Feb. 25, 2010 – Recently I ranted a little about my experience in upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7, specifically about how changes in browser settings impacted my Dynamics CRM experience. One thing I’ve learned about Microsoft program managers is they care enough about their programs to reach out to to ranters like me, and this episode was no exception: I got a call the next day from Matt Hooper, a program manager on the Dynamics CRM Online team, and he was patient enough to set me right. As soon as I got off my call with Matt, I thought I better write down what he told me, so I wouldn’t forget. Thanks Matt!

Feb. 22, 2010 – I’m the #1 Fan of Dynamics CRM Online. And I like Windows 7 a lot. But I do NOT like the way IE 8 on Windows 7 runs Dynamics CRM Online…and unfortunately that’s an important and hard to troubleshoot combination! Does it really work? Well…I guess it depends on what you mean by “work”…

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.

Nov. 20, 2009 — Some Dynamics CRM windows can be navigated to outside of the underlying UI. This handy trick can be combined with IE “tab sets” to create an efficient, dashboard-like user experience.

Nov. 13, 2009 — In a previous article, I described how to use existing charts to configure your personal home page dashboard in Dynamics CRM Online. The November 2009 Service Update also added the Chart Designer, which you can use to create charts, and that’s what I describe in this article.

Nov. 10, 2009 — There are lots of enhancements and new features in the November 2009 Service Update for Dynamics CRM Online. One of the most obvious is the new-look home page, featuring customizable dashboards. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to set them up.

Nov. 7, 2009 — Dynamics CRM Online – the cloud version of Microsoft’s flagship customer relationship management application – is an excellent product. The “November 2009 Service Update” gets rolled out to current customers on November 9, and in my view the term “service update” doesn’t do it justice. This is the first of a series of articles on the new features, so I’ll start at the beginning: the new “up and running experience”.

Oct. 14, 2009 — There’s a LOT to like about Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online — the “cloud” deployment option for Dynamics CRM. Here are my top five reasons.