CRM 4 Exam Prep: Customization and Configuration (Exam 631)
Dynamics CRM 4.0 is a great CRM. It’s got great integration with Outlook, is available in both hosted and on-premise versions, and has excellent out of the box support for the primary “CRM” scenarios: sales, marketing, service management, service scheduling. The hosted (”CRM Online”) version even has a very nice new implementation of Internet Marketing features!
In my opinion, however, the most exciting role for Dynamics CRM is as a “customization platform”. Recently we’ve started to see people referring to it as “XRM”, with the “X” indicating its adaptibility to any line of business application area. Essentially, if you need to build a database application and use the Internet as your delivery platform, you should consider Dynamics CRM as your app foundation.
I’m excited about the next release; I think Microsoft is really going to push this XRM concept, and make the platform both easier and more powerfully extensible. But in the meantime, we’ve got the 4.0 release, and if you are new to customizing CRM, or if you need to pass the Dynamics CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration exam (30-631), here are a couple sample videos I’ve recorded on the topics:
- Core customization topics. Watch this video for Dynamics CRM 4.0 core customization concepts. This is a good 30-minute (or so) overview of the various ways you can customize Dynamics CRM: form and view customizations, entity and attribute customizations, entity relationships and mappings, workflows, .NET extensions.
- Here’s a detailed (and longer!) video that covers configuration topics (business units, users, security roles). Even though they aren’t really customization topics, per se, you really do need to understand them to be an effective customizer of Dynamics CRM. The first 10 minutes covers program-related information, so you can skip that if you want to go directly to the meat of the content!
- Read this article on Status and Status Reason values on the MS Dynamics CRM Resource Center, and then save it to your Favorites for a reference. Having this link handy has saved me lots of time over the years, and if you need to customize CRM, you’ll find it useful too!
And finally, if you really DO want to take the exam, click this link for a walk-through of a 631 practice test, with commentary (from me). These practice tests were posted on Microsoft.com/learning for a while, but I think they took them down — at least I can’t find them. (If you ever find them, please let me know where they are! )
I hope you found this useful; and if you do take the exam, good luck!
Richard
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Amruta Pachegaokar Said,
March 27, 2009 @ 10:31 am
Thanks so much for posting these… they helped me a lot!!
Do you have anything similar for the installation exam?
Richard Knudson Said,
March 27, 2009 @ 1:05 pm
Hi Amruta — thanks for your note, and I’m glad you found them helpful. I do have some content for the Installation and Deployment exam…just not quite as much passion for the topic!
I’ll see if I can post up a reasonably concise article on the Installation exam. Stay tuned.
Amruta Pachegaokar Said,
March 28, 2009 @ 5:03 am
Great, thanks.. you are good.. this is the first time I have received an immediate reply after yrs of posting on blogs!!
Richard Knudson Said,
March 28, 2009 @ 6:53 am
Hi Amruta — thank you so much — that’s very nice of you to say! Frankly, I’m always surprised at how rarely people actually put up comments, so I try to be as responsive as possible. Speaking of which, I posted up an article on the exam you asked about: http://www.dynamicscrmtrickbag.com/?p=361
Good luck on the exam and I hope you find this post helpful!
Amruta Pachegaokar Said,
March 28, 2009 @ 1:47 pm
Awesome.. thank you so much!!
Amruta Pachegaokar Said,
March 28, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
And again, I gotta say.. such a fast response, that too on a weekend.. I really appreciate it!!
Richard Knudson Said,
March 29, 2009 @ 3:28 am
My pleasure, Amruta. Good luck on the exams and let me know how you do!
– Richard
Amruta Pachegaokar Said,
March 29, 2009 @ 5:03 am
Sure, thanks..
Adrian Said,
May 6, 2009 @ 5:35 pm
Richard,
Your material looks great, but when I try to click on the video links they don’t appear to work. Are these videos still available?
Richard Knudson Said,
May 6, 2009 @ 6:42 pm
Hi Adrian –
You are correct. Our web site is down and I’m quite sorry about it. Those videos actually DO exist and I actually HAVE been told they are useful.
Just one more data point in favor of cloud computing and not hosting your own servers when you aren’t particularly good at it!
Thanks for pointing it out — I should be able to get it fixed tomorrow, and sorry for any inconvenience.
Regards, Richard
Adrian Said,
May 7, 2009 @ 1:09 pm
Richard,
They’re back up, thanks for looking at that so quickly! Love your writing, it’s been extremely helpful!
Adrian
Richard Knudson Said,
May 7, 2009 @ 2:36 pm
No worries — I hate it when my servers are down! grrr…Anyway, I posted something else you might find useful in the certification category, recordings of some practice test walkthroughs I made a while back: http://www.dynamicscrmtrickbag.com/2009/05/07/crm_practicetests/ — let me know if you find these helpful.
Bill Said,
July 3, 2009 @ 6:01 am
Richard,
Great information, and thank you. Your info about the Applications exam came in quite handy. I am now preparing to take the Customizations exam and I look forward to reviewing your videos. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be working. Are you having problems on your end or is it on mine?
Kind regards,
Bill
Richard Knudson Said,
July 10, 2009 @ 2:56 pm
Hi Bill — glad the info was heplful! I checked yesterday and again today and the site was up; have you tried again? We do have some connectivity “issues” from time to time and we’re in the process of moving our servers for better uptime…thanks for your interest and your patience!
Regards,
Richard
Vishy Said,
July 12, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
Hi,
I am planning to take up CRM Configuring & Customization certification,
None of these videos are available ….
Dose this videos still exists??
Debbie Said,
May 14, 2010 @ 1:12 pm
Hi Richard, are these video’s no longer available. I am studying for the Customization and Configuration exam and would like to see them