Dynamics University Winter 2013 by Dynamics University

Winter 2013

DYNAMICS UNIVERSITY Providing Learning Opportunities for Microsoft Dynamics速 Users

GPService Pack2 Better Form Function and Features

YammerTime

Taking collaboration to a whole new level

Year-End Procedures CLOSING TIPS FOR GP

LUCKY

Moving to the Microsoft 2013 Triad

Business Analyzer Building Executive Dashboards with CRM

Developer Sidestepping Possible with CRM Business Rules

DynamicsUniversity.com

Dynamics University

Dynamics University represents the culmination of great ideas and content from the best reselling Microsoft Dynamics partners with a focus on helping Microsoft Dynamics customers achieve more for less. The idea for Dynamics University was born out of a desire to drive greater educational offerings within the Microsoft Dynamics community.

Partner

Location

Website

Advanced Solutions & Consulting Business Ready Solutions

Solana Beach, CA

www.solutionsco.com

Durham, NC

www.businessreadysolutions.net

Cargas Systems

Lancaster, PA

www.cargas.com

Express Information Systems

San Antonio, TX

www.expressinfo.com

Integrated Business Group

Altamonte Springs, FL

www.ibgnet.com

Knaster Technology Group

Englewood, CO

www.theknastergroup.com

Summit Group Software

West Fargo, ND

www.summitgroupsoftware.com

The Resource Group

Renton, WA

www.resgroup.com

The TM Group

Farmington Hills, MI

www.tmgroupinc.com

Turnkey Technologies, Inc.

Chesterfield, MO

WebSan Solutions Inc.

Toronto, Ontario CAN

Products

www.turnkeytec.com www.websan.com

GP CRM RMS SL NAV AX 2

Dynamics University Winter 2013

Winter 2013

Developer Sidestepping

Possible with CRM Business Rules

Better Form Function & Features

Welcome

Eric Gjerdevig

Customer Feature

Vandalia-Butler City Schools

The Bookshelf

Traction: Get A Grip on Your Business

Debits & Credits for gp users

Interview

Signature Flight Support

Tips & Tricks for crm users

CONTENTS

with GP Service Pack 2

Professional Service Tools Library

Making wishes come true

Filters & Activities Reports Information at your fingertips in CRM

Paperless

Examining the financial advantages with PaperSave

18 22

Year-End Procedures Closing tips for GP

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Marketing Automation CoreMotives discusses the importance & relevance

credits Dynamics University is a free magazine published four times a year. Request a subscription by going to dynamicsuniversity.com.

Yammer Time

Taking collaboration to a whole new level

Josh Behl Executive Editor Geniece Kizima Editor in Chief l Design & Layout Kristen Juven Design & Layout l Website Content Betsy Stadick Copy Editor

Lucky 13

Moving to the Microsoft 2013 Triad

Business Analyzer Building executive dashboards with CRM

43 4

Prior to Cloud Launch

MyAppsAnywhere outlines six questions to answer

Dynamics University Winter 2013

Midstates Printing, Inc. Printing & Distribution Shutterstock.com Photographs & Images Contact Us 1405 Prairie Parkway, Suite A West Fargo, ND 58078 701.551.6660 Email Us learn@dynamicsuniversity.com

welcome Winter2013 Happy Holidays from Dynamics University! I’m constantly amazed at how much technology changes from year to year. The Dynamics University partners are all dedicated to helping your organization keep up with these advancements and make sure you get great value out of your technology investments. Now is the perfect time of year to look at available learning opportunities and sign up for one. This issue contains great information on the exciting launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. By the time it hits your desk, the product will be fully available and promises to deliver a huge step forward. If your organization has not taken a look at Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a while, it is a good time to evaluate what it can do. Contact your Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner to learn more about signing up for a free test drive. As the year comes to a close, make sure your organization is ready for Microsoft Dynamics GP year end! Visit the Microsoft Dynamics GP Year End Close Resource Center via www.dynamicsuniversity.com. If you are reading this and have not yet talked to your partner about the year-end service pack, now is the time to call. There are many important and timely changes. Just around the corner is Microsoft Convergence 2014 in Atlanta, GA March 4 – 7, 2014. Convergence is a great training opportunity where attendees can see exciting new technologies, network with other users, and see what is coming next from Microsoft. Get in touch with your Microsoft partner – they have attended many Convergence conferences and have plenty of recommendations and information about the event. On behalf of all Dynamics University partners, I’d like to thank you for your past and continued business. Here is wishing you a happy and successful 2014!

Eric Gjerdevig Summit Group Software

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! ? t Wha a d e e n t â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ? I don t a h t r o f r e p o devel By Josh Behl, Summit Group Software

Dynamics University Winter 2013 Dynamics University Winter 2013

ften when customers request customizations and changes to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the types of scripts in customer requirements or specifically requested by a client are not those that require a lot of complexity. Some of those scripts include requests such as: • Dynamically making fields, tabs and sections visible or hidden. • Dynamically making fields required or not required. • Dynamically setting values based upon what the user enters into a field. With experience, some developers require less time to complete these types of scripts. However, this still comes at a cost for customers in both the time it takes to acquire developer time to do these simple tasks and the hard dollar costs. While some customers have the luxury of a developer on staff, most do not. For a client who has ventured forward and done a Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation largely on their own, they find themselves facing a decision to pay for a developer, acquiescing to the notion of living without the feature; or perhaps dabbling in a little JScripting on their own by cobbling together code snippets found online.

Business Rules

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, customizers now have the ability to utilize a new feature aptly named, Business Rules. A business rule is a configurable chunk of business logic that can essentially be injected on to forms to provide the following types of business logic without having to write a single line of code: • • • • •

Show Error Message Set Field Value Set Business Required Set Visibility Lock or Unlock Fields

The new Business Rule feature allows companies to quickly incorporate form level business logic without the need for scripting. That said, this feature is not necessarily comprehensive. For every new feature added to this already flexible XRM tool, customizers will invariably come across scenarios that still require coding for what might seem to be “simple business rules.” For example, there is no ability to dynamically hide and show tabs or sections on a form. This would still require JScripting (although it should be noted that this is still very simple coding).

Who benefits?

Organizations who have implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM can now lower the cost of their implementation as well as ongoing changes through the use of the Business Rule feature. In other words, they don’t necessarily need to have a developer do this work. What about consulting or partner organizations? Well, the depth of services a functional consultant can provide customers is expanded through this feature and they can essentially fulfill project requirements without having to call upon a developer to do it. For developers, they can now focus their skills and work on more complex business logic. While this is just one of the many new enhancements found in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, it is one that provides a much higher level of overall scalability and lower overall costs of implementation and maintenance. Additionally, this feature empowers customers to enhance their system as needed and provide more agility to their overall users’ experience.

Here are a few examples where a Business Rule could be used :

Scenario 1: If the opportunity stage equals Proposal Stage, set the probability equal to 60%. Scenario 2: If the account category value equals Enterprise, show the CEO Name field. Scenario 3: If the support case has a customer satisfaction value of Not Satisfied, set the Escalation Engineer field to be required. Scenario 4: If the probability field has a value, set the weighted revenue on an opportunity to the value of the estimated value multiplied by the percentage of probability.*

*This scenario illustrates the ability to perform simple calculations with different values on the form. This could be simple math such as addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. It could also be the concatenation of various values on the form.

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MAKING EVERY DOLLAR COUNT CUSTOMER FEATURE

By Ken Jacobsen, The TM Group, Inc.

ALIGNING RESOURCES WITH OPERATIONS 8

Dynamics University Winter 2013

SOLVING CHALLENGING REQUIREMENTS

REALIZING IMMEDIATE SAVINGS

ike most public school districts in Ohio, VandaliaButler City Schools (VBCS) was trying to run a twentyfirst century enterprise using twentieth-century mainframe-based state software. Cumbersome and dated, the 1980s-era software system added cost to every transaction through wasted time and resources.

a better solution, one that would streamline purchasing, payroll, human resources and related functions. As severe state cuts hit the district hard, that desire became a necessity. By partnering with The TM Group and embracing Microsoft Dynamics GP, the district found the solution it needed to work smarter and set the infrastructure in place to save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“It used to cost us $63 just to write and approve a purchase order,” explains Dan Schall, Treasurer of VandaliaButler City Schools. “It used to take up to four days to get a purchase order.”

ALIGNING RESOURCES WITH OPERATIONS

No stranger to innovation, the finance department had long discussed finding

Located just north of Dayton, Ohio, Vandalia-Butler City Schools has an established record of solid financial management. In looking for an alternative to the state software

system, Dan and his team did not want to settle for an off-the-shelf product. They needed a solution that would support building-based budgeting, provide better reporting for all users (not just the treasurer’s office), streamline the purchasing process, and satisfy business requirements unique to public schools. “We were looking for ways to better align resources directly with our classrooms,” explains Dan. “Whether that means streamlining processes, making resources more user-friendly, or giving all staff access to management reports, we wanted to empower our employees to make better fiscal decisions.” cont. DynamicsUniversity.com

customer feature, continued from page 9

“

With Microsoft Dynamics GP, we have reduced time from basic accounting and human resource functions,” Schall says. “That equates to more dollars for our classrooms, which is really what we all want.

“

That was the initial directive passed on to Tiffany Hiser, Financial Project Manager for the district. “We set out to change how the organization looks at spending. Instead of staff looking to the treasurer for resource allocation, we wanted the whole school district to have the ability to decide how to use the resources better for students.” In short, they wanted to not only improve accounting and human resources processes, but also provide a system that would allow all 300-plus staff members to better participate in those processes. With this goal in mind, the finance team began reviewing new ERP systems. The Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions stood out above the rest, as did Microsoft Dynamics Gold Managed Partner, The TM Group. “The TM Group’s team approach and multiple solutions approach immediately got our attention,” says Dan. The TM Group’s President Judy Thomas, Senior Account Executive Dave Unruh, and Consulting Director Perry Kountouriotis, offered to review VBCS’s system requirements and make a recommendation as to which Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution fit their needs best, since they represented Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics SL. 10

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SOLVING CHALLENGING REQUIREMENTS After reviewing the district’s current system and analyzing both their immediate and long-term needs, The TM Group recommended Microsoft Dynamics GP for financials, fixed assets, payroll, and human resources, as well as several popular add-on solutions, including: Greenshades: Employee online portal for pay stubs, profile changes, W-2s, time entry, time-off requests, benefits, and more. The filing and reporting service as well as 1099 management and filing. Integrity Data: Several payroll and human resources enhancements including comprehensive leave management, negative payroll transactions, employee accounts and splits, overtime hours rules, enhanced retirement plans, mid-pay period rate changes, FTE manager, paycheck what-if manager, and life insurance tax calculator. Other third-party add-on software was suggested that would help the district by: • Automating requisitions, employee expense management, and approval work-flows for purchasing. • Manage in real-time dashboards, financial statements and budgeting including building-based budgeting.

• Empowering employees to build their own benefits plan. Offering more choice, employees get the benefits that are important to them Every time those options differ from union-negotiated benefits, the district saves money. • Allowing for both accrual-based and cash-based accounting. • Creating integrations between external systems and including additional fields on required screens. • Utilizing extensive audit trails of who did what and when throughout the system. • Electronically reconciling bank accounts. • Generating MICR lines on blank checks as well as putting rules around printing of signatures, such as automatically printing signatures for checks less than $500 and requiring two signatures to be hand signed for checks over $10,000. The system’s robust assortment of plug-and-play add-ons and the ease of deployment were attractive, but they were only part of the picture. VBCS also needed a solution that could support business and state requirements that are unique to public schools. For example, most time entry systems work in hours, but most public schools track time in days and halfdays. The TM Group partnered with Greenshades to modify time entry to days and half-days and make other school based modifications. The TM Group’s development team also designed, built, and tested mandated reporting and automatic upload to the State’s systems, including EMIS, SERS, and STRS reports, and worked with Integrity Data to greatly enhance the payroll and HR systems for Ohio schools. In fact, payroll accruals are one of the most important modifications implemented at VBCS. Teachers work about 9 months but their pay is spread over 12 months, making K-12 accruals a unique requirement.

“This was something that other systems we looked at, including Microsoft Dynamics NAV, SAP, and others, just didn’t have ready to go,” explains Payroll Director Suzanne Chuvalas, also involved in researching and selecting the best ERP partner for the job. The TM Group and its partners built in the flexibility to reconfigure and change the software’s capabilities as business requirements change, such as when a new contract is negotiated with unions or the State’s mandated reporting requirements change.

REALIZING IMMEDIATE SAVINGS “Now that we are live on Microsoft Dynamics GP we are seeing numerous operational improvements,” says Tiffany. “We have reduced AP from a full-time position to a couple of hours per week.” In total, the district expects to realize hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings. Some of the many cost-cutting benefits include: • With Greenshades, employees can now look up their own sick days\ and submit W-4s, address changes, and direct deposit information online, saving both their time and that of the finance department staff. • Paper-free processes have removed bottlenecks, reducing the PO process from days to minutes. • Invoices are now submitted, routed, approved, and paid electronically, eliminating the practice of school secretaries hand-delivering their invoices to the treasurer’s office. For those vendors that accept them, EFTs can now be used instead of sending checks.

• Real-time, any-time reports enable secretaries to better manage their budgets and spending. • All staff now have access to management reports, whether they are budget managers, teachers, or staff members empowering them to make better fiscal decisions. Vandalia-Butler City Schools is so confident in the Microsoft Dynamics GP solution that they are recommending it to other Ohio school districts. In September, VBCS and The TM Group invited several school districts to Vandalia to see the system in action. The TM Group and VBCS hosted an open house during the OSBA Capital Conference in November to demonstrate how the system benefits staff, students, and taxpayers. The greatest advantage for VBCS and other school districts: The solution has immediate operational benefits that directly reduce operating costs. That means they’ll spend less on administrative costs and have more to spend in classrooms, which ensures the best education for children. “With Microsoft Dynamics GP, we have reduced time from basic accounting and human resource functions,” Schall says. “That equates to more dollars for our classrooms, which is really what we all want.” The TM Group, Microsoft, and its partners in this endeavour were all deeply involved with Vandalia-Butler in crafting this solution and are very proud of this solution and all it brings to Ohio Schools. “At Microsoft Dynamics, our mission is to work with partners to improve the lives of customers, and give them to tools and technology to make them successful and have a positive impact,” said Errol Schoenfish, Director, Microsoft Dynamics. “That is why we are so excited to see VandaliaButler City Schools so effectively use Microsoft Dynamics GP to help increase operational efficiencies and reduce costs in schools so there is more money to spend in the classroom on the students.” DynamicsUniversity.com

Service Pa Better Form Function & Features The Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Service Pack 2 not only includes resolutions for numerous items but it also includes new features within Analytical Accounting, Document Attach, Human Resources and Payroll, Smartlist Designer, and Visual Studio Tools.

By Melissa Mayl, The Knaster Group

Analytical Accounting Within Analytical Accounting, users will now be able to add Analytical Accounting codes to Sales Orders with payments. This is done through Sales Transaction Entry on an order or back order. Once a payment, cash account and offsetting accounts are entered and inserted into the payment information, the Analytical Accounting codes can be added by selecting Addition and choosing Analytical Transaction. Users will also be able to assign Analytical Accounting codes to individual customers when Finance Charges are assessed. When assessing finance charges via Tools, choosing Routines, and Sales, and then clicking Finance Charge, the user creates an individual distribution for each individual customer that is selected. Upon clicking process to assess the finance charges, a message of “Analytical Accounting information may be required for transactions created in the Finance Charge batch. Please enter the information before posting the batch” will appear only if either of the accounts in the distribution are linked to an accounting class in Analytical Accounting. Upon clicking OK, and if the posting settings are set to post to, the user can review and edit each customer transaction in the receivables batches by going to Customer Transactions and choosing Distribution. If the GL account is linked to an accounting class, view and edit the Analytical Accounting information under Additional and click Analytical Transaction. View Microsoft’s on line video for the Analytical Accounting New Features by going to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26XleZHKw1Q 12

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Document Attach With this service pack release, users will be able to attach documents at key locations to be emailed, set up documents to automatically attach or “flow” and also set up Microsoft Dynamics GP to allow finer control over who may delete documents.

ack 2

To attach documents on email messages from sales transaction entry and purchase order entry, validate: 1. Tools, click Setup, click Company, and choose Document Attach Set Up – ensure the check box for Send Attachments in Email is selected. 2. Within Sales Transaction Entry or Purchase Order Transaction Entry, open a document and for any documents attached check properties to make sure they are allowed to be emailed. These documents flowed from the master record and cannot be changed. 3. Additionally, within Sales Transaction Entry or Purchase Order Transaction Entry, under click Actions, and choose Select Attachments to Send in Email. It will retain the settings between entries and does not need to be set up each time. Upon validating settings, select the Generate Email icon and allow it to process. Document Flow is the concept that documents attached to master records (customers, vendor, and items) will “flow” or be automatically attached to Sales Transaction records or Purchase Order Transaction records. Customer master records will transmit to the Sales Order Processing header, Vendor master records will transfer POP head entry header records and Items will either transfer over to the Sales lines or Purchase Order lines. Flow may be set up independently per master record type via accessing Tools, click Setup, click Company, and choose Document Attachment Setup. You can view Microsoft’s on line video for Document Flow by going to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnhhgKYVinE

Human Resources & Payroll Human Resources and Payroll has several new features in Microsoft Dynamics GP Service Pack 2 which include Payroll Check Inquiry, Payroll Transaction Inquiry, Human Resource Applicant e-mail and Human Resource Employee I-9. The Payroll Check Inquiry window has been redesigned. The data can now be selected to load by check date as well as audit trail code. It can also be sorted by descending and ascending. The Transaction History Window has been modified as well to load by check date and sorted by descending and ascending. Within Service Pack 2, users can add the email address of applicant record as well as additional fields within the Employee I-9 to track the information appropriately for the new I-9 form that was released in Spring. You can view Microsoft’s on line video for the new HRP features by going to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6DHTTK7-ds

Continued on page 21 DynamicsUniversity.com

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TOOLS LIBRARY A

ll too often users find themselves wishing: Wishing they could reverse a previous setup decision or make a simple change to an employee name in payroll when they married or divorced; wishing they could change a customer/vendor name or ID because ownership changed; wishing they could combine GL account information into a new account number. With the Professional Services Tools Library (PSTL), wishes do come true! Prior to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and 2013, these tools were available by additional purchase, only. Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and 2013 makes them available – absolutely free – to both new and existing users. The Professional Services Tools Library is a collection of processes that support specific tasks and includes tools that can modify one or more master records easily. The tools are very effectual and are acquired through a Microsoft Dynamics partner so customers can be cautioned about their use and assist as needed. There is no UNDO when using a tool – meaning security to the tools should be limited to power-users and key personnel and some of the tools must be run by the system administrator. A best practice is to have all users out of the system when using the tools and back up the database before using a tool. The tools are compatible with most of the standard Microsoft Dynamics GP modules except Manufacturing. Many of the tools can be used with an Excel list to combine\modify multiple records. However, third-party applications may not work with all of the tools. This article includes most of the tools with a short description of each. Tools listed in red indicate the tool is technical or “dangerous” and a customer might need to use it with the assistance of a Microsoft Dynamics partner and\ or as the system administrator.

Dynamics University Winter 2013

By Wendy Johnson, Cargas Systems

SYSTEM TOOLS

GL Master Triggers - Keep the account numbers in sync between company databases. Add an account number to one database and it automatically replicates to other assigned databases.

Database Disabler – Allows the administrator to block users from logging into a company. The company will not appear in the list of companies when logging in to Microsoft Dynamics GP until the administrator unblocks the database.

Shortcuts Copy – Use this tool to copy the shortcuts options from one user to another user.

1099 Modifier – If vendor was not setup as a 1099 vendor, can be used to update the records.

Update User Date – Automatically updates the user date in Microsoft Dynamics GP to the next date at midnight each day. This is useful if Microsoft Dynamics GP is left running overnight.

PM Master Triggers - Adds new vendors to additional selected company databases.

Menu Inquiry Utility – Shows windows that are enabled and visible in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

FINANCIAL TOOLS Account Modifier / Combiner – Change a single or multiple account number(s) into new account numbers. Combine all of the open and historical data from two account numbers into one number or combine a range of numbers. Checkbook Modifier – Allows the change of an existing checkbook ID to a new checkbook ID. Fiscal Period Modifier – Change fiscal year definitions and reset data in the open and history tables. See detailed instructions before using this tool. Clicking on Setup Periods button removes previous year’s definitions.

PURCHASE TOOLS

Vendor Combiner – Combine a current vendor ID with another existing vendor ID. Vendor Modifier - Change an existing vendor ID or range of vendors to a new vendor ID. All work, open and history transactions are moved to the vendor ID. Vendor Name Modifier – Change the vendor name. Minimum PO\Receipt Number – stops Microsoft Dynamics GP from looking backwards for unused document numbers. POP Cost Defaulter – Defaults the current cost or the standard cost from the item master card instead of from the Item Vendors record.

SALES TOOLS

Customer Modifier – Changes the existing Customer ID to a new Customer ID. Customer Name Modifier – Change the customer name on all work, open and historical records. Receivables Transaction Unapply –

Reverses the effect of applying payments, credit memos or returns, even if there are discounts and/ or write-offs associated with the document. Customer Item Lookup – See prior purchases made by a customer during the sales order entry process. SOP PO Number Check – Checks to see if a Customer PO number has already been entered on a sales transaction.

INVENTORY TOOLS Inventory Site Modifier / Combiner – Change or combine the current Site / Location Code to a new code without losing any data. Item Description Modifier – Change item descriptions on all previously created transactions – including sales orders and purchase orders. Item Number Combiner – Combine two items number that were setup for the same item and both were used. Item Number Modifier – Change an item number to a new item number.

cont.

Customer Combiner– Change or combine customer numbers without any loss of work, open or historical records. DynamicsUniversity.com

Professional, continued from page 15

PAYROLL TOOLS Certified Payroll Report – Use with US Payroll to add a project number to employees’ hourly transactions and track them on a per project basis. This tool will also capture information posted from the Timesheet Entry window in Project Accounting Timesheet Entry. Print these transactions on a weekly report and view employees, departments, job titles and pay codes by project.

Pitch the paper clips.

Employee Modifier – Allows the user to change an existing employee ID to a new employee ID.

MISC. TOOLS Fixed Asset Modifier – Change an asset ID. Default Add Item POP / SOP – Forces new items in the Sales Transaction Entry, Purchase Order Entry, Receivings Transaction Entry and Purchasing Invoice Entry windows to be added as items and not as non-inventory items Doc Date Verify – Prevents entry into an undefined fiscal period. Company Copy – Allows the setup and report option information from one company to be copied to another company. The installation of the tools is workstation based via a chunk (.chk) file. Contact a Microsoft Dynamics partner for assistance with the install and use of these tools. 16

Dynamics University Winter 2013

Go beyond the electronic file cabinet and experience the amazing efficiencies of Paperless ERP from MetaViewer. From AP to AR and HR to the CFO— everyone can share the efficiencies of 100% paperless transactions. MetaViewer gives you paperless invoice and order capture with OCR, automated workflow, real-time visibility and full Microsoft Dynamics ® ERP integration. In Paperless ERP, nothing compares to MetaViewer. So pitch the paper clips and visit www.metaviewer.com.

AX • GP • SL • NAV

the bookshelf Book Review Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business Author: Gino Wickman ISBN-13: 9781936661831 By: Eric Gjerdevig – Summit Group Software

ver the last few years, I have received no fewer than a dozen recommendations to read Traction: Get a Grip on your Business. I have read a lot of business books and Traction, by Gino Wickman, is now firmly in my top five list. It contains a lot of applicable content around six key factors for running a business and is an excellent book to use for growing and leading any small to medium sized organization. Traction is written from the perspective of starting from the top with the leadership team and expanding the concepts throughout the organization as the tools are implemented and proven. Traction covers a wide scope of items but also focuses on the leadership component itself and what is called the Entrepreneurship Operating System (EOS). The EOS is Wickman’s term for the overall system used to run the organization and it is what the book teaches very well with example company implementations. One of the unique things about this book is that it is more of a handbook and one that gives an excellent set of steps for implementation. As the author explains, most entrepreneurs experience one or (usually) more of five common frustrations: Lack of control, under-performing workers, insufficient (if any) profits, limited growth potential, and dysfunctional operations. Simply put, they cannot “get a grip” on their business. What the entrepreneurs need is what Wickman characterizes as a “holistic, self-sustaining system that addresses the six aspects of a business” - Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction. What Wickman offers is the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) that, if “mastered” (i.e. installed and then maintained properly), will enable business leaders to integrate the six components of their organization “into a powerful framework that will help [them] gain Traction and realize the vision [they’ve] always had for [their] company.” Traction spends a lot of time encouraging the reader to focus on goal setting and analysis. Are your goals appropriate for what you are doing? Is what you are doing appropriate for your goals? The idea is to stop spinning wheels so much and get down to the business of running the business in an effective and efficient manner. This book can really help those running a business to both start and set goals from the beginning and get a wayward business back on track. Perhaps your organization is bordering the line between profit and disaster. Traction has some good tips and advice for how to pull in and focus on the important aspects of the organization. Not every person runs a business the same way and Traction will help the reader learn the best way to run his or her organization. I found the writing style to be easily understandable and conducive to a casual reader looking for good advice. This is not a textbook with dry language. Furthermore, his advice seems very realistic. This book is the kind that anyone running an organization could use effectively.

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Make the most of the software and achieve a competitive advantage.

Dynamics University Winter 2013

By Stephanie Manning , Brad Vorbeck and Michael Ramatowski, Turnkey Technologies, Inc.

Filters Activity Reports

in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Microsoft Dynamics CRM is built to be user friendly, making operations streamlined and efficient while being complex enough to handle user needs. Once users dive in and utilize the software, they find information about clients and campaigns right at their fingertips.

• Make reports context-sensitive by narrowing the scope of a report to return data that is more relevant.

rm Here are a few tips to help make the most of the software and achieve a competitive advantage

Using Filters

Microsoft Dynamics CRM reports allow users to retrieve and display results quickly. They are built on a relational database compliant with modern tools for retrieving and analyzing data, allowing the reports to be customized as needed. Reports that return large data sets can be difficult to use and can cause performance issues. To limit that frustration, use data filters. In addition to data filtering supported by Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports data pre-filtering. Data pre-filtering can be used to:

• Retrieve and display a result set faster because only relevant data is returned. • Allow the report to be filtered using the Advanced Find feature.

To use a filter, go into a list view and click on the Filter icon in the ribbon. Arrows will appear by each column. Do a simple filter by clicking A to Z, Z to A, or even choose if the column contains or does not contain data. To find out how many accounts are in the Manufacturing industry, click the drop-down, choose Equals, type in the word “Manufacturing”, click OK, and the list contains all accounts that are in manufacturing. Users can also drill down on any column to filter. This is a more intuitive way to supply a parameter to the report than using visible parameters on the report. cont.

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Filters, continued on page 19

Using Activity Reports Activities such as appointments, phone calls, tasks, and e-mails are core Microsoft Dynamics CRM functions and great indicators of how users are interacting with customers and how actively users are adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Scheduling tasks and maintaining a history of activities between users and clients are critical steps for creating happy customer relationships. Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes pre-built activity reporting that can be filtered for specific cases, opportunities, users, and activity types. This provides an easy way for account, sales, and case managers to organize and prioritize task and activity information. It also serves as a great starting point for creating more detailed, customized activity reports. For basic activity reporting, such as activity lists or viewing a count of activities by type or by user, consider using the default views and charts. The report will gather Activity Feeds usage information for the selected month and produce the following statistics about the organization:

Our PROVEN Payroll & HR enhancements make a GOOD thing GREAT! Microsoft Dynamics® GP Payroll and HR is good at managing payroll and human resources functions. But it could be great, with the enhancements we have developed at Integrity Data. We understand the challenges you face, such as correcting inaccurate payroll entries, calculating overtime and tracking leave and FMLA. We know it would be easier if you could automatically e-mail direct deposit statements and W-2 statements to your employees. And we’ve worked with Microsoft Customers and their trusted Microsoft Partners across the globe for over 15 years, making Microsoft Dynamics® GP Payroll and HR work even better, making it what they need it to be. We can do the same for you.

• Number of Accounts • Number of Open Calls • Number of Completed Calls • Number of Sent Emails • Summary number of calls per day • Summary number of calls between a period of time How To Use Activity Reports: 1. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM go to Workplace and click Reports. 2. Click New to open a new Report window. 3. In the new Report window, click Existing File for the Report Type. 4. Click Browse to specify the path to the report. 5. Name the report. 6. Click Save and Close. After the report is uploaded, it shows in the Report: Available Reports view under the Reports area of Workplace. From here, run the report by selecting it and clicking Run Report. The report will help to not only to catch up with the things going on within an organization but also understand how each team member is doing. 20

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www.gphrp.com (888) 786-6162

Smartlist Designer

Service Pack 2, continued from on page 13

The new Smartlist Designer Feature enables users to create a new SmartList, copy an existing SmartList or create a SmartList from a view. The components of the Smartlist Designer are database view, selected fields, relationships, filter, calculated field and results preview pane. Smartlist Designer is a new feature added to the core SmartList. This feature allows users to modify a current SmartList to show more or less information. The SmartList designer can be used to create a query that specifics the data from information stored in Microsoft Dynamics, similar to the experience of the Reporter Builder with SQL Server Reporting Services. Smartlist Designer can be launched directly within Smartlist by selecting New from within either the top level tree or within the series of an existing default Smartlist. The Smartlist Designer window opens and the user can name the new Smartlist report and add or delete the existing SmartList fields. You can view Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on line video for Smartlist Designer by going to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz-d6RC2SYI

Visual Studio Tools The Visual Studio Tools SDK New Features include information on the concept of dynamic and custom rendering, how it works and the implementation of dynamic rendering. Rendering is the capability for the web script runtime to automatically convert a VSTools.Net form into a Silverlight form and display it on the web client. Limitations include Textbox, ListBox, Radio Button, Radio Group, Label, Button, Checkbox, and ComboBox. Custom rendering is the method in the framework for the developer to be able to show and control how a custom form is rendered and operations on the web client. There are no limitations other than Silverlight but is more difficult to implement. You can view Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on line video for VSTools SDK New Features by going to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4sHZuQenYo

For more information on Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Service Pack 2 and assistance in getting it deployed, contact your Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner today!

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PSP_DU_3.5x9.75_2013.pdf

7/24/13

6:14 AM

s e l r e p a P

Financial Advanta

By Holly Condon, PaperSave

CMY

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ages of Going T

he advantages of embracing electronic workflow are many. First and foremost, electronic workflow brings any organization squarely into the 21st century. Think of it this way - if it seems an organization is a little behind the times because of typing up and printing out records, or even filling out forms manually, chances are other companies and individual customers the organization works with do too. This way, everyone involved can rest assured that the organization is making the most of the technology available to it. Other perks can include freed up office space because you can get rid of those clunky, massive filing cabinets that can be a major eyesore in an otherwise cool workspace, or perhaps the fact that using document management software can enable all parties to have access to the same file at the same time, allowing work to be done quicker. When invoices in particular make their way to the digital sphere, many organizations find there is lot of money to be saved. This way, businesses and their partners can sign off on the billing summaries within minutes, as opposed to waiting for hours or even days if the document has to be sent by courier or mail. The fiscal benefits are great, so why aren't people taking advantage of this technology? There's no one answer to explain why electronic systems aren't present at each and every office in existence, but maybe knowing about the specific perks would give administrators the push they need.

Cost Savings = Motivation Many leaders realize that if they go completely digital the money they can save over time would be significant. Not having to buy or update printers, pay for paper or ink and other factors save enough money that this should be a virtual no-brainer. However, if a business is limited in their time, effort and digitization options, even if they just put all invoicing processes online, they are sure to save a lot. Property Management Insider reported that apartment management firm Bell Partners is able to save $100,000 every year after choosing e-invoicing over more traditional paper billing. Because they have so many clients, they don't have to spend on massive amounts of paper and wait around for invoices to flood in from vendors, which could cause workers to have to stay late and accrue overtime. Plus, this type of automated workflow means that late fees are at least reduced, if not avoided altogether.

Better access How long does take to look up a piece of information if something in tangible file form is missing? It depends on the size of the organization, the number of clients and the volume of papers in a particular folder, but chances are that even the fastest employees would take a few minutes. And what if one single paper was misfiled? The search could last hours. However, Vanguard Archives pointed out that instantaneous access would be enabled with the use of a digitized system. After all, workers would just need to search for a specific keyword and the proper document would pop up. Plus, the news source said that this would also be true if an employee was working remotely, which greatly contributes to the productivity of the company as a whole.

Saving the environment one tree at a time When organizations digitize, administrators might think that this is a good way to go green. Many businesses in varying fields are trying to change how workers' actions may have an adverse effect on the environment. Rather than using so much power and certain materials, they are switching the way they do things. For one, companies would not be using as much electricity and power in the office. Even when printers remain on standby, they're still using up power, and their outputs can skyrocket for even a relatively small printing job. More than just that, business leaders can do their parts to save the trees by going digital. When they stop buying paper, the demand will decrease, which might ultimately drive down the supply. According to the Credit Union Times, when 2,100 credit unions decided to rely on electronic workflow and place their files on computers, this action saved around 750,000 sheets of paper, which equates to about 90 trees.

Cut out a lot of time The time employees lose, waiting for invoices to show up can be all but eliminated by going paperless. Intuit noted that the results of a survey revealed that companies that digitize are paid within an average of 10 days after requesting the transaction, as opposed to facing a 27-day wait when dealing with a paper system. Not just that, but think of all the time that could be saved if employees did not have to input every piece of data manually into the computer - it's already there for them. Realize the benefits of going paperless with an integrated solution. To learn more, visit www.papersave.com.

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Year-End Procedur for Microsoft Dynamics GP By Sheila Ochoa, Summit Group Software

nother year passes and it is time to start discussing year-end closing procedures for the modules in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Now is the perfect time to review this information, because it is only done once a year and also to share information sent out by Microsoft. Planning ahead is very important!

Year -End Procedures First and foremost, the number one action item is to make a backup of the databases BEFORE doing the year-end close. The second action item is to review the closing procedures for each module being closed. Whether this is the first time closing or the tenth time closing, review the procedures, make a checklist of the steps to follow and close the modules in the correct order. The closing procedures are created by Microsoft and provided for each module. Module close instructions will be published at the Microsoft Dynamics GP Year-End Resource Center as soon as they are released by Microsoft in the November/December timeframe.

The number of customers impacted by this Year-End Update will be significant â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1099 forms will change and some, significantly. It is critical to be proactive and get time scheduled with your Microsoft Dynamics Partner if your organization needs assistance installing the Year-End Update or if at all unsure about any closing procedures.

Closing the modules could differ depending upon the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fiscal year. Some modules are date sensitive and are for calendar and fiscal years, while others are just for fiscal years. To ensure accuracy in summary windows and reports, modules should be closed as Microsoft recommends.

close order Inventory

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Receivables

Payables

Fixed

res

Payroll Close Order Below is a list of modules in the order they should be closed along with information on when they should be closed. • Inventory – Fiscal • Receivables – Fiscal/Calendar • Payables – Fiscal/Calendar • Fixed Assets - Fiscal • Analytical Accounting – Fiscal • General Ledger - Fiscal

d Assets

For customers who use Microsoft Dynamics GP Payroll or Canadian Payroll, it is extremely important to complete all 2013 pay runs prior to processing payroll year-end procedures. Microsoft is scheduled to release the YearEnd Update around November 15, 2013, and the payroll tax update is typically released in December. Microsoft will provide updates for the following versions: Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013. Communication regarding year-end close and links to needed service packs and payroll tax updates will be located at the Microsoft Dynamics GP YearEnd Resource Center. Make sure to bookmark additional resources, such as the Dynamics University website where information is centralized in one place to assist with the year-end close process. The Microsoft Dynamics GP Year-End Close Resource Center contains year-end close procedures, demos, FAQs, and blog articles about year-end close. www.dynamicsuniversity.com/year_end

Analytical Accounting

General Ledger

DynamicsUniversity.com

[[

By Rhett Thompson, CoreMotives a Silverpop company

More than

of companies implementing marketing automation realize ROI

Marketing Automation Why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important and how it can align sales and marketing teams Marketing and sales alignment is something every company strives to achieve. The effective collaboration between these two groups is critical for business growth, but sometimes relations between the two teams can be strained. It is easy for tensions to build with one side finger-pointing about not producing enough leads and the other side not closing enough deals. While marketing and sales may have different world-views, there is no reason the two groups cannot work harmoniously together and become more productive than ever before. Leveraging each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strengths and advanced marketing technologies, like marketing automation and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, makes it easier than ever to break down the silos and drive more revenue for the organization. A well-executed marketing automation and CRM strategy will turn fingerpointing meetings into business engaging and revenue producing celebrations.

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How can marketing automation help an organization contribute to the bottom line? Marketing automation, especially a solution that is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, is an answer to many of the challenges that sales and marketing professionals face every day. According to a study by the Lenksold Group, more than 75 percent of companies implementing marketing automation realize ROI – something that makes both sales and marketing happy. Here are three reasons to bring automation into the mix: Increase efficiency and productivity. Marketing automation helps eliminate cumbersome manual processes, freeing up marketers’ valuable time. With all of that extra time, marketers are able to focus on the bigger-picture tactics that can really drive revenue. Best of all? Once the program rules are in place, marketing automation works behind the scenes, so while the team is away from the office, sleeping or even vacationing, it’s continuing to drive business. Expand across channels. The multichannel habits of today’s buyers mean businesses must pay closer attention to voice and messaging across a range of platforms. Marketing automation technology makes it easier to push a single message across multiple channels at the same time - tweaking each as appropriate for the channel. Nurture more effectively. Because buyers today do so much research before officially entering a sales cycle, timely, relevant content is key when they do have that first interaction with the brand. With marketing automation, organizations can build individualized nurture campaigns based on whether the prospect opened an email, downloaded content and/or shared it with a social network.

Why is an integrated platform important to marketing, sales, and even the business as a whole? For sales, it can be frustrating to go into a call with a prospect with very little or no understanding of previous marketing communications the prospect has received. This is where integration between the marketing automation platform and Microsoft Dynamics CRM can provide significantly improved visibility into a prospect’s previous interactions with the organization’s marketing campaigns. Since the sales team is already familiar and comfortable with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM interface, it is easy for them to see what kind of interactions have taken place between the organization and the prospect, providing valuable insight for their one-on-one communications with them. In the instances where the prospect is not quite ready to make a purchase decision, a sales representative can simply drop them into a nurture program directly within Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The prospect will start receiving marketing messages from the automation system, eliminating prospects falling out of the funnel, and ensuring that they are nurtured until they are ready to make a purchase – a tactic that can work for upsells or cross-sells to existing customers as well. cont.

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Marketing, continued from on page 27

Already using marketing automation? Here are additional tips for deepening the sales and marketing relationship:

Give sales full visibility into behavioral activities.

Behavioral data allows that first phone call to a prospect to be much more personalized. It’s a nice conversation starter to say, “I see you’ve downloaded our multi-screen design eBook. Can I help you put together some plans for For organizations already seeing the great results auto- your mobile strategy?” mation drives, but need a few tips for strengthening the relationship between marketing and sales teams, here To make this happen easily, the marketing team should are a few quick tips to help get there: make sure that behavioral data is captured across channels and integrated into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM sysCreate a joint marketing and sales vision. tem. Take key stakeholders from each team and agree upon shared goals. Do not lose sight of the set goals and review Provide marketing templates for sales to use. them on a regular basis. Drop marketing approved email templates into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM user interface so salespeople can Streamline sales alerts. grab them at a moment’s notice if needed, send to a prosTime can be critical when it comes to making a sale, so pect, and then track the results within the lead or contact create sales alerts that will let sales representatives know record. The easy accessibility will build goodwill between immediately when a lead changes from warm to hot. Con- departments, help assure unified messaging across desider using multiple forms of communication to convey partments, and take advantage of the marketing automathe opportunity, including sending a sales alert to the tion platform’s superior ability to deliver. rep’s email, generating a sales notification within Microsoft Dynamics CRM and/or a direct push to the individual Marketing automation and Microsoft Dynamics CRM tosalesperson’s lead queue. Another option is to leverage gether allow marketing and sales teams to build a strong the dashboarding capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM partnership. A solid vision with shared goals promotes a collaborative process, equips both teams with tools for – an added benefit to using an embedded marketing success and gives prospective buyers and current cusautomation platform. tomers the individualized interactions they expect.

AdWords 20%

Website 23%

Email 34%

Social 10% Forms 13%

The world’s best brands trust CoreMotives. More than 1,300 implementations to 34 countries. www.silverpop.com/coremotives | info@coremotives.com | Atlanta: 1-855-387-3245 | London: +44 20 7288 6461

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YAMMER M

icrosoft Dynamics CRM’s customer-centric philosophy allows users to see all activities happening for an account. Whether it is a new Opportunity, a new Case, or a new Campaign, there is total visibility into that Account. The next logical step beyond seeing what is happening is to talk about what is happening—essentially to collaborate on that Account, that Opportunity, that Case in real time across the company. Activity Feeds started this collaboration but Yammer takes it to a whole new level.

By Dave Packard, Cargas Systems

TIME

Collaboration Begins

In 2011, Microsoft introduced Activity Feeds. Each Microsoft Dynamics CRM user could “follow” records and other users in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and post comments on their Activity Feed wall or the wall of those records; it was a basic social network. If a user was following someone or something, they would see when others posted comments on those records and could have an internal conversation about that record. Activity Feeds also allowed the system to auto-post certain activities. If an Opportunity was opened on an Account a user followed, that auto-post could be seen. It was a great way to quickly catch up on things that may have been missed. Through workflows, auto-posts could be generated for any relevant update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM but Activity Feeds were only available for licensed Microsoft Dynamics CRM users.

Dynamics University University Winter Winter 2013 2013 Dynamics

Yammer Addition

With Yammer, this basic internal collaboration is taken to the next level. Instead of just talking with other Microsoft Dynamics CRM users, it allows collaboration with the entire company, partners, or an entire business network regardless if the other person is a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user or not. Yammer allows the creation of a complete business social network so everyone can join in on the conversation and provide input, feedback, and ideas.

For example: A company may have offices in Philadelphia, Denver, and Seattle along with a partner in Raleigh and manufacturing operation in Shenzhen. Yammer would provide a real-time collaboration platform to get feedback from everyone involved, regardless of geography, and outside of Microsoft Dynamics CRM licensing. For Microsoft Dynamics CRM users, the great benefit is Yammer can live directly in Microsoft Dynamics CRM allowing users to continue to work in Microsoft Dynamics CRM as usual and connect with the entire business network via Yammer. Plus, Yammer includes additional features not found in the Activity Feeds such as posting impromptu polls and adding documents directly to Yammer posts.

Yammer Integration

When integrating Yammer with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Yammer replaces the Activity Feeds meaning it is a fairly simple transition from Activity Feeds to Yammer. Users will still have the Auto Posting capabilities introduced in Activity Feeds allowing the Yammer feed to continue to populate with system-generated posts such as new cases opened and opportunities that just closed. But now, users can share this with the entire business network. Yammer can integrate with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (update rollup 12 or greater) and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. A few important notes on the integration: 1. The Yammer installation to Microsoft Dynamics CRM is permanent. Once it is set up, there is no going back to Activity Feeds. 2. Old Activity Feed posts (pre Yammer integration) will not show up in the new Yammer feed. Users will only be able to access these older posts through Advanced Find.

Yammer Exposure

Although Yammer users do not need to be Microsoft Dynamics CRM users to be included in the discussions, if they want to see any of the records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, users will need a Microsoft Dynamics CRM license. If a Yammer user who does not have a Microsoft Dynamics CRM license clicks on a Microsoft Dynamics CRM link (such as an auto-post), it will prompt that user for their login credentials. Users will see the posts and can comment on everything within Yammer, they just will not be able to follow the hyper-links to Microsoft Dynamics CRM records without a Microsoft Dynamics CRM license. For licensing, each Microsoft Dynamics CRM user will have two licenses: A Microsoft Dynamics CRM license and a Yammer license. The non-Microsoft Dynamics CRM users will only have a Yammer license. They can participate in all the discussions in Yammer but they will not be able to access Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In essence, everyone in the business network would have a Yammer license and only those who need Microsoft Dynamics CRM would also have a Microsoft Dynamics CRM license.

Yammer Benefits

Yammer is not for everyone. And the dividing line isn’t as easy as saying it is for Fortune 500 companies but not the start-up company with five employees. It depends on the organization. Are users all in one office? Does everyone have access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM? If yes, then Activity Feeds will probably meet the need.

For organizations with a geographically diverse workforce and not all of those employees are Microsoft Dynamics CRM users but have valuable input, Yammer may be a good fit. Yammer can help involve all employees in the discussions and bring all ideas to light. To make a few simple rules of thumb, Yammer could be recommended over Activity Feeds if an organization: • Has more than one office. • Has employees in different locations (including contract employees). • Do not have a Microsoft Dynamics CRM license for all employees.

Yammer Pricing

Although Yammer does have a free version, to integrate it with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the Yammer Enterprise plan must be purchased. Check with your Microsoft Dynamics Partner for pricing information. For organizations that are not sure if a Yammer integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM makes sense, try the free Yammer version first to gauge how employees will collaborate. Test and see if they like it and use it. The free version does not integrate with Microsoft Dynamics CRM but will let organizations test its social capabilities before purchasing it. Definitely consider training people on how to use Yammer; it is a business social network and should be fun and productive. Not everyone will take to it right away. Giving a basic overview of how it works and how to use it will help with user adoption. Yammer can be a sounding board for gathering input and ideas from all employees and partners regardless of geography. It’s a small world—take advantage of it.

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2013

lucky

sharepoint Microsoft Office & Microsoft Dynamics CRM

he case can always be made to select and prioritize phases for change that make sense for an organization. Today, many organizations find themselves on different versions of inter-operable products from Microsoft; and, perhaps other vendors as well. Rather than an organization thinking they should overhaul Microsoft SharePoint 2013, Microsoft Office 2013, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 systems as a necessity, they need to consider why moving to the “Lucky 13” triad is a smart decision.

By Josh Behl, Summit Group Software

Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Microsoft has continued to evolve SharePoint from version to version making it easier and easier for organizations to accomplish what is needed without the overhead of highly technical staff or consultants. While document management has long been the hallmark of SharePoint, over the past two versions, SharePoint’s business intelligence capabilities have made it a fantastic conduit for users to visualize vital company data, perform ad-hoc reports, and even to browse and analyze data from multiple data sources outside of SharePoint. Furthermore, while the feature sets between SharePoint Online and SharePoint On-Premise versions have historically been “relatively” aligned, what can be done On-Premise has regularly outpaced its online counterpart. While SharePoint 2013’s On-Premise version still has features unique to that variation of SharePoint, the online version has closed the gap. Because it is bundled with Microsoft Office 365, the setup, configuration, deployment, and integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 as well as Microsoft Office 2013 is now faster and easier as well. Several key enhancements to Microsoft SharePoint 2013 make it an even better integration partner to Microsoft Office and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Business Connectivity Services (BCS) facilitates the ability to consume disparate data sources from systems like Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, ERP systems, or even cloud-based data sources which allow users to search for and interact with data in a more streamlined manner. Through consumed external lists of data, BCS can enable data to be created, read, updated, and deleted all from within SharePoint. 32 32

Dynamics University University Winter Winter 2013 2013 Dynamics

Microsoft Office 2013 Not to be forgotten, Microsoft Office 2013 (like Microsoft SharePoint 2013) blends some of the impressive enhancements found later in the lifecycle of Microsoft Office 2010 into the core set and some additional features as well. While two of the more interesting ad-hoc (self-service) reporting tools have had to rely heavily on SharePoint in the past, Power View and PowerPivot are now available directly through Microsoft Office Excel. In fact, organizations do not even need SharePoint in the environment to use them. Organizations using Microsoft Office 2013 Professional or Microsoft Office 365 Professional can enable both Power View and PowerPivot directly within Excel to create a highly interactive and flexible reporting solution. Additionally, for organizations using SharePoint, data connections and queries to an application such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be stored within Data Connection Libraries. This allows users who regularly use Excel for reporting needs to point to these pre-configured data connections and queries without having to worry about the query design. In other words, a data analyst or developer can expose data elements and an end user can point Power View, PowerPivot, Pivot Table, or even simple Workbook to that data with relative ease.

“A LUCKY BET”

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 While the concepts many organizations are likely familiar with have not changed (Sales Management, Customer Service Management, etc.), the amount of control that Microsoft has provided business analysts, managers, and customizers over business logic without even having to write code is very impressive. That said, a number of other features from previous versions are still very much part of the overall extensibility picture. First consider the integration with Microsoft SharePoint. The integration, from a functional perspective, has not changed. On the other hand, to make the Microsoft Dynamics CRM List Component cross-browser compatible, the solution required an entire rewrite. As in the past, the deployment process is simple and makes document management extremely streamlined and simple to set up.

Microsoft Excel is also very much part of the overall integration picture. Users still have the ability to export data from the application into dynamic Pivot Tables and Worksheets. Additionally, those data connections can be saved within SharePoint. In other words, a user can design filters and query using Advanced Find within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, export the results to a Pivot Table (for example), and save that query from Excel directly into a SharePoint Data Connection Library. Now, other users can leverage that data connection (if allowed by the security configuration) to design Power View, PowerPivot, or other types of Excel based reporting. Each of the individual components in this “Lucky 13” triad is very flexible and useful. With the combination two or three of these components, organizations can control their overall cost of deployment and management and provide insight into their company through the consumption of multiple data sources, built in analytic tools, a single repository for docment management, and overall ease of use. Because many organizations have at least one or more of these products, exising IT investments, training, and user experience can be further leveraged to build on top of what exists with minimal costs. DynamicsUniversity.com

gp Debits & Credits New Window for Historical Views By Kim Anselmo, The Resource Group Prior to the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, to query a journal entry posted in a closed year, users had to use a SmartList or custom code. Now, with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, the Financial Journal Entry Inquiry window can be used. When selecting the Journal Entry number, be sure to change the View to All Historical Year Journal Entries. Use this new feature by going to the Financial Page, click Inquiry, click Financial, and choose Journal Entry Inquiry.

Navigating SQL Logins When Migrating a Database from an Old Server to a New Server By Keith Schimke, Express Information Systems A very common request is to migrate a Microsoft Dynamics GP database from an old server to a new server. For the most part this is a simple and straightforward task, but there can be complications when dealing with Microsoft SQL Server if the SQL logins are set to a specific server. There are a number of different ways to address the issue, one of the easiest methods is to simply detach the databases from the old server and attach them to the new server. All of the users will still exist in the database on the new server however they will no longer be tied to a login since the login does not exist on the new server. To recreate the logins, run the following script below against the DYNAMICS database where ‘access’ is the password to set for the login. select ‘sp_change_users_login auto_fix, ‘ + CHAR(39) + name + CHAR(39) + ‘, NULL, ‘ + CHAR(39) + ‘access’ + CHAR(39) + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)+ ‘Go’ from sys.sysusers where islogin = 1 and issqluser =1 and hasdbaccess = 1 and sid > 0x01 The output of the script is a text script that must then be run against each company set up in Microsoft Dynamics GP and the DYNAMICS system database. That will recreate the login (since it does not exist on the new server) and tie the database user back to the login. The password can be set to anything, however the password will not work from Microsoft Dynamics GP since the encryption is not set by the Microsoft Dynamics GP application. The password could normally be set to ‘blank’ if the SQL password policy allows it, that way the users will be able to log in with a blank password and will be forced to change it immediately. If it cannot set it to blank, log into Microsoft Dynamics GP as SA (SystemAdministrator) and reset each user password from within Microsoft Dynamics GP. Finally, make sure to remember to run the grant.sql utility script against each database to reset the security for the DYNGRP and users should be able to log into Microsoft Dynamics GP with it pointed to the new server.

Dynamics University Winter 2013

Field Level Security By Adam MacIntosh, WebSan Solutions Many companies have a need to grant Microsoft Dynamics GP users access to a window, but not all functionality within that window. For example, many want users to be able to input invoices but not post them individually. Instead, this forces users to save invoice transactions to a batch so a manager can review the source documents and post. An easy way to achieve this is through Field Level Security which allows the Microsoft Dynamics GP administrator to restrict user access to singular buttons within a window (such as the Post button). 1. To configure Field Level Security, navigate to Microsoft Dynamics GP click Tools and click Setup. Then click System and choose Field Level Security. This opens the Field Level Security window. 2. Within the window, click Add to create a new restriction. 3. From the Field Security Maintenance window, the window and field to restrict are defined. Within this window, enter an ID and Description for the restriction. 4. Then click the Product Name, Form Name, Window Name and Field Name using the look-ups within the window. This opens the Resource Explorer window that makes finding and selecting the appropriate window and field much easier. 5. All windows are organized by module and then alphabetically. Once a window is selected, all fields within that window will display alphabetically as well. Select the appropriate window and field and select OK. 6. Back in the Field Level Security window, users can select Users and Companies to which the restriction should apply. Then, select the Field Security ID created to apply to the user/company combination. 7. Once complete, select Apply and the restrictions will instantly be in place for the users.

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Business Analyzer Builds Accounting and finance organizations across the globe are having a common conversation that sounds a little something like this...

CFO::I saw this great presentation the other day and now I’m convinced that we need to have a financial dashboard. .”

By Mark Polino, Integrated Business Group

...Maddening isn’t it? It is frustrating to contribute a lot of time and effort only to find the solution delivered was not what the CFO wanted. It would be nice to be able to pull something together quickly – preferably with minimal time and cost – to improve the feedback loop. Microsoft Dynamics GP provides a tool that handles this pretty well. The tool is Business Analyzer and it comes with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013. At its core, Business Analyzer presents SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports in an easy-to-consume format. The application is available on the Microsoft Dynamics GP home screen, as a standalone desktop program or as a Windows 8 application. Microsoft Dynamics GP also comes with several hundred pre-built SSRS reports. Many of these are formatted as Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) making them well suited for use in a dashboard. The desktop version of Business Analyzer works particularly well as a dashboard. In the application, the Microsoft Dynamics Business Analyzer drop down menu lets a user select the reports to include by clicking Options and choosing the Report Selection area. Reports can be from one or more companies and Business Ana36 36

Dynamics University University Winter Winter 2013 2013 Dynamics

lyzer can handle multi-company reports. These built in reports become the building blocks for a dashboard. When Business Analyzer opens for the first time, the typical view is one large chart or Key Performance Indicator (KPI) with multiple smaller ones below. While that generally works, it does not feel like a traditional dashboard. The key to fixing this is an icon in the upper right that looks like four boxes. Hovering over it shows that it controls Dashboard/Split mode. The default mode with one big report in the center is Split mode. Clicking the icon to activate Dashboard mode changes the view to show all of the reports at once. Each report appears in its own box in a grid. This looks much more like a traditional dashboard and makes it easy for a user to view a lot of information at a glance. Users can easily switch back to Split mode if they need a bigger representation of a particular graphic, and they can drill back to the full SSRS report for additional functionality.

s Executive Dashboards Business Analyst:: Sure, What would you like to see on the dashboard?

Ideally, boxes holding individual reports should be as big as possible in Dashboard view to make them easier to read. Accessing the Microsoft Dynamics Business Analyzer drill-down menu and picking Options and clicking User Information controls this. It is usually best to set this to the maximum size of 300(w) x 200(h) pixels. Depending on the machine, this creates a grid that shows four items across and three down on a single screen. In the same place, define how Business Analyzer should refresh data from Microsoft Dynamics GP. For most businesses, once an hour is adequate. There are a couple of added bonuses when building a dashboard this way. First, each report does not have to be particularly complicated and they do not have to relate to each other. Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Cash and Units Sold can all be on one dashboard. Each is an individual component. By keeping the reports simple, it is much easier to create a custom dashboard element either from scratch or by modifying and existing report.

CFO: Well,a friend of mine who is the CFO at a service company showed me his but,we are a manufacturer so his dashboard really doesn’t apply to us.. I think you can figure it out, put something together and I’ll let you know if that’s what we need.

Another nice benefit is presentation mode. Many organizations like to show key indicators on monitors in their lobby or in employee work areas. In addition to Dashboard and Split mode, Business Analyzer has a full screen mode that will cycle through each report at a defined interval, say every 30 seconds. It is perfect for these types of applications and does not require another tool to learn and manage. Business Analyzer provides an inexpensive, easy way to get started with a dashboard. Many organizations will not stop there and may move on to more sophisticated business intelligence tools, but Business Analyzer provides a great starting point and it can quickly help user give something to the CFO to make it easier for them to figure out what they really want. DynamicsUniversity.com DynamicsUniversity.com

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interview

The Long Path to Success:

Signatur

ften... when in the middle of chaos, it is human nature to think that we are alone. It is even easier to think that no one knows exactly how hard it has been.

By Josh Behl, Summit Group Software

Dynamics University Winter 2013

re Flight Support and the Saga of a Software Implemenation

When it comes to software implementations, it is not uncommon to believe that our experience is unique and that no other company has had the experience we have had. Even more, we may believe that if we run into challenges or if our plan doesn’t quite go exactly as expected, something is wrong with the software, our company, or perhaps with the partner we chose. While any of these are potential culprits, what might be deemed as a rule according to Hoyle, is perfectly normal. In fact, when we find ourselves in the middle of the challenge that a software implementation can be, the answer to success is not as far away as we might think. Recently, at Extreme CRM 2013 (a partner oriented, Microsoft Dynamics CRM conference), I heard the story of Signature Flight Support as told by Melissa Singer. Since the merger of Page AvJet and Butler Aviation in 1992, Signature Flight Support has grown to become the world’s largest network of Fixed Base Operators (FBO’s) with over 100 locations providing consistent, exceptional service. Signature’s worldwide compilation of FBO’s deliver essential support services for business and private aviation including refueling, hangarage, and a variety of other amenities essential to the safe and efficient operation of an aircraft. They are also a Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer with over 2,300 employees and 117 locations on five continents, and part of a larger corporation – BBA Aviation. Their road to Microsoft Dynamics CRM is much like many others in that they started with the reality of outdated systems that were patched together and met the needs of their company where they were at when they first implemented them. As time went on, their company and cont. DynamicsUniversity.com

Interview, continued from page 39

customers evolved and Signature Flight Support’s tools weren’t really providing the kind of support needed for their customers or employees. At the time, the only information their front line customer service team members had was potentially anecdotal information at best and perhaps basic customer names. Moreover, about the time they embarked upon their journey, they were in the midst of the recession where every customer becomes even more vitally important. You want to keep the customers you have and get the ones you don’t. I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Melissa Singer and talk about Signature Flight Support’s journey. Josh: In your presentation, you discussed your implementation path. What was the catalyst to begin down this path – you discussed the various system issues you had leading up to this but what were some of the other challenges that led to it? Melissa: At the time, we had also just begun our services culture transformation. We realized that we were charging a luxury price but not providing luxury service. Because our only real customer data was stored in our billing system, and because our front-line people did not have access to it, they didn’t have any meaningful information about the customer when they were engaging them. Josh: Tell me how you started to turn this around. Melissa: We took an all at once sort of approach. There needed to be a significant reset of our company’s culture. It had to be real. We hit the reset button. Every employee went through this reset in a very short period of time. This allowed us to have a cohesive message to our customers across the entire company. It was a total brand transformation. Josh: Often with a massive change like this, regardless if it is software, cultural, or operational, people react differently to the change. How was the response to this reset of your culture? Melissa: 50% were all for it, 35% were skeptical, and the other 15% were uncomfortable with it. Some of those 15% left and others stayed. But that was ok. We were making a shift from an aviation company to a hospitality company and were aware not everyone would chose to make that transition with us. Today we hire differently. We hire people with the right traits that support our vision.

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Josh: Aside from the cultural reset, how did Microsoft Dynamics CRM support that vision? Melissa: It is a tool that allows us to take information and impact the customer's experience. We use the information tracked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM to surprise and delight our customers.

Josh: Based upon your presentation, I got the impression that Signature uses many components of the application. Melissa: We use every module. Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. Josh: As you look back at your implementation process, what were the keys to your success? Melissa: The right people, the right tools, the right vision, and the right partnerships. The right people are the key. Without the right people on our project team, we would have had a 90% chance of failure. We had to find the right people for this change and hire the right people moving forward. Also, our Microsoft Dynamics partner was key to our success as well. They helped us justify the value. Josh: How did you get people on board to this implementation and the time it was going to take along with how much it was going to cost? Melissa: Executive sponsorship. We had strong executive sponsorship throughout the entire project as well as strong commitment from our project team. Josh: What about the end users? How did you get them onboard and use the system? Melissa: After our training and the roll-out, we found that the many users were still not using Microsoft Dynamics CRM. They only updated basic information. We needed them to live in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. We wanted them to use the data to create customer loyalty and to partner among one another to win new customers. Customer behavior and loyalty is tracked, as well as communicated to every employee in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The more data we collected, the better. We tracked and reported on this activity. We tracked the number of activities, new records, and so on. We created a sales contest for our field leadership. For the first four weeks, it was the same people who kept showing up as the heavy users of the system. After a while, it

nterview became a bit more competitive and more and more people began to use the system regularly. We turned it into a game. Josh: Tell me about your training strategy. Melissa: First, it is never over. Training is not a onetime thing. It is ongoing and never stops. New people are hired, people change jobs, and others simply need retraining. We use live webinars as a primary approach. They are regularly scheduled. They are not mandatory, but people can attend as many as they like or need. They can learn at their own pace. Training is not a sometimes things, it is an all the time thing. We also have a Microsoft Dynamics CRM expert on site at every location who handles the over-the-shoulder/ face-to-face training. Some people simply respond better to that. Josh: How do you measure the success of your training? Melissa: We track who attends and track their Microsoft Dynamics CRM usage. If after training, we see them use the application more and more, it is a good indicator for us. Josh: So, if you are doing regular webinars, what do you present? Melissa: We train them like they have never heard about it before. The reiteration of the message is what makes it stick. Josh: My last set of questions relates to the advice you would give to those just beginning to implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the other group are those who have tried and either failed or simply given up, and finally those would have done well and are looking for advice on how to continue their success. Melissa: Be realistic about the challenges upfront. We had a lot of challenges: • User Adoption. • Inter-Department Squabbles. • IT Bumps During the Night…and the Day. • Needed to add extra fields…need to delete some… need to rename some. • Training Issues. • Sales Team Leadership Change and Rebooting of the Sales Team.

• Administrative rights to the system became a hostage situation and a bit territorial. • Training Webinars Gone Awry. • Two years after the initial go-live, they need to do more training…face to face…across the country. For those who have not had an easy path, make sure you have the right people, tools, partner, and unwavering executive support. If you have team members who say that they don’t have time to learn and use it, I would argue that they don’t have time NOT to use it! If you don’t, someone else will and that customer won’t be yours for long. Look at the challenges we had. We could have easily given up but our strong project team, executive support, and our partner helped us through the tough times. For those customers who have successfully implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM, go back and find solutions to new problems using Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Continue to strive for customer brand loyalty, and leverage all the modules in the application: Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service. Finally, invest time in analyzing the results and crunch the numbers.

................................................................ As you can see, Signature Flight Support’s experience is not entirely different from most software implementations. There are and will be challenges. Your organization will likely have to go back to the drawing board a few times. Not everyone is going to be happy about the change. The reality is that you and your organization can do it! Identify your vision, get the right people on your project team, get 100% executive sponsorship, and leverage a Microsoft Partner that you feel comfortable with that understands your vision and is committed to helping you get there. DynamicsUniversity.com

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By Amiee Keenan, MyAppsAnywhere

Important Steps Prior to Launching a Cloud Environment

By Amiee Keenan, MyAppsAnywhere

Congratulations! Your organization is taking the leap and moving Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to the cloud. Enjoy the cost savings, scalability and flexible access options the cloud will provide for the organization, and the move could not come soon enough. By simply deciding to move the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business software to the cloud, it may seem like the biggest hurdle has already been crossed. Be forewarned, however, that for most organizations, the hurdles actually begin just as the transition to the cloud is getting started. From lack of planning to misunderstandings between cloud providers and the technical teams, unclear technology requirements and unforeseen surprises, transitioning from an in-house solution to a cloud-based solution can be dramatic. Fortunately, with a little planning and a cooperative cloud service provider, launching the cloud environment can be a pleasant, drama-free experience. Before the ink dries on the cloud contract, make sure the organization is ready and able to address these common pitfalls:

2 1 Do You Have Enough Bandwidth to Support Your Cloud? Not having enough bandwidth is one of the most common issues organizations experience when moving their software to the cloud. For most cloud environments, the minimum recommended bandwidth needed to operate hosted, or cloud-based, applications is 100 kbps per user. For perspective, a T1 is 1544 kbps for 15 users. Take into consideration, too, that bandwidth requirements may vary from cloud provider to cloud provider, so ask how much bandwidth is needed ahead of time. It is also important to understand that no cloud will be a good fit for the organization if consistent, reliable access to high-speed internet is lacking. If the best option for internet is a dial-up connection, performance will be a problem with any cloud service provider.

Do You Have a Plan for Data Migration? Purchasing cloud services is just the beginningâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all current data will have to be migrated to the new Microsoft Dynamics ERP and/or Microsoft Dynamics CRM applications in the cloud environment. More often than not, data migration is not included in the costs for the cloud implementation. Planning out how data will be migrated is essential to a successful cloud migration, and finding the right avenue for the organization can ease the sting. The best case scenario is identifying someone internally who is capable of migrating the data to the cloud. If no such person exists, the cloud service provider should be able to offer some options. These options are not typically free, and be forewarned that not all providers offer migration assistance. A good provider, however, will be able to help select tools to purchase to migrate the data, handle the migration for the organization, or provide instructions for handling the migration on your own.

3 Are You Prepared for Changes to Your Business Process Once You Move to the Cloud? Moving business software to a cloud environment may unexpectedly change how the organization handles tasks, organizes workflow, provides permissions or retrieves data. Before launching the cloud, be sure the organization understands both how these business processes were handed before and how to handle them in the future. Many cloud providers offer consulting services designed to analyze business processes, and with the right cloud service provider, organizations can customize the cloud to suit unique workflow and process requirements. DynamicsUniversity.comcont. 43

Cloud, continued from page 43

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Do You Know Your Security and Regulatory Requirements? If the organization is subject to regulatory compliance demands (i.e., FFIEC, GLBA, SEC, HIPAA, PCI, SOX, etc.), then opting for a cloud service provider that has regular third-party audits and a SSAE 16 attested data center can help pass regulatory audits, inspections and checkpoints. Before signing a contract with such a provider, ask what sorts of documentation they can provide for the audit cycle and how often they will be able to provide it.

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Sales tax changes.

6 Do You Have a Plan for Licensing?

5 What Can You Expect for Security and Support? On the support side, knowing when the organization can call with questions—and when they can’t—makes a big difference in what sort of support the organization will have access to. Some cloud service providers offer free 24-hour support and/ or web support, but it is important to check references and see how quickly support requests are addressed. If security is a concern, ask to see documentation on the security of the cloud service provider’s data center. Ask, too, what their uptime guarantee is, and be sure the answer provided is understood—this will be a good predictor for how much time the cloud will be unavailable.

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If the organization already has current licensing, ask the cloud service provider if they have a pricing model for bring-your-own-licenses, or BYOL. As long as licensing is current and your organization stays current with annual enhancement with Microsoft, licenses can easily transfer to most cloud environments. Organizations that are new to Microsoft Dynamics or have lapsed licenses, the cloud service provider should be able to start the organization on a month-to-month SPLA plan that includes enhancements and renewals.

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Moving your Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to a cloud environment will have an impact on the organization, and with the right preparations, you can ensure that the organization is positioned to the best of the best from the cloud.

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crm Tips & Tricks Conditional Formatting: View Options in the Outlook Client By Jim Scarff, Express Information Systems

Microsoft Outlook has long included the ability to conditionally format views for items such as Contacts, Email Lists and Tasks. This ability to conditionally format is the mechanism used to make past due tasks appear red in color. With the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Outlook client, installed users can conditionally format any Microsoft Dynamics CRM view using the same steps. To set up conditional formatting, open the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Outlook client. Click on a Microsoft Dynamics CRM view such as Accounts, Contacts or Quotes and follow the steps below: In the navigation ribbon, select View Settings. This opens the Advanced View Settings window. Select Conditional Formatting to present a list of existing conditions if there are any set up. Click Add to create a new condition. Use the Condition button to define criteria. The Advanced tab allows access to any field in the entity and the assignment criteria. 5. Click Font to format how records meeting the criteria will be displayed. 6. Click OK to save the format. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Note that only one rule can be applied to a record. Rules are applied to records in the order that the rules appear in the Conditional Formatting window. Use the Move Up and Move Down button to prioritize the order in which the rules are applied.

Creating Entities and Fields While Importing Data By Rahim Jiwani, WebSan Solutions

There are times when large amounts of data don’t quite fit into one of Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s existing entities. At that point, users sometimes decide to create a custom entity and fields to house that data. There is a way to save time – by using the Import Data Wizard! The Import Data Wizard allows users the ability to create entities and fields on the fly as data is imported in this new entity. After selecting the file to import in the Import Data Wizard, users reach the Map Record Types step of the Wizard. There, select Create New CRM Record Type which then prompts the user for more information to create the new entity within the Wizard. Then at the Map Fields step, users can dynamically create new fields for each column in the import file (or ignore fields unwanted in CRM). The Wizard even defaults the Field Name to match the column header from the import file allowing the user to simply select the field type. In addition, if Option Set is selected as the field type, the Wizard will automatically create values for the option set based on the unique values in that column of the data file! The only thing left to do at this point is to set any additional options on the new entity as necessary and configure the entity form that will be used to manage the data – both of which can be done through the usual customizations window. DynamicsUniversity.com

crm Tips & Tricks Setting Up Goals

By Dave Packard, Cargas Systems, Inc. One of the best ways to take the daily pulse of the sales pipeline in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is through Goals. By placing active Goals in a dashboard, users see how sales reps are doing, how divisions are performing, and how the company is progressing. By default, Microsoft Dynamics CRM can track Revenue, Number of Cases, and Number of Product Units through Goal Metrics. (This defines what the goal is measuring. For example – the Estimated Revenue and Actual Revenue fields on the Opportunity.) Revenue is the most widely used and this tip focuses on that example. Individual Goal Bob Forrester, has a yearly sales goal of $500,000. To create this open a new Goal form and enter information for the following fields: 1. Name: Bob’s Goal FY2014 2. Goal Metric: Revenue 3. Goal Owner: Bob Forrester 4. Manager: Bob’s manager 5. Goal Period Type: Custom (Since it is a yearly goal.) 6. From: 1/1/14 7. To: 12/31/14 8. Target (Money): $500,000 9. Child Goals: None This shows only the records rolling up to this Goal that Bob owns. After saving the Goal, it is activated and can be pulled into dashboards. Parent Goal To add another layer, a Division 1 Goal can be created of which Bob is one of the sales reps. This rolls up all the individual sales reps goals to this parent goal. This Goal follows similar steps: 1. Name: Division 1 FY2014 2. Goal Metric: Revenue 3. Goal Owner: the Division 1 Manager 4. Manager: VP of Sales 5. Goal Period Type: Custom 6. From: 1/1/14 7. To: 12/31/14 8. Target (Money): the Division’s Goal of $3,000,000 9. Child Goals: Add all the Division 1 sales reps’ goals 10. Roll Up Only From the Child Goals: Yes (When this Goal recalculates, it only pulls the numbers from the Child Goals, not from individual records.) 11. Record Set for Roll Up: All

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Other Owners What if some of the Division 1 Opportunities are owned by others, perhaps by some executives? In this situation, set the following: 1. Roll Up Only From Child Goals: No 2. Record Set for Rollup: All 3. Define the Rollup Queries. Rollup Queries allow users to define which Opportunities are wanted. In this instance, set the query to rollup all Opportunities where the field Division equals “Division 1.” In doing so, all Opportunities that are part of Division 1 are captured, regardless of owner. A few final notes: • Goals recalculate once a day. • Goals can be manually recalculated as needed. • New Goal metrics can be added to measure almost anything. • When the Goal period is over, the Goal can be closed.

Managing Shared Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM By Kayla Fricks, The TM Group, Inc.

A really terrific feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the ability to create, share and deactivate views. This article details working with Views and how to remove and deactivate them when they are no longer required. Share 1. When sharing views with others, the shared view is listed under My Views for the record type on which the view was built. 2. Name Shared Views with a strong, logical naming conventions they can be easily identified. Deactivate Once other Microsoft Dynamics CRM users discover view sharing, the list of views under My Views can grow and grow. To reduce the number of views to the ones really used frequently and hide all of the others; or perhaps there are views shared by a user who has been deactivated in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, views can be deactivated. Regardless of the access level that was granted to the user by the view sharer, users can deactivate a shared view by following these instructions: 1. Access the Advanced Find window. 2. Click Saved Views and change the view to Active Views Shared with Me. This retrieves all views that have been shared with the user. Select the view or views to hide, click Deactivate, and then close the Advanced Find window. Note: Saved views are grouped by record type. Saved/shared views built on Account records are listed under the Account Record Type, and views built on Contact records are listed under the Contact Record Type. Move quickly through saved views for each entity by changing the record type using the Record Type button. 3. Navigate to another record type and return to refresh the list of views. The views deactivated are no longer available in the list of My Views. Re-Activate 1. Access the Saved Views list 2. Change the view to Inactive Views Shared with Me, selecting the view or views to restore to My Views and click Activate. HINT! Designate a view used over and over again as a default! Select the view in the Saved Views list and click the Set as Default View button.

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