Customer Relationship Management - Customisation

Introduction
The two-day Microsoft CRM Customisation course examines the various ways in which you can customise the application to meet your business requirements. Customisation can take on many forms – from workflow, to customising the application and database schema, to report customisation, to extended customisation via the Software Development Kit (SDK). Workflow Manager allows you to automate your company’s business policies by creating workflow rules that can be automatically and/or manually applied to selected objects. Workflow Manager also includes the ability to create Sales Processes which automate the activities associated with prospecting, qualifying and closing sales opportunities.

The Microsoft CRM Customisation tool allows you to customise the form, views and preview panes associated with each object. Used in conjunction with the Schema Manager utility, you will learn how to modify the database schema, and then apply those customisations to the application. This course will also introduce you to the Software Development Kit, or SDK, which is a tool used by developers for creating vertical solutions that can interface with the CRM application. And finally, from a reporting standpoint, you will be introduced to the Crystal Report Designer tool, which allows you to create new reports and modify any of the existing reports that were shipped with the application.

Audience
The Microsoft CRM Customisation course is designed for partners and customers who will be customising the application. This typically includes implementers, consultants, developers, systems administrators, project leaders, etc.

At Course Completion
After completing this course, students will understand:

• Microsoft CRM’s architecture and how it facilitates customisation via the SDK

• Workflow rules that can automate your company’s business policies

• Sales processes that can automate the activities required to prospect, qualify and close sales opportunities

• Microsoft CRM’s Customisation Tool that allows you to modify forms, views and preview panes

• Microsoft CRM’s Schema Manager tool that allows you to customise the database schema by adding custom fields to each object and create custom database mappings

• How to publish customisations to the production environment

• Microsoft CRM’s Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows you to create external customisations that leverage the platform layer’s class libraries

• The Crystal Designer reporting tool that allows you to create new reports and modify existing reports.

Prerequisites
Before attending this course, students must have:

• An understanding of the Microsoft CRM application

Microsoft Certified Professional Exams
No Microsoft Certified Professional exams are associated with this course currently.

Course Materials
The student kit includes a comprehensive workbook and other materials needed for this class.

Course Outline

Chapter 1: Architecture

This chapter examines Microsoft CRM’s architectural design. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the design goals for Microsoft CRM, discuss how these goals evolved into the system, platform and application functionality that define the Microsoft CRM product, and review Microsoft CRM’s four architectural layers - the Presentation layer, Application layer, Platform layer and Database layer. Please note that this is a high-level discussion of the product’s architecture with the aim being to introduce the student to each layer of design. The discussion centres around how the platform layer and the metadata design facilitate extensibility of the application.

Main Topics

• Presentation layer (web client and Sales for Outlook client)

• Application layer

• Platform layer (primary focus, specifically touching on the 800+ class libraries used to extend the application via web services)

• Database layer

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

• Identify the similarities and differences between the two methods of accessing Microsoft CRM (via web client and the Sales for Outlook client).

• Understand how the platform layer of the product architecture plays a key role in all product functionality, including extension of product functionality by ISV’s through the use web services that access class libraries at the product layer.

• Identify the four databases created with each Microsoft CRM installation and understand the purpose of each.

• Understand why the application was designed to prohibit direct access to application logic and databases by developers.

Chapter 2: Workflow

This chapter examines how you can automate your organisation’s business policies, tasks and sales processes using the Microsoft CRM Workflow tools. This chapter will review the core concepts and terminology related to the Workflow manager, which is the tool used to create, modify and activate workflow rules and sales processes. You will learn how to create rules that will be automatically triggered based on selected events, and how to build conditions and actions within those rules. You will also learn how to create workflow templates, which can be used as the basis for future rules that have common characteristics. In addition to workflow rules, you will also learn how to create sales processes, which are specialised workflow rules for sales opportunities. And finally, you will learn how to administer rules and sales processes via the Workflow Manager tool.

Main Topics

• Workflow Manager

• Workflow Rules

• Workflow Templates

• Events

• Conditions

• Actions

• Sales Processes

• Workflow Monitor

• Workflow Best Practices

Lab: Creating Workflow Rules

• Creating a workflow rule template

• Creating a workflow rule

• Testing the rule automatically and manually

Lab: Creating Sales Processes

• Creating a sales process template

• Creating a sales process rule

• Testing the rule automatically

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

• Understand how business processes can be automated in Microsoft CRM.

• Understand the core concepts and terminology associated with Microsoft CRM’s Workflow Manager – including: Rules, Events, Conditions, Actions, Rule Templates, Sales Processes and Workflow Monitor.

• Use the Workflow Manager to create, modify and activate Rules and Sales Processes.

• Administer Rules and Sales Processes with the Workflow Monitor.

Chapter 3: Customisation

This chapter will discuss the different components and processes that can be used to customise Microsoft CRM’s appearance and behaviour. This chapter will instruct you on how to use the System Customisation Tool to customise views, forms, preview panes and all other customisable areas of the application. You will examine which components can be customised to satisfy different business needs. This includes an examination of the Deployment Manager’s Schema Manager and Mapper tools, both of which can be used for customising the database schema. Finally, you will learn how to modify the properties of existing forms, views, Advanced Find views, Associated Views and Preview Panes in order to meet your business’s needs.

Main Topics

• System Customisation tool

• Modifying forms

• Modifying views, advanced find views, and associated views

• Modifying preview panes

• Schema Manager

• Adding custom fields to the database

• Mapper tool

• Adding custom field mappings

• Publishing customisation changes

• Customisation Best Practices

Lab: Customising Views

• Creating a new view

• Modifying an existing view

• Setting the default view for a record type

Lab: Adding Customised fields to the database schema

• Schema Manager

• Attribute Manager

• Add custom fields to the database

• Publishing database schema changes

• Export XML configuration

Lab: Record Type Customisation

• Form Editor

• Adding custom fields to a form

• Modifying field properties

• Modifying form layout

• Modifying preview panes

• Publishing form and preview pane customisations

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

• Identify which Microsoft CRM components are customisable using the Microsoft CRM System Customisation Tool.

• Extend the database schema by adding new fields and exposing them in the application.

• Use the System Customisation Tool to customise views, forms, preview panes and all other customisable areas of the application.

• Modify the properties of existing forms, views, Advanced Find views, Associated Views and Preview Panes – as well as all other customisable areas of the application.

• Publish customisations into Microsoft CRM using the Deployment Manager Tool.

Chapter 4: Introduction to the Microsoft CRM SDK

This chapter will introduce the Microsoft CRM Software Development Kit, or SDK. The SDK is used for advanced customisation beyond the capabilities of the application customisation tools that were covered in the previous chapter. The SDK is a valuable reference for software developers to extend and enhance the functionality of Microsoft CRM. Because these customisations are very diverse and require programming skills that are not a prerequisite for this course, this will not be a “How to” course. This chapter will only serve to introduce the SDK and describe the features that developers will be able to use in order to create solutions that leverage Microsoft CRM.

Lessons

• Understand the capabilities for customisation with the SDK

• Understand the benefits of the SDK

• Understand the intended audience of the SDK

• Understand the contents of the SDK

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

• Understand the capabilities for customisation with the SDK. The chapter will provide a simple scenario to illustrate how the SDK can be used by developers to create a solution to solve a business problem.

• Recognise the benefits the SDK provides to the solution developer and how it helps extend and preserve some of the key benefits of Microsoft CRM.

• Recognise the intended audience of the SDK and understand which skills developers will need in order to take advantage of the benefits the SDK offers.

• Successfully navigate the SDK contents. The chapter will provide a brief tour of the contents and explain how developers can use the SDK to learn more about techniques they will use to create solutions.

Chapter 5: Customising Crystal Enterprise reports

This chapter will introduce Crystal Enterprise reporting with Microsoft CRM. In this chapter, you will examine the planning resources available to you, some of the reporting challenges you may face, and various approaches to overcome those challenges. You will also examine Crystal Enterprise for Microsoft CRM, including the components of the Crystal Enterprise for Microsoft CRM system, how licensing is implemented, how reports are presented, and how security is implemented. Finally, you will learn how to create and modify custom reports, how to make reports available to users, and how to use existing reports as templates for new reports. While this chapter is not a Crystal reporting manual, it does cover the basics of modifying existing reports and creating new reports.

Main Topics

• Planning Considerations (including the importance of planning, planning resources, and challenges and approaches)

• Crystal Enterprise for Microsoft CRM (including report presentation, licensing and security)

• Custom reports (including customisation requirements, creating custom reports, modifying existing reports and publishing report customisations)

• Reporting Best Practices

Lab: Modifying an Existing Report

• Add a new label to the report

• Add a new field to the report

• Preview the report changes

• Publish the report and test it

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

• Recognise the importance of reporting to your Microsoft CRM implementation.

• Use the Microsoft CRM Implementation Tool Kit planning resources to plan your Microsoft CRM reporting solution.

• Recognise and overcome reporting solution challenges.

• Identify licensing considerations in relation to Microsoft CRM reports.

• Understand how security is implemented in relation to Microsoft CRM reports.

• Understand how reports are presented.

• Identify the requirements needed to create or modify Microsoft CRM reports.

• Create, modify and publish Microsoft CRM reports.

• Use existing reports as templates for new reports.

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