Partner Enhancements for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Service

Enhancement 1:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM CSA partners can leverage PartnerSource to view Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscriptions where your Partner organization is denoted as the “Partner of Record” for your customer’s subscription.  This provides visibility to when the customer’s subscription expires.  The Customer Renewal Management section can now filter by Dynamics CRM Online and type of subscription (trial, paid, churned)

Enhancement 2:

With the move to the same billing platform as Office 365, your partner organization can now “Quote” Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscriptions (trial or paid) to your interested customers evaluating Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Once you login with your Partner credentials to the Office 365 portal select the “Partner” link.

Leverage the applicable link to create trial or paid offer invitations.

Select the “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Trial” and check the box for delegated administration if you would like to have your customer allow your partner organization access to their admin portal to manage the subscription.

You can copy paste this text into an e-mail and/or post this URL on your partner organization website.  Once your customer clicks the link and completes the sign-up, your partner organization is already designated as the partner of record for the subscription.

What the customer would see.

The Elevated Productivity Story

The combination of CRM capabilities and productivity tools gives you the ability
to easily create and manage customer interactions with everyday tools such
as email, shared calendars, IM, video conferencing, and document collaboration. 

e.g. Two Clouds do equal a storm of productivity. 

Here is how you can evaluate this joint solution -- http://crm.dynamics.com/office365

By following this trial link it provisions a 30-day trial of Dynamics CRM Online.  To add the trial for Office 365 select the “Trial” for Office 365 “E3” via the Purchase section of “Subscriptions”

If you already have a Office 365 subscription, select the “Trial” for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online in the subscription shopping cart

Before users can take advantage of the solution, you need to assign them licenses to either Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online.

The Importance of a SLA and Service Health Dashboard for the Cloud

If you were using a Cloud solution, wouldn't an SLA in addition to a health dashboard be important to you?

This recent article from Gartner reminds me of “Why Service Level Agreements Count for Cloud Computing”: http://blogs.gartner.com/robert-desisto/2012/07/11/why-service-level-agreements-count-for-cloud-computing/

Microsoft Cloud Services including Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provide not only an SLA but also a Service Health Dashboard

99.9% SLA: https://signin.crm.dynamics.com/portal/static/1033/sla.htm

Service Health Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365

Are you ready for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto starting July 8th!

The 2012 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), which will take place July 8-12 in Toronto, Canada, is almost here and this year’s conference is filled with an incredible agenda, including keynotes from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Kirill Tatarinov, President, Microsoft Business Solutions (Dynamics).

Here are a few Microsoft Dynamics CRM Breakout Sessions to check out:

• Monday July 9; 1:30pm EST – DYNVK – Value Keynote: Microsoft Dynamics: Give Your Everything
• Monday July 9; 3:00pm EST – DYN20i – Interactive Discussion: What to Do and What to Avoid When Selling Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to Larger Companies
• Monday July 9; 4:30pm EST – DYN19 – Breakout Session: Power of Possibilities with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Tuesday, July 10; 3:30pm EST – DYN10 – Breakout Session: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Channel Announcement Deep Dive
• Tuesday, July 10; 5:00pm EST – DYN18 – Breakout Session: Microsoft Office 365 + Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online: Taking Advantage of the Cloud Opportunity for Productivity

Search “Dynamics CRM” in the session catalog to see a full list of Microsoft Dynamics CRM related sessions.

Registered attendees will also be able to network with partners before, during and after the event via WPC Connect and in person at partner-to-partner speed-networking events.

Attendees should check out the Conference Guide (PDF)​ now to make the most of this great event and maximize opportunities for networking.

Bookmark this mobile site on your smart phone for information at your fingertips http://aka.ms/WPCMobile

Would love to hear your feedback on Office 365 + Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

If you are planning to attend Convergence 2012, I would love to have your participation in a roundtable to hear your feedback on Office 365 + Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.  This is open to partners and customers to understand what you would like to see from an integrated cloud experience including your perception on the value you would gain from using both.

If you would like to receive an invitation to this roundtable on Tuesday, March 20th from 10am to 11am CST send an e-mail to o365crm@microsoft.com with your contact information (company and title/role).

In return for your valuable feedback, you’ll receive a laptop sticker to display your support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM!

Installing the CRM Online List Component for SharePoint Online

With the latest SharePoint Online Service Update (SU1), SharePoint Online can now support the CRM List Component allowing for automatic creation of SharePoint folders within admin defined entities for CRM Online. 

Please note that the Office365 team is still rolling out the updates so your instance may not have the update applied.

Step 1: Download the List Component

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displayLang=en&id=5283

Step 2: Extract it locally

Step 3: Navigate to you SharePoint Online Team Site and to the Site Settings.  Galleries –> Solutions

Step 4: Upload the List Component you extracted in Step 2

Select the “crmlistcomponent.wsp”

Activate the component

Step 5: Login to your CRM Online instance (Settings->Document Management->Document Management Settings)

Select the entities you want SharePoint Online integration enabled and enter the applicable SharePoint Online site where you installed the list component.

In your IE settings, also add “*.sharepoint.com” to your Trusted Sites.

Extending Salesforce with non-industry standard tools

As a Salesforce user, did you know that their solution relies on technologies used nowhere else (VisualForce, APEX, SOQL), requiring developers to learn its unique environment.  How many APEX developers do you know compared to developers who know .NET.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM, provides familiar, widely used technologies (.NET, SQL, ASP.NET and Visual Studio) for developers.  Relying on standard, widely used development technologies has important advantages. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, current .NET developers need minimal retraining, and the knowledge they acquire is applicable to the Windows world in general. With Salesforce, however, developers must be specifically trained for the environment. This can make it harder both to attract and to retain developers.