Scribe Certified!
After using Scribe for most of my CRM integrations for the last 2 years, it was about time I took the certification exams.
Although I have been using the product for some time, the training material provided was invaluable and I learnt a lot that I would never have picked up in day to day use. It’s well worth reading/watching if you use or are planning on using Scribe.
I’m pleased to say that I passed both the Server and CRM adapter exams. Not a bad start to 2011!
CRM 2011 Release Candidate
Microsoft today announced the first release candidate for Dynamics CRM 2011. The download links for each component are available here. I’ll be installing it tomorrow!
There’s a launch event planned for 20th January 2011 which you can register for here.
Finally, Microsoft also announced that CRM 2011 Online will be available from 17th January 2011.
CRM 2011 Repeated Login Prompt
Updated at the bottom for the CRM 2011 Release Candidate.
I’ve had this issue recently and it was driving me crazy. The CRM worked fine from the server with http://localhost and http://server-name, but if I tried to access it from anywhere else, I was repeatedly asked for login credentials. I got around it temporarily by adding a host header to the site, but this still caused me problems when trying to access the web services.
I’ve read some articles suggesting the below method to fix this:
- go to IIS manager
- select the CRM website
- select Authentication
- select windows authentication
- click on Providers, and add kerberos as the second enabled provider after NTLM
Unfortunately, this didn’t work for me. Instead, I got it working by editing the file %windir%system32inetsrvconfigapplicationHost.config as below.
For all of the CRM web site nodes find and replace all instances of: –
<windowsAuthentication enabled="true" />
with
<windowsAuthentication enabled="true" useAppPoolCredentials="true" />
CRM Timeline
Lauren Carlson over at Software Advice, has created a great interactive timeline showing the growth of CRM software over the last 3 decades. It’s very interesting to see how much has changed over the last 30 years and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next 30! Keep an eye on it, as it will be updated over time.
Update Rollup 13 for Dynamics CRM 4
Microsoft have just released Dynamics CRM 4 update rollup 13. You can read more about it on the official blog and download it here. They mention that the rollup contains fixes for some high impact Internet Explorer 9 issues which will come as a relief for many!
Internet Explorer 9 – First Impressions
I’ve just downloaded and installed the public beta of the next version of Internet Explorer, IE9 and wanted to share my first impressions.
Once installed, the first noticeable difference is how minimal the interface has become. The address bar and tabs section seem to take up roughly 66% less screen space, since the address bar, search box and tabs are now all located on the same row. As I usually have a lot of pages open, I didn’t think I’d like the repositioning of the tabs, but it really hasn’t caused me any problems.
The next thing I noticed is the speed. It really flies. Microsoft have added GPU acceleration to IE9, so a lot of image rendering is now performed by your graphics card rather than your CPU.
Another great new feature, is the ability to add web shortcuts to your taskbar. You just drag the favicon from the address bar to your taskbar to create a shortcut. This is great if you want quick access to applications such as your email and it really feels like you’re launching an app rather than a browser.
Upgrading a CRM 4 Organisation to Dynamics CRM 2011
I’ve posted another short video, showing how easy it is to upgrade a Dynamics CRM 4 organisation to Dynamics CRM 2011.
The steps involved were: –
- Backup current CRM 4 organisation
- Restore the database to the SQL server hosting the other CRM organisations
- Use the Deployment Manage import wizard
- Map any users that exist in the organisation to Active Directory accounts. If you are restoring to a server in the same domain, auto mapping users should work fine
- Run the import
- Log in and test
I did this using the all in one virtual server I had set up previously, which is proving to be a great little training ground!
Dynamics CRM 2011 Solutions
Another nice new feature of Dynamics CRM 2011 is the ability to create solutions. A solution is a way to package up your CRM business application into an easy to manage and deploy package.
To create a solution, first you must give it a name, select a publisher and give it a version number. A publisher typically contains the details of the ISV which will be listing an application in the Dynamics Marketplace. Versioning is method of determining whether you are running the most up to date solution inside your CRM 2011 system. Read the rest of this entry »
Dynamics CRM 2011 Dashboards
The new real-time dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, finally brings Dynamics CRM reporting in line with the competition.
Dashboards are likely to be the new favourite feature among business and sales users who enjoy looking at pretty charts with lines pointing the right way. More importantly, they offer a powerful way to view and analyse business performance based on real-time statistics. Read the rest of this entry »
Neil McDonald's Dynamics 365 Blog 