Book Image

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 New Features

By : Jim Wang, Darren Liu
Book Image

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 New Features

By: Jim Wang, Darren Liu

Overview of this book

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 offers exciting new features that enable you to build and maintain a robust customer relationship management system in your organisation.This book is your one stop resource to get to grips with all the new features of Dynamics CRM 2011. To make learning fun and engaging, we will build an Airline Compensation Management (ACM) system using Dynamics CRM 2011.The book starts by setting up the development environment for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. We will then build a structural architecture for the ACM system and configure it in Dynamics CRM 2011. While doing this, we will learn about the new customization features offered by Dynamics CRM 2011.We will then move on to Data Importing and will cover the Import Data Wizard tool, as well as the Import file/data web service which provides additional capabilities that are not available in the Import Data Wizard.We will use client-side programming to perform data validation, automation, and process enhancement and learn powerful event driven server-side programming methods: Plug-Ins and Processes (Formerly Workflows).The book then steers you towards SharePoint integration, Charts and Dashboards, Customizing the Ribbon and Sitemap, and extending Dynamics CRM 2011 in the cloud. Finally we will package the ACM solution and learn how to deploy it.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 New Features
Credits
About the Authors
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Preface

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 offers exciting new features that enable you to build and maintain a robust customer relationship management system for your organization.

This book is your one-stop resource for getting grips with most of the new features of Dynamics CRM 2011. To make learning fun and engaging, we will build an Airline Compensation Management (ACM) demo system using Dynamics CRM 2011.

This book starts by setting up the development environment for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Then it walks through building a structural architecture for the ACM system and configuring it in Dynamics CRM 2011. In the process, the book describes the new customization features offered by Dynamics CRM 2011.

In addition, this book covers SharePoint integration with CRM, Charts and Dashboards, customizing the CRM Ribbon and Site Map, and to show you how to extend Dynamics CRM 2011 in the Cloud.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Setting Up the Development Workspace, shows how to set up and configure a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 development workspace that you can use for the project.

Chapter 2, System Design and Configuration, gives you a high level overview of an Airline Compensation Management (ACM) XRM application that we are going to build in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Chapter 3, Data Import, populates some sample data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for testing and further development, using new Import Data Wizard.

Chapter 4, Client-Side Programming, gives you an overview of the new client-side programming features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Chapter 5, Server-Side Programming, introduces the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 event-driven, server-side programming methods: Plug-ins and Processes.

Chapter 6, SharePoint Integration, guides you through how to enable and configure the SharePoint integration feature in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Chapter 7, Charts and Dashboards, covers the new business intelligence features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, such as Filters, Charts, and Dashboards.

Chapter 8, Extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 in the Cloud, introduces Microsoft cloud offerings, and sets up a portal site on the Windows Azure platform and integrates this portal with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online.

Chapter 9, Sitemap and Ribbon Customization, covers customization of the Sitemap and the Ribbon.

Chapter 10, Packaging It Up, explains solutions, and how to better use them to help us deploy our customizations into different environments.

What you need for this book

Because this book covers the new features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, you should have a good knowledge of configurating and customizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Because we'll be using Dynamics CRM Online and Windows Azure to configure and to customize the ACM system, you will need a Windows Live ID. You may sign up for a Live ID at https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx.

Who this book is for

We wrote this book for professionals who want to get up-to-speed with the new features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "the template is in an XML Spreadsheet 2003 format, with an .xml extension".

A block of code is set as follows:

<EntityMaps>
  <EntityMap TargetEntityName="acm_airport" SourceEntityName="Airport" Dedupe="Eliminate" ProcessCode="Process"/>
  <EntityMap TargetEntityName="acm_flightroute" SourceEntityName="Flight Route" Dedupe="Eliminate" ProcessCode="Process"/>
</EntityMaps>

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "run Windows Update and take a snapshot at this stage".

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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