February 7, 2010 – How do you take the information submitted on a web form and pop it into Dynamics CRM? This feature – sometimes referred to generically as “web-to-CRM”, or “lead-to-CRM” – is not included in Dynamics CRM 4.0 on-premise, but has been added to Dynamics CRM Online. The built-in approach in the cloud version is better than nothing, but there’s a better solution, Web2CRM from CRMInnovation, if you’re willing to spend $495.

February 7, 2010 – Dynamics CRM is the best place to store your customer information, and track all of your sales, marketing and service interactions with them. Unfortunately, it’s not the best place to perform some of those interactions, such as e-mail. Yes, it’s fine for tracking one-off e-mails (especially if you’re using the Outlook client), but when it comes to e-mail marketing, the out-of-the-box features of Dynamics CRM leave plenty to be desired. What we need is e-mail marketing integrated with Dynamics CRM. There are more options all for this all the time, and here’s an article where I discuss integrations for both Exact Target and Constant Contact, and my recent experience with the Constant Contact integration

Jan. 26, 2010 — Dynamics CRM is a great product, but it’s got some feature gaps. One of the big ones is in e-mail marketing. Hosted e-mail marketing services fill the gap, but it’s a total hassle sending e-mails from a completely separate application! Here’s an introduction to a solution that integrates Dynamics CRM and Constant Contact: C-Cubed from Zero2TenCRM.

Jan. 18, 2010 – In life, many-to-many relationships are recipes for pandemics. In Dynamics CRM they aren’t quite as bad, but they can be confusing until you get used to them. This article is about the Dynamics CRM variety, although if you prefer the epidemiological I include a link to an article about those.

Jan. 15, 2010 — In the month after our December meeting, we received 23 reponses to our first annual membership survey of the Dynamics CRM User Group. I don’t know what the threshold is for statistical reliability, but what the heck: surveys are fun! Plus, this one was done right in Dynamics CRM (I’ll write a separate article on the how-to of surveys in CRM). Forthwith, the results…

Jan 12, 2010 — Dynamics CRM workflows can send e-mails, and there are plenty of business processes that can be enhanced by including workflow-generated e-mails. This article provides background information on Dynamics CRM e-mail integration, common scenarios for workflow/e-mail, and some tips and tricks.

Jan. 11, 2010 — I send out a (more or less) monthly e-mail newsletter — here’s the January 2010 edition. In the spirit of the month, it’s a New Year’s Resolution. And speaking of New Year’s Resolutions, I’ve GOT to phone and e-mail my Mom more often this year!

December 19, 2009 — The Dynamics CRM User Group closed out its first year with an excellent meeting on December 17. Here’s a recap, plus links to the recorded sessions. Enjoy!

Dec. 11, 2009 — I get asked a lot about assigning and sharing, users, teams and queues…so here’s an attempt at an all-up clarification article on some related and somewhat confusing topics.

Dec. 7, 2009 — Here’s my short list of “essential” links, downloads and various resources for Dynamics CRM 4.0 and Dynamics CRM Online. I hope you find it useful, and let me know if I missed any of your essentials. And by the way, happy Pearl Harbor Day!