Live ID/Azure Setup

2.1 Getting the device id and password

Device ID and password are strings 12-22 characters long and are related to the live id so you can come up with any strings that meet the criteria. Please make sure note them down as you will need these values every time you connect to CRM Online with that particular Live ID.

2.2 Live-ID changes

Live ID no longer requires domain verification, so we don’t need to download the txt file and add it to the azure project. Additionally, the UI is different. Please refer to the updated Step 8 of the documentation here:

Customer Portal

Partner Relationship Management Portal

3. Partner Portal Access Issues

"You do not have sufficient permissions to view this page." in the Partner Portal

  1. Set the Parent Customer of the Contact (customer accessing the portal) to a Partner
  2. Set Account Relationship Type to "Partner"
  3. Invalidate the Cache
  4. Set access permissions for that contact following instructions in the documentation

4. Changing Membership Provider

If you’d like to use AD or IFD instead of Live ID for authentication, you can follow the steps in this blog:

http://www.shanmcarthur.net/crm/developers-corner/customer-portal-modifications-for-demo-vpc-without-internet-connectivity

While it is written for CRM 4, the process is identical for the CRM 2011 Portals as well.

The portals are designed to follow ASP.NET conventions. They should work with any legacy SSO solution that uses the IPrincipal mechanism of ASP.NET, or any membership provider that you plug into your site including the Active Directory or SQL membership providers distributed with ASP.NET.

5. WebsiteCopy.exe Utility fails when using Claims/IFD authentication
          OR
cannot connect to datacenters outside the US

WebsiteCopy.exe UI that was released with the portals on the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace does not support Claims or IFD authentication. The UI will not allow providing only a username and password in the scenario where you have CRM installations with Claims/IFD auth. It also doesn’t connect to non-US organizations.

You can use one of two solutions for this:

  • Use the command line interface
  • Download CRM SDK version 5.0.3 or greater. The issue has been fixed in WebsiteCopy.exe released in the SDK

6. Language problems

The portals are English-only. We have not tested them in other languages.

If you are successfully able to import the Portal solution into your system and cannot activate workflows, you can try installing the English Language pack to your system. Alternatively, you can write your own workflows since the logic is pretty trivial.

6.1 System.NullReferenceException when trying to create/view a case

This issue occurs only in CRM orgs that do not have English as the base language. The *WEB* keyword needs to be in the service description and the case default subject and priority needs to be translated to the target language.

Palak Kadakia

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MVP Approved: Top Dynamics CRM Community Resources

June 8, 2011

Today’s guest blogger is MVP Julie Yack. Julie is one of the founding partners of Colorado Technology Consultants, Inc. and currently serves as the company’s Chief Operations Officer. This list is a revised version of the bit I did with Anne Stant…

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SugarCRM launches new mobile and subscription offerings

June 6, 2011

MyCustomer.com

SugarCRM is adding two new subscription formats and a range of a la carte support options for users of its open source CRM applications in a bid to make them more attractiv…

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Whitepaper: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Reference Architecture

June 3, 2011

I wanted to share that I just published a brand new white paper entitled “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Reference Architecture” that I just finished authoring. It is available on the Microsoft Downloads site at the following URL:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/E/7/EE72BCF3-66E9-41E3-BEB2-8CC0A90A326A/Dynamics CRM Reference Architecture Version 1.0.pdf

This document is intended for enterprise architects within customer and partner organizations who are evaluating Microsoft Dynamics CRM from an architecture standpoint. It highlights architectural details on key components of Dynamics CRM, as it applies in an on-premises deployment model as well as in a cloud environment.

Cheers,

Sumit Virmani

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