Saturday, 5 October 2013

Business Rules in CRM 2013 OR How to define a Business Rule in CRM 2013

Version used for this post: CRM 2013 Online Trial

Business rule is a cool feature in CRM 2013. Lets see how to define a business rule in CRM 2013.

To have a better understanding, lets consider a scenario.

Scenario: We have Credit limit and Annual revenue fields on the Account form. We need to restrict the credit limit value in such a way that it shouldn't cross the Annual revenue value.

Lets get the ball rolling.

1. Navigate to Solution and choose our entity. For instance , Account entity.

2. Click on the New and it would open the following business rule definition window for us.

3. Lets call our business rule as Credit limit Rule. Lets start defining the rule as follows.

Click on the + symbol of Condition section.

4. So we defined a condition and we have to SAVE the condition.

5. Next is action. When we click on the + symbol, we could see the following options.

For our scenario, lets choose error message.

6. Next step is to define the error message as shown below. And save the action.

7. Description is optional. And then save the business rule. Please note that the status of this business rule ( at the bottom left corner ). This means we need to save and then Activate the business rule.

8. Activation could be done as shown below. And then Save and close the business rule.

9. We could see our business rule in the solution as shown below.

10. Now lets try creating an account. To test this, enter the Annual income value as £200000.

And Credit limit as £300000. As soon as the focus goes out from the field, we could see the error message that we defined in the credit limit - Business rule.

11. This business rule is applicable even when we update the Account record.

Resources in use - CRM 2013

Version used for this post: CRM 2013 Online trial.

In CRM 2013, there is an option to get an overview about your organization's use of storage, custom entities, workflows and dialogs.

Its located in Settings --> Administration

Resources in use

Please note that the online trial version has limits on storage, number of custom entities, workflows and dialogs.

Friday, 4 October 2013

Process Guidance in CRM 2013 OR Business Process Flows in CRM 2013 OR How to change an existing Business Process Flow in CRM 2013

Version used : CRM 2013 Online trial

Process guidance is a cool feature in CRM 2013. Its possible to define new Business Process Flow as per our need. But before that lets see how could we make changes to the existing Business Process Flow.

First Q is 'Where could i find the business process flow configuration in CRM 2013' OR 'How do i configure the Business process flow in CRM 2013'

Here is the Navigation

1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM -- > Settings --> Processes

2. By default, you could find the following Business work flows already configured in CRM 2013.

3. By the way, lets have a quick look at the Opportunity form.

4. The ideal scenario for Business Process Flow would be Opportunities. So lets have a look at the Opportunities Business Process Flow. We could open it by just double clicking on it.

We could find 4 stages defined here.

Qualify
Develop
Propose
Close

Each stage has steps in it. For instance, Identify Account, Identify Contact these are steps of a stage. Using steps we could choose the fields.

For instance, For the Identify Account, Account field found on Opportunity is selected.

Is it possible to rename the stages ? --- Yes

Is it possible to reorder the stages? -- Yes

Is it possible to Delete an existing stage ? -- Yes

Is it possible to include more stages ? -- Yes

Lets check these one by one.

5 . How to rename stages of a Business Process Flow in CRM 2013 ? Its simple.

Lets change the name DEVELOP to DEVELOPMENT. We could change it just by clicking on it.

6. How to reorder the stages / steps of a Business Process Flow in CRM 2013 ?

Please note the MOVE UP / MOVE DOWN arrows. All we need to do is to select the stage / step and then click MOVE UP / DOWN as per our need.

7. How to Delete an existing stage / step of a Business Process Flow in CRM 2013.

Please note the highlighted spots. We could just hover on the stage / step and then on the right hand side corner of the stage, we could see a cross symbol as shown below.

8. How to include more stage / steps in a Business process flow of CRM 2013.

Please note the + symbol for Stage and step.

Well, this is called simplicity.

9. Please note that in each step, there is a field associated. Also we could put a friendly name for the step. We could make the step as 'Required' by ticking the check box. Its all optional. So in simple words Business Process Flows in CRM 2013 are flexible and configurable

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Navigation in CRM 2013

Version used for this post : CRM 2013 Online trial

Lets have a quick look at how navigation is organized in CRM 2013.

1. First of all , please note the HOME button. If we lose the navigation way, just need to remember this buddy.

2. Now please note the main area - Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Well that's our main isn't it? Yes it is. If we move the cursor on top of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we could see the sub areas.

3. Next to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we could see SALES. This because currently the selection is on the SALES. If we need to change it, we just need to move the cursor on top of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and then choose the corresponding sub area.

For instance, we selected Marketing.

4. The Marketing sub area displays all related stuff once we hover the mouse on it.

5. Sales sub area. Also the Dashboard is available next to the sub area.

6. The settings sub area is a bit different.

Navigation is made more easy in CRM 2013. Just hover the mouse and select the area where we need to navigate. CRM will change the sub items accordingly.

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Walk through CRM 2013 Online Trial

Lets do a quick walk through CRM 2013 Online trial.

1. Main Page

2. Tried the Quick Record Create button in CRM 2013. By the way, it looks cool.

Selected Account as the record to be created.

3. Any record could be easily created this way. I would say its 'Quick and Easy' to create a record in CRM 2013.

4. Here is the full view of the newly created account record. As you could see, this view is amazing. Items are well placed on the form. Also note the auto save button on the bottom right corner.

5. We could easily upload an image just by clicking on the dummy image. and then choose the image as shown below. For instance, we could easily upload a logo of a Company. It looks like the more we explore the more we like it.