Friday 27 May 2016

Microsoft CRM Application: Then And Now

The Microsoft CRM Application is not the same solution it was years back. There have been glaring changes. The CRM System for Small Business is a different entity today and some of the new additions that have been made to it have been written about below.

To begin with, companies would have seen these in many a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Demo shown repeatedly.

1. The solution with all its avatars in recent years now features New CRM Apps for Windows Phone, Android and iPhone. These help access crucial customer information from one’s phone itself. Also, these apps can be downloaded from Windows Marketplace, Apple Store or Google Play and can be checked with one’s CRM Admin for further instructions.
 
microsoft-crm-application


What do these CRM Apps help achieve?

a) These help view CRM Data optimized for mobile screens fast
b) They help add and modify contacts, tasks and notes and other crucial sales data
c) The apps help view activity feeds and help see addresses on Bing Maps, though this one is exclusively for Windows Phones
d) They help get back to recently viewed records even while not being connected. This feature is again exclusive for Windows Phones
e) There is no additional license fee involved

2. The Microsoft CRM Application over the years has seen many business process solutions being introduced. These have helped organizations follow best practices for common scenarios. They can be used as-is or be edited as per need. The most popular CRM System for Small Business owners also along the way introduced the Power Query Connector which helps streamline connections to CRM Online. All that needs to be done is select the ‘From Dynamics CRM Online Connector’ in the Power Query and a URL Feed be entered after that, which results in the Query connecting and retrieving the list of tables and entities from the CRM. Your nearest Dynamics Partner can be requested for a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Demo which will make it clearer as to how this happens.

The Dynamics CRM has and continues to be one of the finest solutions for customer relationship management. These new features written about in all 3 pieces speak volumes about its brilliance and are testimony to the fact that Microsoft delivered to the world years back a winner which would eventually change the very face of customer relationship management. The best part is, the best is yet to come!

Thursday 19 May 2016

NAV 2016 for BI, Setup & Publish KPI Web Services

MS Dynamics NAV 2016 for Business Intelligence continues with Part 3 after MS Dynamics NAV for Business Intelligence - Part 2 had details on how to create and set up account schedules. Part 3 will be about how KPI Web Services can be Set Up and Published based on these Account Schedules.

In the Account Schedule KPI Web Service Setup of the enterprise resource planning system, you set how the account-schedule KPI Data will display and which specific account schedules will the KPIs be based on. The moment you choose Publish Web Service, the specified account-schedule KPI Data gets added to the list of published web services in Web Services.

In case you happen to use an old version of the NAV, get a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Upgrade done immediately as the BI Module only works on version 2016. You will miss out on this otherwise.

Now follow the steps given below to Setup and Publish a KPI Web Service based on Account Schedules on MS Dynamics NAV.


NAV 2016 for KPI Web Services


1. Search -> Account Schedule KPI Web Service Setup -> choose related link
2. General FastTab -> fill in fields such as Forecasted Values Start, G/L Budget Name, Period, View By and Web Service Name. In Forecasted
Values Start, you specify when forecasted values will be shown on the account-schedule KPI graphic. In G/L Budget Name, you specify the name of the general ledger budget that provides forecasted values to the account-schedule KPI web service. In Period, you specify the period that the account-schedule KPI web service is based on. In View By, you specify the time interval in which the account-schedule KPI is shown. In Web Service Name, you specify the name of the account-schedule KPI web service

1. Now proceed to specify one or more account schedules that you want published as a KPI Web Service according to the setup made in the previous table
2. Go to Account Schedules FastTab and then to Account Schedule Name & Account Schedule Description. In Account Schedule Name, specify account schedule the KPI web service is based on and in Account Schedule Description, specify description of account schedule the KPI web service is based on
3. Repeat Step 3 for all those account schedules you wish to base the account-schedule KPI web service on
4. In case you wish to view or edit the selected account schedule, go to Account Schedule FastTab -> choose Edit Account Schedule
5. To view the account-schedule KPI Data that has been setup, go to Navigate -> General -> choose Account Schedule KPI Web Service
6. To publish the account-schedule KPI Web Service, go to Home -> Process -> choose Publish Web Service. The web service gets added to the list of published web services in Web Services window

The steps mentioned above illustrate how a KPI Web Service based on Account Schedules can be setup and published on the premier enterprise resource planning system. To reiterate what was mentioned above, in case you happen to use an old version of NAV get a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Upgrade done fast.