Customizing Dynamics CRM: Learning Resources

Dynamics CRM 4.0 has a nice set of out-of-the-box features in SFA, marketing, and service management, and you can use its built-in toolset to customize those features.  You can also create entirely customized applications for virtually any line of business – this is its role as the ”XRM” platform (or is it “xRM”?) we’ve heard so much about recently.

I’m excited about the next release; I think Microsoft is really going to push this XRM concept, and make the platform both easier to customize and more powerfully extensible. There are also some interesting licensing considerations: think of what it would look like if you could license it without some of the core functionality, or perhaps with some additional functionality.

An early example of a shipping XRM app is Dynamics CRM Online for Non-Profits, which is available now on the Dynamics CRM Online platfrm, and can be licensed for $9.99 per-user per-month. According to Microsoft, “The solution provides out-of-the-box constituent relationship management functionality as well as customizations for donation and pledge management, basic membership management, basic volunteer tracking, campaign management, dashboard reports, and support for online payment solutions.”

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 some suggested ways for you to learn what you need to know:

If you want to pass the 631 exam, I’ve got an E-Learning library we sell on a subscription basis, including the full recorded instructor-led training sessions from a certification bootcamp training class I used to run. Here are a couple samples from the subscription:

• 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!
• Here is 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! )

A 6-month subscription to the E-learning Library costs $100, and if you want to subscribe or have questions, please e-mail Mary Annino at marya@imginc.com

If, on the other hand, you simply need to learn how to customize Dynamics CRM 4.0, I recommend the Customizing Dynamics CRM and the xRM Platform class from my Dynamics CRM Essentials series. This is a one-day live online class I deliver monthly. The registration fee is $300, and starting in June 2010, this registration fee includes a private one-hour session (phone and Live Meeting) during which we discuss and prototype your “XRM” requirements.  Most people are pleasantly surprised (some are blown away) by how much can be accomplished in an hour-long session with somebody that knows the platform as well as I do. Here’s what you get with your registration:

• Attendance at the one-day live online session, plus you can re-attend of the other regularly scheduled sessions for the next 6 months.
• I record the sessions and circulate links to each month’s participants.
• The one-hour design/prototyping session I mentioned above.

Here’s a link to the outline of topics for Customizing Dynamics CRM and the xRM Platform, and here’s an 8-minute video that describes what you’ll learn.  

Richard