tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57193321491377114342024-03-18T14:02:31.821+11:00Leon's CRM MusingsA blog focused on Dynamics CRM aimed at project sponsors, users and non-technical administrators. Read three of my articles and if something is of interest, read more, otherwise check out some of the other excellent CRM blogs at https://community.dynamics.com/product/crm/b/default.aspxLeon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.comBlogger250125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-37547146157291167342015-12-28T01:44:00.002+11:002015-12-28T01:44:25.858+11:00My New Blog HomeAlas, it appears Microsoft’s Live Writer is no longer supported by Blogger so
I have finally moved to WordPress (<a href="http://thatcrmblog.wordpress.com/">http://thatcrmblog.wordpress.com</a>).<br />
There will be a bit of a transition as I tweak the layout but I promise the
orange is gone.<br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-56695898118403011262015-12-23T22:24:00.000+11:002015-12-23T22:29:49.995+11:00Dynamic QR Codes for Dynamics CRM<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
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For some reason, Live Writer is failing to publish to Blogger which makes writing blogs tricky. Combined with the travel I am doing this Christmas means it will be tricky for me to knock out my usual three blogs a month. Either way have a great Christmas break ;)</span><br />
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I recently had a demo where I needed to generate QR Codes for CRM
records and then make the codes available for printing. The scenario was for
events where the QR code would appear on the invitee’s email and then the
recipient could print it and be scanned at the event to confirm their
attendance. This was something I had never done before and I was not sure it
could be done. Generating QR codes is easy but dynamically generating a unique
QR code for every Contact record in CRM and make it available for marketing is
something else. Thankfully a bit of research (and a tiny bit of code later) and
I was good to go.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What to Code</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">QR Codes can code practically any text you like. In this case I
needed to code the web address for a Contact record. Every record in CRM has a
unique web address which you can see when you click the ‘Email a Link’ button. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwg5wmpuyPwIHppL-FjyhcUf4fq4S7-Z51vKrgRfrnbabkyY0OlIpDbu368PXz4VxfgWJDJaxUaXYDLv1bldehD3jmqQ-U9lCADvQIicmKA_KeiC7k_ttXfGBQuZqHbWY2H_-vc0ll6IfR/s1600/emailalink.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwg5wmpuyPwIHppL-FjyhcUf4fq4S7-Z51vKrgRfrnbabkyY0OlIpDbu368PXz4VxfgWJDJaxUaXYDLv1bldehD3jmqQ-U9lCADvQIicmKA_KeiC7k_ttXfGBQuZqHbWY2H_-vc0ll6IfR/s400/emailalink.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Generating the Code</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The trick to generating the QR Code is the <a href="https://developers.google.com/chart/infographics/docs/qr_codes" target="_blank"><span style="color: #de7008;">Google Charts API</span></a>. In
short, you construct the right URL and Google renders it as a QR code on the
fly. For example, here is the QR code for my blog:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=www.leontribe.blogspot.com" title="https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=www.leontribe.blogspot.com"><span style="color: #de7008;">https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=www.leontribe.blogspot.com</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The API for QR codes is deprecated i.e. no longer supported by
Google, but Google says it will remain active in the foreseeable future.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now all we have to do is bring the CRM URL and the QR Code
generator together, put the result in a field then add it to an email and we
are set.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bringing it Home</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The first step is to access the unique web address of the record.
To do this I use a workflow to populate a field on the Contact form with the
record’s URL on creation.</span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Leon%20Tribe2/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter1286139640/supfiles2E5A53C9/image6.png"><span style="color: #de7008; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The unique web address of the record is a special field accessible
in workflows. Just look for ‘Record URL’.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf4S6MLkHkxzJUQ9DY79m1f2BuphPJAeg5r_7RFRvZqIEG_5uWhKd9zP7VMGzrJa0320fawgCanTjN7nBXQxSGojb4uK_nN5vc1DeZ3xbY63U8-lhrYKUHElqV_XaPMlE4nhlCExmJjWci/s1600/urlrecord.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="82" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf4S6MLkHkxzJUQ9DY79m1f2BuphPJAeg5r_7RFRvZqIEG_5uWhKd9zP7VMGzrJa0320fawgCanTjN7nBXQxSGojb4uK_nN5vc1DeZ3xbY63U8-lhrYKUHElqV_XaPMlE4nhlCExmJjWci/s640/urlrecord.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The next step is to construct the web address and put it into the
QR Code field so that when it is clicked, or added to an email, it will display
the QR code.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In principle, this could also be done with a workflow but when I
tried it would not work. It turns out the ‘&’ characters in the CRM URL for
the Contact record confuses the Google API and we need to ‘encode’ the URL.
This means replacing the ‘&’ with ‘%26’. Unfortunately I cannot do this
with workflows or calculated fields so I needed to get some code written to do
this and populate the QR Code field. Thanks to Steven Zhang for his flawless
code (I have not got permission to provide the code but if you bribe your local
dev they should be able to replicate the code without too much difficulty).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The end result is two populated fields on the Contact record which
get populated on the Contact’s creation: one is a URL to the record and the
other generates a QR code which, when scanned, also goes to the record.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikrXT56ycpS40cijHwa4T1qQvQpD2lssxvkxBXe1qfJwZHwcdcby32rEUQLVsvWs6nru8aV3cclVhEUKDALmRHAuKdDoU3Z3dS2bstC4EwyggVxiSZNHvdR8exLNuuGCXcOLzBTT9qAJO_/s1600/JL_final.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikrXT56ycpS40cijHwa4T1qQvQpD2lssxvkxBXe1qfJwZHwcdcby32rEUQLVsvWs6nru8aV3cclVhEUKDALmRHAuKdDoU3Z3dS2bstC4EwyggVxiSZNHvdR8exLNuuGCXcOLzBTT9qAJO_/s320/JL_final.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the case of our demo, we used ClickDimensions which allows you
to add the web address of an image to an email template to be rendered on
delivery, which was perfect.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Conclusions</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The ability to generate QR codes on the fly for CRM records is
very powerful. In this case I am using it for Contact records for events, but
it could also be used for products for picking slips, for event flyers or to
link with Adxstudio portals to direct non-CRM users to forms or sites so they
can interact through the CRM portal.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even outside of Dynamics CRM, the Google API for generating QR
codes is a great tool to have in the toolkit.</span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-46566183184189098562015-11-30T00:00:00.001+11:002015-11-30T00:00:30.750+11:00Calculating the Day of the Week Without Code<p>This blog is inspired by a forum post I read where someone asked to display the day of the week in a CRM view. Unfortunately, I cannot find the request now but it is possible (and without code).</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZsLOggR7fgo/Vlr2u1DX02I/AAAAAAAADmY/4HWetLsNyiI/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ASvp3vo4tVo/Vlr2wNImo8I/AAAAAAAADmc/63QFrYtdr6Y/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="851" height="417" /></a></p> <p>In the above, the Input Date is the date we want the date for and the Day of the Week shows the correct day.</p> <h3>The Calculation</h3> <p>For this one we need the following fields.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AK_AOpauqwY/Vlr2wu1alNI/AAAAAAAADmg/qKUJNn05YJU/s1600-h/image%25255B42%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QKuRdIOTvu0/Vlr2xyYocXI/AAAAAAAADmk/Dz-zZ2h7JDw/image_thumb%25255B23%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="824" height="462" /></a></p> <p>Working backwards:</p> <ul> <li>Day of the Week: An option set of the days of the week (set via a workflow)</li> <li>DOTW Number: A Whole Number which shows a number representing the correct day of the week  <br />(a calculated field and, in this case, a number between –3 and 3)</li> <li>Dodgy DIV: Strictly speaking, not a mathematical DIV but close enough for our purposes. In our case, this represents the week our Input Date is in. It is a calculated field.</li> <li>Input Date: The date of interest, entered by the user.</li> <li>Reference Date: A date we know the day of the week for. In this case, 1/1/2015 which was a Thursday</li> </ul> <p>To anyone outside of the USA, Belize, or the Federated States of Micronesia, I apologize for using “Middle Endian” formatting for my dates. It is a blatant play to the American market on my behalf and does not affect the calculations.</p> <p>In terms of the Reference Date, my preference was to incorporate this into the Dodgy DIV calculation but I could not figure out how to input a fixed date e.g. “01/01/2015” into the calculated field. CRM either thought it was an integer or thought it was a string. If anyone knows how to do this, please leave a comment at the end.</p> <p>Given I could not feed my reference date directly into the Dodgy DIV calculation, I had to automatically enter it into a field via a Business Rule. Here it is.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mb9pEGqZqHI/Vlr2yZVYYBI/AAAAAAAADmo/qBxsRkMQcE0/s1600-h/image%25255B41%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BDMMdoVihuM/Vlr2zXyiudI/AAAAAAAADmw/-a2Qon35gaU/image_thumb%25255B22%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="821" height="630" /></a></p> <p>I tried using the Set Default Value action but struggled to get it to behave so I just used the Set Value action in the end. I also was forced to put in a condition so I selected one which is always true.</p> <p>With this value set, I could then calculate the Dodgy DIV.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WEaVde5C9mI/Vlr20AzxNRI/AAAAAAAADm0/1bKqCZkPHzk/s1600-h/image%25255B40%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2nKbTnO7zuw/Vlr21K4I1CI/AAAAAAAADm4/BBVDmpnvE0M/image_thumb%25255B21%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="824" height="452" /></a></p> <p>A couple of issues with this formula, which is why it is dodgy. What I wanted it to do was calculate the difference in days between 1/1/2015 and our Input Date and then divide it by seven. It turns out that the DiffInDays function has a pretty huge bug in it, in that it gets the difference in days wrong. I found that if I put in the same two dates into the DiffInDays formula, it returned –1 and not 0, as expected. This is why I add one.</p> <p>The second issue is, in C (the language I used to code in a loong time ago), if you divided two numbers and put them into an integer variable, it rounded down, effectively being a DIV operation. Dynamics CRM does not play this way and applies a normal rounding operation (x.5 or more goes up and less than x.5 goes down).</p> <p>Using my Dodgy DIV, I can now calculate the day of the week. The DOTW Number (Day of the Week Number) is also a calculated field.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8XZK90XhelI/Vlr21nGAQKI/AAAAAAAADm8/v8XDCFo2U8Q/s1600-h/image%25255B39%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DmSzP2197Hc/Vlr22a8nmnI/AAAAAAAADnA/j7HSuN_ii34/image_thumb%25255B20%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="825" height="363" /></a></p> <p>This is where the clever trick comes in (if I do say so myself). Here we calculate the difference in days again, add one to account for the bug in the DiffInDays formula and take away the Dodgy DIV value, multiplied by 7. Because the Dodgy DIV field has applied a rounding, the difference is the Modulus (also know as the remainder) or it would be for a pure DIV function. In our case we generate a number between –3 and 3, rather than a number between 0 and 6.</p> <p>Finally, we have our days of the week. Unfortunately there is no simple way to set the Option Set Value with a formula using a number so I had to use a real time workflow.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i_PMgw-bptA/Vlr23dM6HsI/AAAAAAAADnE/zxnISznOMe4/s1600-h/image%25255B38%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SqpympDDS9U/Vlr24V-mDJI/AAAAAAAADnI/4znWtfL7OgQ/image_thumb%25255B19%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="826" height="453" /></a></p> <p>The workflow is triggered on creation of the record and on the changing of the Input Date field. There are seven IF statements, one for each day of the week, linking the DOTW Number to the right day.</p> <p>Once all of this is done it works like a treat, with the day value being set on the saving of the record. It is then a case of adding the Day of the Week field to the view you want to see it in.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7qDtuS4iylQ/Vlr25jvy4cI/AAAAAAAADnM/gkV_Wr4MU58/s1600-h/image%25255B37%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DQwISaF3Eoo/Vlr27fTJafI/AAAAAAAADnU/V5aMNVlWacA/image_thumb%25255B18%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="851" height="417" /></a></p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>I like this solution as it opens the way for quite a few other requests seen in CRM systems. For example, with the day of the week we can check whether a day is a work day when setting an appointment. Although I have not fully figured it out how yet, I imagine we could also use a similar technique to work out the number of working days between two dates. So many possibilities thanks to calculated fields.</p> <p>If you are not exploring how calculated fields can help you manage your business processes in Dynamics CRM, perhaps you should because, as you can see above, they open up a wealth of options, previously inaccessible, without using code.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-48123134029125919772015-11-24T00:36:00.001+11:002015-11-24T00:36:03.711+11:00The Salesforce Drinking Game<p> </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0wUihqGfAxs/VlMWIF08HuI/AAAAAAAADlI/DHmQdmGj-sQ/s1600-h/salesforcebeer4.png"><img title="salesforcebeer" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="salesforcebeer" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dZXUU-yAB3I/VlMWL_q-lYI/AAAAAAAADlM/c8vDrj5YAqY/salesforcebeer_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="816" height="400" /></a></p> <p>Here is the Salesforce drinking game I play when listening to the quarterly transcripts (because even I have to make it a little more interesting). You pour a drink every time they mention Non-GAAP. You get to take away a drink if they mention GAAP. <br /> <br />I currently have 12 drams of one of Scotland’s more affordable single malts in front of me thanks to the drinking game. Every quarterly review from now on I will report the ‘dram count’ for the report. Given this may run my whisky supplies dry, I am open to sponsorship by whisky makers or bottle donations (come on Marc, I know you are good for it). All contributions welcome.</p> <p>Why is Non-GAAP so important to the quarterly reports? Because it allows Salesforce to turn their persistent losses into a mythical profit. If they applied the same accounting treatment to their carbon emissions, they could claim that every time you use Salesforce, a glacier grows.</p> <p>I fully expect to detox when Salesforce turn a profit because all of their reporting will transform into GAAP numbers. Until then, here is mud in your eye.</p> <h3>Numbers of Note</h3> <p>Normally I post the big table of numbers. I will still use the big table of numbers but it strikes me you are probably more interested in the insights than the data so I will still be using the same numbers, just not filling up the blog with the table. For those new to the game, I take my numbers from <a href="http://investor.salesforce.com/about-us/investor/overview/default.aspx" target="_blank">Salesforce’s own website</a> but rather than use the ‘creative’ numbers of their press releases, I use the ones they report to the SEC because you get in trouble if they are wrong.</p> <h4>Profitability</h4> <p>In the last two quarters, Salesforce was heading in the right direction. A rental adjustment meant a tiny profit was turned in quarter one and the loss was not huge in quarter two but, unfortunately Salesforce are back to their usual form this quarter with a $25m loss. Compared to the losses of the past (Salesforce lost a little over a quarter of a billion dollars last financial year) it is not huge but still, it is not a profit.</p> <h4>Transaction Growth</h4> <p>I predicted last quarter that transactions would go flat. Fortunately, for Salesforce, I was wrong.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BJgIyH7CPbE/VlMWMmfWIKI/AAAAAAAADlQ/nLBSlQpgdHw/s1600-h/image3.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UdwTdeoiR7U/VlMWNXaD4oI/AAAAAAAADlU/Ee_f2QWKGjY/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="753" height="453" /></a> </p> <p>Transaction growth, which had been steadily falling, had an uptick this quarter, back to 16% growth.</p> <h4>Revenue and Cost Growth</h4> <p>The year on year revenue and cost growth tell a story about Salesforce’s history and gives insight on where they are heading.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UzuOkCfb818/VlMWN4xUdmI/AAAAAAAADlY/CFoO0YBCYkg/s1600-h/image7.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OLZZBXE3DsY/VlMWPDcF4MI/AAAAAAAADlc/dsJf8vQvk-Y/image_thumb3.png?imgmax=800" width="746" height="480" /></a></p> <p>If we look at where the solid green and red lines cross, we see three periods in the history of Salesforce.</p> <h5></h5> <h5>The Sensible Years (before 2011 Q1 i.e. before 2010)</h5> <p>Before 2011 Q1, that is 2010, revenue growth was on top. The business flourished combining high revenue growth with increasing profits and market share. Accounting did not have to be creative and the business could do no wrong. Here is the <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/call-transcript.aspx?StoryId=191063&Title=salesforce-com-inc-f4q10-qtr-end-1-31-10-earnings-call-transcript" target="_blank">transcript from 2010 Q4</a> where, not surprisingly, reporting was in GAAP numbers. This changed, and in <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/call-transcript.aspx?StoryId=221469&Title=salesforce-com-ceo-discusses-f2q2011-results-earnings-call-transcript" target="_blank">2011 Q2, we had a mix of GAAP and Non-GAAP reporting</a> and we finally transitioned to <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/call-transcript.aspx?StoryId=254989&Title=salesforce-com-s-ceo-discusses-q4-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript" target="_blank">full Non-GAAP reporting in 2011 Q4</a>, just prior to the losses appearing.</p> <h5>The Aggressive Years (2011 Q1 to 2015 Q1 i.e. between 2010 and 2014)</h5> <p>This is when marketing and sales costs grew faster than revenues, thus the creative accounting. The official line is the strategy ensured aggressive market share growth. My interpretation is the executive, being compensated in shares, wanted to maintain the share price while they offloaded their holdings (the executive have consistently sold their shares in Salesforce despite their optimism for the company). With the market fixated on revenue growth, the decision was made to sacrifice profit to ensure revenues continued to go through the roof. Non-GAAP reporting helped hide the losses which resulted.</p> <p>Interestingly, Salesforce only started making a loss a year into this period (just after the switch to Non-GAAP reporting) so if you wanted to predict when Salesforce would go into the red, the growth chart above predicted it a year in advance. For Salesforce, revenue and cost growth is an excellent leading indicator.</p> <h5>The Buyout Years (2015 Q1 to the present i.e. 2014 onwards)</h5> <p>Since 2014, Salesforce has focussed on getting marketing and sales spend under control and they are doing a pretty good job of it. The last couple of quarters, the growth difference has been a consistent 5%. If revenue and cost growth is a leading indicator, this suggests profitability in the near future.</p> <p>As suggested in my labelling of this period, and influenced by recent events, I see this as the executive getting the books in order for a buyout.</p> <p>The idea of a return to profitability is also backed up by the margin graph.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EapI8H4q6w4/VlMWPuwNjhI/AAAAAAAADlg/POV8K21o8NI/s1600-h/image15.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5d_PcC1H9yM/VlMWQvjeseI/AAAAAAAADlk/HHLNuel6X4g/image_thumb7.png?imgmax=800" width="808" height="463" /></a></p> <p>While the solid blue line is all over the shop, the four-period trend line is heading upwards towards the positive.</p> <h3>Earnings Call Buzzword Bingo</h3> <p>Here is the list of words mentioned 10 or more time in the last five quarters</p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600" border="1"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>2015 Q3</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>2015 Q4</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>2016 Q1</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>2016 Q2</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>2016 Q3</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Number of words</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>3922</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>4017</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>3495</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>4175</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>5147</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Customers/Customer</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>34</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>23</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>34</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>42</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>41</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Revenue</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>26</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>25</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>24</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>18</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>16</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Cloud</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>47</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>32</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>28</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>20</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>18</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Platform(s)</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>27</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>18</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>14</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>16</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>13</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Service</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>12</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>5</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>9</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>13</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>4</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Growth</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>16</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>13</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>16</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>17</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>21</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Cash</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>9</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>10</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>8</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Operating</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>8</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>20</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>13</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>8</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Dreamforce</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>14</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>2</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>1</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>21</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>7</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Analytics</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>14</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>9</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>4</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>1</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="223"> <p>Software</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>12</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>4</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>9</p> </td> <td valign="bottom" width="75"> <p>10</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p>Sadly we lost ‘Marketing’ and ‘Enterprise(s)’ which seem to no longer be a focus. I have heard mixed reports on the success of the ExactTarget acquisition which may explain why Marc is moving away from talking about it. In terms why ‘enterprise’ is on the nose, I assume Salesforce is no longer bringing in the big deals they used to brag about so much.</p> <p>As for other trends in the words, ‘Revenue’ mentions are steadily declining as the business slows down. Talk of the cloud and Salesforce as a platform is also diminishing. Marc says the literally hundreds of CEOs he talked to in the quarter do not care about the cloud, but about their customers so maybe this is to blame. This being said, one of the key selling points of the past was the Force platform so to move away from this is curious.</p> <h3>Google Trends</h3> <p>I am dropping the Google trends from the quarterly report. Dynamic CRM has won the Google search war and is the more international product. To replace it, I am adding the ‘Truth in Transcripts’ section below.</p> <h3>Insider and Institutional Sales</h3> <p>It is a Black Friday sale for the shares of Salesforce.</p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2015 Q3</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2015 Q4</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2016 Q1</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2016 Q2</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2016 Q3</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Insider Sales</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.70%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.60%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.50%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.40%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.90%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Institutional Sales</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3.20%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3.11%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3.04%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>5.87%</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p>As I predicted last quarter, the insiders (such as the board) have increased their selling and the institutions are also selling out, going from selling 3% of their holdings to almost 6%. The insiders are getting nervous? Do they think the price of the shares is about to crash?</p> <h3>Looking to the Future</h3> <p>I predicted Salesforce would break even but they made a 25 million dollar loss so no joy there. In terms of revenues, I was 4% off which is not too bad. Next quarter I predict $1.8b in revenue and another $25m loss.</p> <h3>Truth in Transcripts</h3> <p>My new section where I examine the claims made in the quarterly transcript and challenge them in reference to the GAAP numbers reported to the SEC. All quotes taken from the <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/3697236-salesforce-coms-crm-ceo-marc-benioff-on-q3-2016-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single" target="_blank">Seeking Alpha transcript</a>.</p> <p>Here are the creative claims this quarter:</p> <p>“And of course, Salesforce, as you can see will be the fourth largest software company in the world next year, but you can see that we'll be one of the only software companies ever to reach $10 billion in revenue.” – Marc Benioff</p> <p>I think this was a genuine mistake by Marc. I think he meant to say “…$10 billion in revenue within <x> years”. Microsoft alone pulls in over $20b a quarter in revenue so the statement is clearly wrong.</p> <p> </p> <p>“…we also delivered…margin improvement” – Marc Benioff</p> <p>In Non-GAAP terms perhaps. In GAAP terms, margins fell 1.4%. As shown above though, the longer term trend suggests things may improve in the future. </p> <p> </p> <p>“…we are also deeply committed to continuing to increase our profitability, and the results this year are evidence of that.” – Marc Benioff</p> <p>“From a bottomline perspective, we delivered another quarter of improving profitability.” – Mark Hawkins</p> <p>GAAP margins have gone down each quarter this financial year as have profits with the last two quarters showing a loss. The long term trend is positive but this quarter, and the previous one were not great for margin improvement.</p> <p> </p> <p>So the misdirection is mostly around profitability. Clearly this is the chink in the Salesforce armour. It is really difficult for them to make as much noise as they do through marketing and make a profit.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>Salesforce continues to struggle with making the business profitable and, while things have improved compared to the aggressive years, the executive are still wrestling to stabilise the business. If they can keep revenue growth above cost growth they should be ok but it is clearly hard for them to keep costs under control. As usual, I look forward to the next quarter to see if management solve the riddle of making a profit or whether they will continue to keep me drinking, stick with the Non-GAAP fairytales and pretend the ship is in calm waters, rather than admitting it is heading for an iceberg.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-82628494684542655522015-11-14T22:54:00.001+11:002015-11-14T22:54:34.874+11:00Post MVP Summit Roundup<p> </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zZ86Ak6Pk48/Vkcg5Ud-ZvI/AAAAAAAADkI/2ymGzIkai60/s1600-h/mvps2015%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="mvps2015" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="mvps2015" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pEvCtR1bMRA/Vkcg6QMkabI/AAAAAAAADkM/Z3_uYQ7lBDs/mvps2015_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="445" height="592" /></a></p> <p>Another Summit comes to an end and I am back in Australia waiting until next November. In the photo, I am in green mid-way up on the left in front of CRM greats Chris Cognetta and Gustaf Westerlund.</p> <h3>What is the MVP Summit?</h3> <p>The MVP Summit is one of the bigger perks for being a Microsoft MVP. Every year, Microsoft hosts a conference exclusively for all of the MVPs across all products. This year about 2,000 MVPs came to Redmond to meet their respective product teams and learn about what is coming up with their product.</p> <p>Meeting the CRM product team is great but, just as delightful, is meeting my fellow MVPs from around the world. About 50 of the world’s CRM MVPs made it to Summit this year and I am yet to meet an MVP I did not like. Their passion and willingness to share their knowledge is incredible.</p> <p>The days were spent in presentations with the Microsoft CRM product team.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NPQaF-mN6js/Vkcg7H8ikoI/AAAAAAAADkQ/pW1UPX57H0c/s1600-h/14fbc396-3dd8-4e02-a32e-3fec91a9e679%2525281%252529%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img title="14fbc396-3dd8-4e02-a32e-3fec91a9e679(1)" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="14fbc396-3dd8-4e02-a32e-3fec91a9e679(1)" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6AcU47CGiPc/Vkcg8AK1IXI/AAAAAAAADkY/5t6HB1sEnYs/14fbc396-3dd8-4e02-a32e-3fec91a9e679%2525281%252529_thumb%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="882" height="297" /></a></p> <p>but there was also time for a bit of socialising after hours.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_CI6sNOdxlEPcJaTy6XOTD5XSw0zAbUcdBCOF4qQJnCN48M_WYLO27QOd35aYCZ9mDBUnVtGwQSI33aUwTpuQf22wSuPgN1-nsrHOv5W_qqhQGC_IyhBVPEmt0hLQiftXteuhyphenhyphenDLsoJ6/s1600-h/mvps_maggianos%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="mvps_maggianos" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="mvps_maggianos" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xqFeRTeDk4k/Vkcg-H16iKI/AAAAAAAADko/K6My5x5HCso/mvps_maggianos_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="876" height="494" /></a></p> <p>Lots was learned both on the Redmond campus and off campus.</p> <h3>What Did You Learn?</h3> <p>Unfortunately, much of what is discussed at MVP Summit is under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). If I reveal too much I get kicked out of the MVP program. To be honest, the roadmaps and directions of the product are subject to change and refinement so there is little value in publicising a feature only for it to slip another six to twelve months.</p> <h3>What Can You Tell Us?</h3> <p>The good news is some of our time with the product team was spent reviewing the changes coming in Dynamics CRM 2016, as described in the Preview Guide, which <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/review-of-latest-dynamics-crm-release.html" target="_blank">I went through a few weeks ago</a>. With it being tricky to get demos of the complementary products to Dynamics CRM such as Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, seeing them in the flesh gave me a much better appreciation for their capabilities so I thought I would go through some of my takeaways for what is coming towards the end of this year. To play it safe, I will focus on the products reviewed in the Preview Guide (although Field One looks really good!).</p> <h3>Parature</h3> <p>Parature got as much coverage as it did in the Review Guide i.e. it was not shown at all. Read into this what you will.</p> <h3>Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (MDM)</h3> <p>We got to see first-hand the SMS Marketing capabilities coming in the next version. You can send SMS messaging out, with custom fields and the recipients can reply for actions such as unsubscribing. Imagine doing a mass email in CRM and the experience is similar. If SMS marketing is important to your business and you are already using MDM, this will be a welcome addition. Unfortunately it will only be available in limited markets initially which does not include Australia. Given SMS marketing is not that big over here, I can wait.</p> <h3>CRM App for Outlook</h3> <p>This is not to be confused with the Outlook Client for Dynamics CRM. The CRM App for Outlook is an add-on to Outlook.com which allows tracking of emails, creating contacts, and the opening of CRM records directly from the outlook.com interface. This is huge for a bunch of reasons but one reason is it gives people with Apples the ability to track, which was not previously possible. Seeing it in action really brought home how useful this will be.</p> <h3>OneDrive for Business</h3> <p>OneDrive will now be a document store for Dynamics CRM. Its behaviour will be slightly different to SharePoint in regards to security and visibility. While SharePoint security is managed by SharePoint with documents being visible to all who can access the store, regardless of CRM access, OneDrive security its with the CRM user.</p> <p>So, if a user adds a document to a OneDrive store in CRM, unless they share it, only they can see it in CRM. If another user goes to the same CRM record, the document will not be visible until the author shares it.</p> <p>Initially I thought this was a bad thing but, on reflection, it simply provides options when implementing the system. For example, let us say CRM is being used for storing counselling sessions. While the fact that a meeting was scheduled may be public, the visibility of the notes of the meeting can now be controlled by the counsellor.</p> <h3>Interactive Service Hub</h3> <p>We got to see these first hand and, for service centres, this is a big leap forward. While managing cases is handled very well in Dynamics CRM, doing it in volume is hard. The new service hub seeks to address this by providing tools for high volume call centers. There is also a new form type, specifically for the service hub to help with efficient case processing. My preference would have been to bring the benefits of the new form type to the normal form layout but perhaps this will happen in time.</p> <h3>Mobile Offline Support</h3> <p>We saw this in action and it works in a similar way to the Outlook client’s offline capability with the playback graph. I am very happy for this one and to see it uses mechanisms already familiar to the product team gives me confidence it will do the job.</p> <h3>Next Generation Search</h3> <p>This was another feature demonstrated which, in effect, takes the columns of results generated by the universal search tool and compiles them into one list making good guesses as to the most relevant record. I like the idea of it and, if the universal search is activated for many entities it should make finding records much easier.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>I was excited when I did my original summary of the Review Guide but seeing the functions in the flesh at Summit has made me realise how much effort Microsoft is putting into the product and how efficient they are at achieving results. We really are seeing the kinds of innovation in 12 months we used to see in three or four years in the past. I now have two things to look forward to; the release of CRM 2016 and next year’s MVP Summit in November.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-51145311008802671632015-10-31T01:41:00.001+11:002015-10-31T01:41:14.905+11:00Questions for Summit<p>A short blog today. In 12 hours I get on a plane and fly halfway around the world to one of my favourite cities in the world, Seattle. The weather is lousy but the people are great. Think Portlandia with more tech.</p> <p>The reason for my crazy-long trip is the annual pilgrimage to Microsoft’s Mecca, Redmond to meet up with my fellow CRM MVPeeps and the CRM Product Team at the MVP Summit. Every year I get a few days to hang out with some of the best and brightest and talk CRM amongst other topics, especially after a few Mac and Jacks.</p> <p>The reason for the blog is not to wax lyrical about the trip but to send out a call to arms. If you have questions or demands for the MVP Product Team, put them in the comments and I’ll pass them on. If the answer is not in violation of my NDA, I’ll even tell you what they said in response <img class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-winkingsmile" style="border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none" alt="Winking smile" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WjVzKFBjMHE/VjOBiRbdIyI/AAAAAAAADjo/JoDJNcFXKvU/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" /></p> <p>See you in Seattle, my MVP comrades <img class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-winkingsmile" style="border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none" alt="Winking smile" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WjVzKFBjMHE/VjOBiRbdIyI/AAAAAAAADjo/JoDJNcFXKvU/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" /></p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-84769122658682678932015-10-25T11:21:00.001+11:002015-10-25T11:21:34.088+11:00Four Acquisitions To Make Dynamics CRM Awesome<h3>Saluting One of the Greats</h3> <p>I am sad to report that the Dynamics CRM MVPs will soon lose one of their most passionate voices. </p> <p>Shan McArthur, the CEO/CTO of Adxstudio Inc. is about to lose his MVP status. This is a shame because the MVP community will be lesser for it. MVPs are sometimes accused of being the Polyannas of our product; the public relations arm of Microsoft, but Shan proves this is not the case. </p> <p>In the time I have known him, (he has been an MVP as long as I have) Shan fought passionately to turn Dynamics CRM from being a great product to being the best it can be. Shan is unflinching in giving feedback to Microsoft on how to improve their product, sometimes in the MVP channels, sometimes face to face.</p> <p>Has Microsoft cut him off for not being “Disney” enough? Have they silenced the “No” in a room full of “Yes’”? Not at all, they have acquired his company and put him on the payroll. The MVPs’ loss is Microsoft’s gain. He can no longer be an MVP because you cannot be an MVP and work for Microsoft. </p> <p>This decision also speaks to the character of Microsoft and shows a maturity not always seen at the big end of town. It makes me proud to be associated with them.</p> <p>Fortunately, Shan lives near Redmond so there will be opportunity for those of us left behind to catch up with him when we converge on Microsoft for the annual MVP Summit.</p> <h3>What Adxstudio Brings to the CRM Table</h3> <p>Adxstudio brings a couple of things to CRM. Firstly, Shan has created a range of great tools for organisations developing for CRM. Microsoft now owns these and, presumably, they will continue to innovate the tools and make them available to the CRM development community. Secondly, Microsoft obtains Adxstudio Portals. Adxstudio Portals turns Dynamics CRM into a content management system with its own web portal. </p> <p>For the online version of Adxstudio Portals, this web site is hosted by Adxstudio themselves (presumably on Azure). For on-premise, you have the web site on your IIS. Moreover, Adxstudio Portals comes with templates and add-ons for different website functionalities, like a web forum, which get added into CRM as solution files. Too easy.</p> <p>Adxstudio fills the gap of a portal for CRM, a common business requirement. </p> <p>This had me thinking which other third party add-ons would take Dynamics CRM from great to unassailable, if Microsoft acquired them.</p> <h3><a href="http://clickdimensions.com/" target="_blank">ClickDimensions</a></h3> <p>There is often confusion over this one because of Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (MDM). Does CRM need ClickDimensions if we have MDM, albeit at a cost? The fact is while both augment Dynamics CRM’s marketing capabilities, their value propositions are very different. MDM is a comprehensive marketing management tool, the result of the <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-buys-marketing-automation-firm-marketingpilot/" target="_blank">acquisition of MarketingPilot</a>. It covers everything from media buying to document collaboration. In principle, your marketing department could run MDM even if you do not use Dynamics CRM.</p> <p>On the other hand, ClickDimensions is built on Dynamics CRM and strengthens a number of weak areas in the product, providing many marketing features required by businesses using a CRM system such as:</p> <ul> <li>Mass communications and monitoring tools </li> <li>Surveys </li> <li>Lead scoring </li> </ul> <p>Because ClickDimensions is ‘all in’ with Dynamics CRM, all of the data it generates is held within CRM entities and, just as CRM gains functionality from ClickDimensions, ClickDimensions gains functionality from Dynamics CRM, such as the analytics capabilities and workflow engine.</p> <p>While the competitors have isolated, loosely-connected ‘clouds’ of sales and marketing functionality, by acquiring ClickDimensions, Microsoft gains a single product with comprehensive capability across both sales and marketing.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.resco.net/mobilecrm/" target="_blank">Resco</a>/<a href="http://www.cwrmobility.com/cwr-mobile-crm/" target="_blank">CWR Mobility</a></h3> <p>It is true that Dynamics CRM has mobile functionality, in terms of cross browser/device compatibility and apps in the various stores to access CRM, but the functionality has its limitations and there are products with pedigree in the market which take CRM to the next level.</p> <p>Two common mobile add-ons to Dynamics CRM are Resco and CWR Mobility. Both have similar functionality, although the preview videos suggest you need to develop CWR Mobility to meet some of the standard functionality of Resco.</p> <p>So what do these products offer which the mobile solutions of CRM do not have? Really, there are three key features which make them integral to the mobile experience:</p> <ul> <li>Linking the device’s GPS to CRM to show things like Accounts and Contacts nearby </li> <li>Linking to the device’s camera to capture images in the field and easily bring them into CRM </li> <li>Full offline capability (in the case of Resco) </li> </ul> <p>While the mobile clients from Microsoft seek to replicate the web client experience on the mobile device, these two third party tools go beyond this to integrate CRM with the features of the device.</p> <p>If Microsoft bought one of these two, their mobile client really would go from good to great.</p> <h3><a href="http://datahug.com" target="_blank">Datahug</a>/<a href="https://www.introhive.com/" target="_blank">Introhive</a></h3> <p>The ‘R’ in CRM stands for Relationship but CRM systems are more adept at capturing records than the relationships between them. So where do you go when Connections does not cut it? Datahug and Introhive seek to fill the gap using readily available corporate data sources, such as the company Exchange server.</p> <p>By seeing who is emailing whom and how often, not only can we improve the quality of the data we hold in our CRM system but also gain insight on how strong the relationship is and who may be able to provide an introduction. We can generate new leads, find other contacts at the companies we are targeting and see if the communication is two-way or decidedly going in one direction.</p> <p>These products provide huge value using information usually going to waste and, if built into CRM, would be a clear differentiator from the competition where big data is generated but insights are going wanting.</p> <h3><a href="http://experlogix.com/products/microsoft_dynamics_crm.php" target="_blank">Experlogix CPQ</a>/<a href="http://www.cincom.com/products/cpq/" target="_blank">Cincom CPQ</a></h3> <p>Out of the box, CRM is good at managing the sales of physical widgets but not so good outside of this. For service selling and recurring revenue sales, CRM is a little weak. Also, for scenarios involving products with complex setup e.g. purchasing the parts to make a bicycle, it is very hard to put the dependency rules in. This last scenario is solved with  a Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) solution, such as those produced by Experlogix and Cincom.</p> <p>By acquiring add-ons which go beyond simple product sales, again, CRM will gain a significant edge on its competitors.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>Every software product has areas for improvement and Dynamics CRM is no exception and there is always a balance to be struck between building innovation and acquiring it. It is great news that Microsoft has acquired Adxstudios because of the power Adxstudio Portals brings to the Dynamics CRM platform. Perhaps some of these other products will, in the near future, also join Microsoft’s ranks taking Dynamics CRM to a new level.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-23028315297548872142015-10-16T23:04:00.001+11:002015-10-16T23:04:40.281+11:00Review of the Latest Dynamics CRM Release Preview Guide<p>I did a bit of an audit of my posts over the years and noticed I used to regularly review the ‘statements of direction’, now called the CRM <a href="http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/5/D/D5D38A09-6A5C-4DC0-8649-3A4F39A8F8F3/Microsoft_Dynamics_CRM_2016_Release_Preview_Guide.pdf" target="_blank">Release Preview Guide</a>. I thought it was a tradition worth reinstating.</p> <h3>What it Covers</h3> <p>The guide covers Dynamics CRM 2016 (on-premise and online), the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (MDM) 2016 Update, and the Microsoft Social Engagement (MSE) 2016 Update. Collectively, the guide refers to these as “Customer Engagement” solutions. Perhaps this is the new title for CRM and the other products. While not in the list of products at the front, Parature is also mentioned a bit further in. Perhaps Parature is not considered ‘core’ or will be absorbed into another product down the track (more of that later).</p> <p>In terms of when these changes will hit the market, history suggests sometime around early December.</p> <h3>The Themes</h3> <p>Whenever Microsoft develop a version of CRM, they use a couple of concepts to guide them. Firstly, they think of the kind of user they want to build for, often the “power user”; someone who is not an administrator or coder but knows how to suck the marrow out of the product.</p> <p>The second thing they use are themes. These are stated up front in the guide and, for CRM 2016, they are:</p> <ul> <li>Productivity: In this case it means deeper hooks into Office 365 </li> <li>Intelligence: Here they are referring to predictive analytics </li> <li>Mobility: Offline capabilities and a few other bits and pieces </li> <li>Unified Service: They talk about unifying their various service offerings such as Parature, Field One (a relatively new acquisition). This may be a polite way of saying they will absorb one product into another.</li> </ul> <p>When considering which features to develop, it is these principles which they use to prioritize their decisions and work out where the R&D dollars go.</p> <h3>What’s New?</h3> <p>The guide speaks in terms of “Marketing”, “Sales” and so on but is not necessarily product-specific. Because all the products are standalone, it does not make a lot of sense to me to talk about, say, three marketing features over two products so I will break down the highlights by product. While I touch on most features in the guide, some are either preview or, to this blogger, not compelling enough from an end user’s perspective to get excited about e.g. Unified Service Desk getting progress bars for installing.</p> <h3>Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (MDM)</h3> <h4>SMS Marketing</h4> <p>While I am not enamoured with SMS marketing as a concept (my experience with it is largely spam rather than intelligent campaigns) it is now available as part of MDM. The caveat here is it is available in ‘select markets’. For those of us in places like Australia this may mean there is no local provider on board and we will continue to recommend alternatives.</p> <p>One nice feature with the offering, assuming it will eventually be available in your market, is Inbound/outbound SMS. Blasting SMSes out to annoy phone users is common, being able to take feedback and act on it is interesting. I will be genuinely interested to see what MDM allows you to do with SMS feedback beyond “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE”.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0BkS2sJnhFw/ViDnFMfuTlI/AAAAAAAADf8/V5mEw_LWCAg/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VRIQ5N9nwsQ/ViDnG0sJmmI/AAAAAAAADgE/dVcy4seFTK4/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="835" height="638" /></a></p> <h4>Email Marketing</h4> <p>If I am reading it correctly, they have made the email editor more html and media library friendly. To be honest I am not sure what is available today in this regard but these seem like baseline requirements for email tools, rather than innovations. If the SMS integration is seen as a differentiator, this strikes me as making email product adequate. Looking at the screenshot in the guide I am thinking “so what?” Hopefully some of this might also make its way into Dynamics CRM where the best you can do is, effectively, a rich text email.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VA4wa8ccd5U/ViDnIAIkrQI/AAAAAAAADgM/jXVa7t4A8po/s1600-h/image%25255B7%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lRaO4f9r0Yw/ViDnJxFtm3I/AAAAAAAADgU/tI0Lw1JEsJI/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="803" height="550" /></a></p> <h3>Dynamics CRM</h3> <h4>CRM App for Outlook</h4> <p>Formerly available as a preview feature for North American organisations, Microsoft are releasing the CRM App for Outlook as a core part of the product. This is not the Outlook client we are familiar with but an add-on for the cloud version of Outlook available through Office 365. Unfortunately it only works for CRM Online but offers the promise of working practically everywhere. It is claimed it will support Firefox and Safari for Mac which I am very happy about; having to constantly beg Mac users to use Safari for Dynamics CRM is awkward.</p> <p>Also, being able to track emails outside of the Windows desktop version of Outlook is very exciting and, hopefully is not a crippled version like the folder tracking option (no, I really want to create a mail folder for every single one of my cases/opportunities/accounts/contacts/leads I am tracking email to!!).</p> <p><iframe style="height: 493px; width: 787px" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HiNpINvFKq8" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>Imagine opening, say, your Android tablet while on a plane, opening up Outlook through the browser, catching up on emails and setting up some leads for you to follow up when you get back to the office. Good stuff. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xfBo529klIU/ViDnMFOJlBI/AAAAAAAADgc/WrKpUse5DTE/s1600-h/image%25255B11%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zOgtLkutvC8/ViDnOuCnwsI/AAAAAAAADgk/d-Za88cZLi8/image_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="772" height="513" /></a></p> <p>As mentioned above, the app was previously only available for North American organizations but, hopefully, it will now be available to the rest of us.</p> <h4>Excel Integration</h4> <p>I was very happy when Microsoft fixed CRM Online to export lists as a proper Excel file, rather than the problematic xml of the past. Their next enhancement is to allow for the embedding of Excel within CRM. This was <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/getting-power-view-into-dynamics-crm.html" target="_blank">kind possible in the past</a> but was not elegant. How this works and how it interacts with the export feature I am yet to discover but, being quite an Excel fan, I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty with this one. As I touch on a bit further down, the guide suggests the experience will be seamless when merging to an Excel template.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KlTxv7TJ-7Q/ViDnQqjnARI/AAAAAAAADgs/9B3xUl-XnqY/s1600-h/image%25255B15%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_Te_LyeMmm0/ViDnSFjYDbI/AAAAAAAADg0/V-CadY_dF1o/image_thumb%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="762" height="560" /></a></p> <h4>Information Discovery</h4> <p>Microsoft have started integrating Office 365’s Delve with their products and Dynamics CRM is the latest. Delve is like a pro-active Enterprise Search. The claim is that while you are browsing CRM, the Delve window will be presenting relevant documentation e.g. the contract document when you open the CRM opportunity. I expect this kind of intelligent searching will become ubiquitous in the future but, for now, it is new and interesting. Given it is early days, I am interested in seeing how smart the search is. </p> <p>It also offers a new avenue for accessing those documents you maybe should not. For example, I can see people creating an Account called “company wage spreadsheet” and seeing what Delve serves. Obviously such things should be locked down but, too often, companies rely on obfuscation for their security where, in a world of intelligent machine learning, this will soon begin to haunt lazy IT departments and managers.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5WfC5iKInb7UCGKNzArRj2-ZIMC3PBurLvi6rDliFvxEp7jVgqY18n6xKCtSQkt342riQRpvhqz1239cF28fatAd35rjtr3kiAg8T7F2vdE2Vl6F1LVXC4nWUHTY_uXmAzmxEHWFbaN03/s1600-h/image%25255B19%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z7LohduBFtM/ViDnV5kle7I/AAAAAAAADhE/-cv0z4-vSm8/image_thumb%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="751" height="443" /></a></p> <h4>OneDrive for Business</h4> <p>In the past, if you did not want to store attachments in CRM notes, you had a choice of SharePoint or SharePoint. This has been expanded to allow access to OneDrive for Business. While OneDrive for Business is, ultimately, a special kind of SharePoint document store, a lot of the messing about has been removed so I believe this will be very appealing to many smaller CRM businesses relying on OneDrive for centralised storage. With most Office 365 plans getting 1Tb or more of free storage on OneDrive, this will save a lot on CRM storage costs.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rzNpTB7rBXc/ViDnXW3R4-I/AAAAAAAADhM/WfjwOYIMhls/s1600-h/image%25255B23%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Rx1pLRCOjnY/ViDnYZOjW2I/AAAAAAAADhU/UnfyzXqhD_0/image_thumb%25255B11%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="736" height="413" /></a></p> <h4>Document Generation</h4> <p>For me this is the big ticket item in this update. For anyone who has ever tried to generate a Word document from CRM, assuming you finally figured it out, you will know this is hard work. A recurring request on the forums is people asking how to add a subgrid to a Word template for when, for example, you are generating a quote with line items. If you cannot rely on the out of the box templates, it is a world of pain. I wish I could soften the blow on this one but I cannot. Word integration, until now, has been the reason so many documents are generated in SSRS; It is easier to get a developer in for a couple of days than it is to get CRM to talk effectively to the most popular document generator in the world.</p> <p>Thankfully, this has now gone away. Word and Excel (because we can also merge to Excel now) templates are managed with a wizard, rather than creating an empty document, importing it into CRM, cursing the crippling limitations of the field adding tools and so on. The wizard helps you set up the templates. No more Word VBA hacks or SSRS developer invoices.</p> <p>The generation of the documents from the templates is also hideously simple. You click the document generation button, select the template and you are done. Like the email editor for MDM, this also brings CRM to a level of adequacy in terms of document generation. It is not a big ticket item because it is a game changer, it is big ticket because it allows CRM to sit at the same table as its competitors. Well done Microsoft, Word merges are an embarrassment no more.</p> <h4>Voice of the Customer</h4> <p>CRM now comes with a survey tool. By the looks of it, it works like the Adxstudio form tool or the ClickDimensions survey tool in that you set up the template in CRM and then publish it for client interaction. The gotcha here is you need an Azure subscription to host the surveys. It is a shame SharePoint online is no longer able to publish web sites externally otherwise this feature could have been used as part of an Office 365 subscription. Perhaps this will evolve in the future, especially now that <a href="http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=00200049Q31Y" target="_blank">Adxstudio has been acquired by Microsoft</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v7SXwzMVRCc/ViDnfC5DIkI/AAAAAAAADhc/0L7ZUAIzmDc/s1600-h/image%25255B27%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CtU1WhEuNX0/ViDngZQjOkI/AAAAAAAADhg/omWTgyJPVEo/image_thumb%25255B13%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="795" height="620" /></a></p> <h4>Service Dashboards</h4> <p>Microsoft have built some nice looking dashboards for service management.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1WoNSXHsn3g/ViDnjASaOPI/AAAAAAAADhs/pB53mSx-lb0/s1600-h/image%25255B31%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AM3Du9oax3U/ViDnkq8_7YI/AAAAAAAADh0/VTP2mOHfscM/image_thumb%25255B15%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="446" height="282" /></a><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r4Z4Kdk3JX4/ViDnmicDLFI/AAAAAAAADh8/xxEH1N1ZM2Q/s1600-h/image%25255B35%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4PLGT-oy_lg/ViDnqkXvx1I/AAAAAAAADiE/EoXdGbRPrGM/image_thumb%25255B17%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="441" height="275" /></a></p> <p>The look and feel reminds me of MSE but, if I am reading the Guide right, they are normal dashboards with some fancy controls attached. Hopefully they will be editable, like normal dashboards, so they can be adjusted to meet a client’s need, rather than be just a good demo tool.</p> <h4>Knowledge Management</h4> <p>Like Word merges, managing KB articles was an area of weakness in the product. Thankfully, lessons have been learned from Parature and the knowledge management part of Dynamics CRM has been given a significant overhaul. </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCcS7Wp7jMl_xQLPPjOZgbefnrUyM60PPSxRGiyTAyQPuLQ_GpRHDRzi-KHU2RyQ1OsaaJChH5Z513i3v_vbb1qtfhEVQKSvkd2qDCpoGYqCV8M3Fzpu_b7kOnlAwlP5GOk_MX4I3Hwf9/s1600-h/image%25255B39%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBB9toVqg9irhudBLHGNK_sZAj6jY-6fVCMgcKoCQawztUT5CW2gJDa4mIFUnLzmaTXEZ51fSpcYzwyYVKMiaSJ3O-TPeCsTDV5pP_BktStpDRGHflmN7A5-Oh65fX-0cIpUhyphenhyphenLoWquj2X/?imgmax=800" width="873" height="558" /></a></p> <p>What strikes me as odd is why they are doing this when they already have Parature. In fact, with Adxstudio portals and better knowledge management, I am not sure Parature is as compelling as it once was. What Microsoft’s plans are for Parature (other than not considering it a core part of the Customer Engagement solutions) is not clear.</p> <h4>Mobile Offline Support</h4> <p>In a country like Australia, where a good part of the middle bit is sparsely populated desert, internet access is not always guaranteed. Also, unlike our American cousins, we do not yet have internet access in our planes. So having full offline support, like with the Outlook client, in a mobile client is great. The description in the guide suggests this is precisely what is coming. Very useful in a big, brown land.</p> <h4>Web Resource and IFRAME Support for Tablets</h4> <p>This is no longer a preview and will be a full feature of the product. Given the power of Web Resources and the consistency they bring to a user’s experience, I am very happy this is here. Many ISVs I know rely on Web Resources for their add-on products to work correctly. Hopefully this will now give them the power to move to tablets with minimal effort.</p> <h4>Data Encryption for CRM Online (Preview)</h4> <p>OK, so this is a preview feature for CRM Online and one which has little impact on the CRM user but it is one which I am very interested in watching. In essence, it allows the CRM data within the Microsoft data center to be encrypted in such a way that it is impossible for Microsoft to obtain access to that data. While rarely a deal breaker, one of the fears of going to the cloud are rules about what information the US government can request from US organizations at their whim. Companies are protective of their data and are reluctant to allow any third party to snoop on them outside of their knowledge or control. By encrypting the data and owning the encryption key, any third party will need to go through the company who is running CRM to access the information, not Microsoft.</p> <h4>Bulk Data Loader for CRM Online</h4> <p>More of an administrator’s tool than an end user thing, this is a new cloud-based import tool for CRM. What is exciting for me is it claims to allow for large data loads (there are significant limits on the sizes of data you can load through the import wizard) and to manage periodic imports/exports. Depending on how sophisticated it is, this could put quite the dent in Scribe sales and could also solve the problem of automated periodic reporting out of CRM Online.</p> <h3>Microsoft Social Engagement (MSE)</h3> <h4>Social Listening Channels</h4> <p>The big news here is RSS is coming to MSE. From memory, it was available in the first release of Social Listening but got turned off. It is back and makes MSE quite useful for channels outside of the big commercial ones or internal ones you might want to link to. I am hoping to link it to CRM’s OData and see what can be done.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZdFv2O-CXLE/ViDnv4DzchI/AAAAAAAADic/rHdTB4pqPls/s1600-h/image%25255B43%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_14tC2Nx2ZU/ViDnxDDSd9I/AAAAAAAADik/2VOMxWNFcAU/image_thumb%25255B21%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="854" height="663" /></a></p> <h4>Intelligent Social</h4> <p>Going beyond simple sentiment analysis, the next release of MSE will also try and determine if a message is a potential lead or case. If there is the ability to filter based on this, this is a very powerful feature. Imagine filtering through thousands of tweets automatically so you can focus on the ones which can help build your business or impact your reputation. Very exciting.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W4FL63g-PvM/ViDnyONfKVI/AAAAAAAADis/4H7EF2NM-S0/s1600-h/image%25255B47%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_TnYLjr0EwA/ViDnzeqzlJI/AAAAAAAADi0/fR4DngWWYew/image_thumb%25255B23%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="842" height="626" /></a></p> <h4>Closing the Loop</h4> <p>In the past, while seeing a customer had a problem was good in MSE, what you could do about it was limited. In an ideal world, you want to bring those messages into your system for managing client interactions i.e. the CRM system. This is now possible with MSE. Social posts can now be converted directly into CRM records such as cases and opportunities. I think this feature alone will generate an uptick in MSE use as it makes it more than a monitoring tool; it makes it a key part of a company’s client interaction process.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJVgZiSI1U6L9Lvda-R_9m4A6KP5eKugXOs_cSIf7Rqz0Cjv2SFm75kO6nbnlmaRK-gwJsyew3NTUjdLDi8MjRirzh54v3T-5sKKEe2O_lodBGn6s_gMr6DApkRMbTPTmz4pGeMoQBTni/s1600-h/image%25255B51%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OrAAPmcAe_c/ViDn1s7AMII/AAAAAAAADjE/XxnMtxaJefE/image_thumb%25255B25%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="847" height="482" /></a></p> <h3>Other Things</h3> <h4>New Data Centers</h4> <p>Canada and India are the newest members to the CRM data center club with centers in Toronto and Quebec, and Chennai and Pune respectively. Welcome aboard.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>There is a lot to get excited about in the 2016 release and it is truly impressive what they manage to pack into what is, at most a year of development. The big winner is Dynamics CRM but practical advances have been made across the board such as the ability to create records in CRM from MSE. As a word of warning, it is possible that some of these features will only be available for North American instances so apologies in advance if I have raved about a feature, got you excited only for us both to discover it will be withheld due to the vagaries of geography.</p> <p>The only exception to the innovation is Parature which seems to be acting as inspiration for the other products e.g. CRM’s knowledge management but is no longer a core part of the offering. I assume more will become clearer over the next 12 months.</p> <p>If you can get on the TAP program for the products above, I encourage you to do so to get familiar with these new features but if not, I expect you will not have to wait too long.</p> <p>Thank you again Microsoft for renewing my excitement in your product.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-55271367658779913202015-09-30T21:46:00.001+10:002015-09-30T21:46:52.163+10:00My Most Popular Articles (2015)<p><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/revisiting-my-most-popular-articles.html" target="_blank">Last year</a> I reviewed the most popular articles I had written on my blog. It has been seven years since I started this random walk in the land of Dynamics CRM so I thought I would make this an annual event to see what articles have held up to the test of time.</p> <p>Last year, I focussed on the Popular Posts section on my blog site.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_G9Ek1sqJ24/VgvLmMJtIKI/AAAAAAAADfA/Fu4vdqFCe_A/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2FGptMPHv7U/VgvLn_aYBOI/AAAAAAAADfI/15a2Ex3gCE8/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="830" height="445" /></a></p> <p>This year I will also look at the most popular blog posts in the last 12 months, using my bit.ly clicks as an indicator.</p> <h3>Popular Posts Rankings</h3> <p>Last year, the popular posts were:</p> <ul> <li>Import Tricks for Dynamics CRM 2011 </li> <li>Auto-Numbering Using Workflow </li> <li>Five-Minute Integration Between Dynamics CRM and LinkedIn </li> <li>Three Limitations of Using Advanced Find </li> <li>The Only Surface Pro Review You Need if You Run Outlook </li> <li>Running the Dynamics CRM VPC on Windows 7 </li> <li>Making Records Invisible in Dynamics CRM </li> <li>Forrester and Gartner Trajectories for CRM </li> <li>Moving to the Cloud Part Two: Migrating Email to Office 365 </li> <li>Review: Surface 2 32G (Why I Am Shocked How Good It Is) </li> </ul> <p>This year, things are, not too surprisingly, quite similar with a little shifting. <br /></p> <ul> <li>Import Tricks for Dynamics CRM 2011 </li> <li>Auto-Numbering Using Workflow</li> <li>Three Limitations of Using Advanced Find</li> <li>Five-Minute Integration Between Dynamics CRM and LinkedIn</li> <li>The Only Surface Pro Review You Need if You Run Outlook</li> <li>Running the Dynamics CRM VPC on Windows 7</li> <li>Making Records Invisible in Dynamics CRM</li> <li>Moving to the Cloud Part Two: Migrating Email to Office 365</li> <li>Forrester and Gartner Trajectories for CRM</li> <li>Review: Surface 2 32G (Why I Am Shocked How Good It Is)</li> </ul> <p>Two articles have dropped a place in the rankings, “Five-Minute Integration Between Dynamics CRM and LinkedIn” and “Forrester and Gartner Trajectories for CRM”. This is not too surprising. The quick integration between Dynamics CRM and LinkedIn no longer works as LinkedIn updated the API. There are other options of course, such as the <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/adding-insideview-to-your-crm-instance.html" target="_blank">Insideview add-on</a>. I have a memory of LinkedIn providing a connector, in the past, but this seems to have disappeared.</p> <p>The Forrester/Gartner dropping rank is also to be expected given it was written three years ago and I have written a few updates for both the Gartner and Forrester reports since then. <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/gartner-trajectories-for-sales-force.html" target="_blank">The most recent</a> being penned just this month.</p> <p>Of the others, most are still relevant to some extent. Arguably the Surface Pro and Surface 2 reviews are becoming less relevant with the Surface Pro now being two versions out of date and soon to be three. This being said, I still use my Surface Pro as my personal machine (KPMG issue me with a work laptop which is compulsory to use, otherwise it would be my work machine as well). The Surface 2 is also used by my wife and kids at home but, as it runs Windows RT, its time is limited.</p> <p>I expect the article on spinning up a CRM VPC will drop over time because no one I know bothers these days. It is, frankly, much simpler to spin up a 30 day trial with CRM Online.</p> <p>My experiences with Office 365 still hold true. Being charged in US dollars is not as compelling as it once was with the weaker exchange rate but, in terms of the product, I could not be happier. I am training the new feature, Clutter, at the moment to make my inbox more manageable. As of writing, I have used 24.5Gb of my 49.5Gb Exchange limit.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EVpfVOIf9-8/VgvLpD3VNbI/AAAAAAAADfQ/qK7qpIFm7Yc/s1600-h/image%25255B7%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J99JgiROKRQ/VgvLqpp66nI/AAAAAAAADfY/cUvnoTofS5U/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="793" height="191" /></a></p> <p>Last year it was at 19.3Gb, meaning I consume about 5Gb per year. This gives me about five years of email storage before I have to start deleting.</p> <h3>This Year’s Posts</h3> <p>Using my bit.ly click counts, the ten most popular articles in the last 12 months were:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2014/12/15/dynamics-crm-2015-calculated-fields.aspx" target="_blank">Dynamics CRM 2015 Calculated Fields</a> (685 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/a-codeless-alert-system-for-dynamics-crm.html" target="_blank">A Codeless Alert System For Dynamics CRM</a> (594 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/adding-insideview-to-your-crm-instance.html" target="_blank">Adding InsideView To Your CRM Instance</a> (528 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/book-review-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2013.html" target="_blank">Book Review: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Unleashed</a> (508 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/passing-mb5-705-managing-microsoft.html" target="_blank">Passing MB5-705: Managing Microsoft Dynamics Implementations</a> (495 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/crm-corpse-relationship-management.html" target="_blank">Corpse Relationship Management</a> (433 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/an-improved-codeless-address-finder.html" target="_blank">An Improved Codeless Address Finder</a> (432 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/setting-up-handy-links-in-dynamics-crm.html" target="_blank">Setting up Handy Links in Dynamics CRM 2013/2015</a> (430 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/book-review-microsoft-dynamics-crm.html" target="_blank">Book Review: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization Essentials</a> (386 clicks)</li> <li><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/forrester-trajectories-for-crm-2008-2015.html" target="_blank">Forrester Trajectories for Enterprise CRM: 2008-2015</a> (365 clicks)</li> </ul> <p>Strictly speaking, this is probably more of a measure of ‘click bait’ as bit.ly will not get triggered if people find the article through a search engine. The link only fires if people click on one of my promotions in places like LinkedIn. However, it is the best I have because Blogspot and Google Analytics do not provide flexible filtering with their free tools.</p> <p>All these articles are still relevant, although the book reviews may show their age over time.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>In terms of themes in both sets of posts, my codeless workarounds feature prominently, as do my Surface and book reviews. Conspicuously absent, even though it is often the thing people talk to me about, are my Salesforce articles. If the financial analysis is an annoyance, let me know, although I do enjoy crunching the numbers. Similarly, if there are topics you would like me to write about, call them out. I have a Word document I keep full of potential blog topics but I am always looking for inspiration.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-64686905058021760722015-09-24T21:47:00.001+10:002015-09-24T21:47:53.649+10:00Getting Cortana to Work on Australian Windows Phones<p>Relative to our American cousins, us Aussies speak a little queer. We have odd words for things (dunny, prawns, budgie smugglers) and we say things a little strangely (aluminium, caramel, herbs) so it was not too surprising when the USA got Cortana but Australia did not. However, it has been nine months now and there is still no sign of it coming. So I thought I would show you how to get Cortana on your Windows phone even if you think thongs go on your feet and not in your pants.</p> <h3>My Phone</h3> <p>In my case, I have a Lumia 925, the small brother to the one with the crazy powerful camera. It is running Windows Phone 8.1 and I am on the Optus network. According to the update service I am up to date.</p> <h3>Tricking the Settings</h3> <p>It used to be the case that you had to install developer software to get Cortana, but this is no longer the case and after adjusting a few settings you will be ready to go. The thing is, Cortana is waiting in the wings on your Windows Phone so it is not hard to get it working. Firstly, go to Settings – Language. You will need to set this to English (United States). Press and hold for more options. For the region options, the Country/Region needs to be the United States and the Regional Format needs to be English (Australia). For the speech options. Set the speech language to English (United States).</p> <p>The regional format being set to English (Australia) is a cosmetic change which means phone numbers do not appear in the US format (###) ###-####, which just looks weird for our numbers.</p> <p>Once you set these settings and reboot, when it tells you to, Cortana will be ready to go. To launch her, press the search button and you will see Cortana peering back (she is the blue circle).</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b30Pz_-B2CY/VgPi4feHD8I/AAAAAAAADek/O-ykPAqf2Z4/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B4%25255D.png"><img title="clip_image002" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OO20zcX1uYA/VgPi5yAsPxI/AAAAAAAADes/uQbBXJc5OB4/clip_image002_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="313" height="553" /></a></p> <p>You can type questions or hit the microphone icon and ask your questions.</p> <h3>How does Cortana handle Strine?</h3> <p>For the most part, Cortana deals with the nasal twang that is ‘Austrayan English’ quite well. Asking fun questions like “what does the <x> say?” worked fine for all except ‘horse’. For some reason, unless I affected a more American accent, it got it wrong every time.</p> <h3>Using Cortana</h3> <p>For myself, the speech aspects of Cortana are of limited use and the novelty of asking about the noises of various animals soon wears off (it will tell you jokes and knock knock jokes which will make you smile though) but where I really get value is in it bringing the information in my phone together.</p> <p>When you fire up the Cortana app, it will display a consolidated list of stuff you want to see. It is like your own personal newspaper including the weather, your appointments and the latest news (configured to your preferences). Some of the measures are in imperial units e.g. miles but, for the most part, it is fine. Also, it will begin to notice the locations you often go to and ask for names e.g. home, work, bar etc.</p> <p>After a while, it will begin to learn your movements and give you warning if there is traffic on the way home from work as well as looking in your calendar and telling you when you need to leave to make your meetings. </p> <p>While this may sound creepy, it is not, it is really useful. If you think about it, this is a really sophisticated bit of software. It is looking at where you are, looking at where you are going (either by habit and GPS or by calendar appointment and Bing maps) and then sourcing information on traffic to predict how long the journey will take. When the time is right, up pops Cortana to let you know it is time to move.</p> <p>The only downside I have found so far is I cannot figure out how to get Cortana to read QR codes. If anyone knows how, please leave a comment. </p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>These days, getting Cortana on your Windows Phone is really easy and the value it adds, while not necessarily life-changing, is still very useful. What is more, if you do not like what it does, it is very easy to put the language and region settings back and return to how things were. My thinking is give it a bash and see how it goes. </p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-51178759509568852232015-09-12T15:56:00.001+10:002015-09-12T15:56:01.784+10:00Gartner Trajectories for Sales Force Automation 2013-2015<p>When Forrester or Gartner release their ‘quadrants’, rather than looking at the ‘winners’, I like to see how the products have fared over time. I have done this over the years and if you search for Gartner or Forrester in my blogs you will see them. Here is my most recent <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/forrester-trajectories-for-crm-2008-2015.html" target="_blank">Forrester one</a> and my most recent <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/gartner-trajectories-for-sales-force.html" target="_blank">Gartner one</a>. Thankfully my GIMP skills have improved over the years so the graphs are more readable these days.</p> <p>With the relatively recent release of the Gartner Sales Force Automation Magic Quadrant, I thought I would construct another for the last three years of Gartner reports.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MKHgFp2gS1w/VfO-avpQSPI/AAAAAAAADd4/CtKLjIUsNvM/s1600-h/Gartner%2525202013-2015%25255B4%25255D.png"><img title="Gartner 2013-2015" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="Gartner 2013-2015" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6AMNrigXdRg/VfO-cPt7fRI/AAAAAAAADeA/MgKxJw3dimc/Gartner%2525202013-2015_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="950" height="895" /></a></p> <p>The big blue dots are where the products are in the more recent Gartner report. The tail shows the movement over the previous two reports. While Gartner has many more products in their reports, I have focussed on the vendors which, in the three years, have made a presence in the top right quadrant.</p> <p>Let us look in detail at the CRM products which made the cut.</p> <h3>The Leaders</h3> <p>From two years ago, there has been a reduction in the membership of the Leaders Club. Back in 2013, there were four products, vying for the top spot:</p> <ul> <li>Salesforce</li> <li>Dynamics CRM (Online and On-Premise)</li> <li>SAP (CRM)</li> <li>Oracle (Siebel CRM)</li> </ul> <p>Today only the top two of these remain. This also makes <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/microsoft-biggest-salesforce-threat-2015-8" target="_blank">Microsoft’s play for Salesforce</a> a little clearer. If Microsoft had succeeded in acquiring Salesforce, they would have dominated the Leaders quadrant.</p> <h4>Salesforce</h4> <p>The product to chase, Salesforce has remained in the top spot for the last three years. While others are getting closer, there is no doubt that for sales force automation, Salesforce is the tool of choice. Despite being firmly in the Dynamics CRM camp, I can understand this position. Salesforce was built to manage sales pipelines and sales opportunities and there is no reason to believe it does not do the job. However, for xRM-like processes i.e. customer interactions outside of a traditional sale scenario, my belief is Dynamics CRM does a better job and Salesforce needs the force.com/app cloud platform to get close. However, this is a Gartner report for sales force automation and Salesforce reigns supreme.</p> <h4>Dynamics CRM Online</h4> <p>The online version of Microsoft’s product has gone from strength to strength under the guidance of Jujhar Singh, General Manager for Dynamics CRM. Three years ago development of the product was not as tight; deadlines were missed and bugs sometimes slipped out, leading to release withdrawals and the like. There was also times when functionality was released to help Dynamics CRM demo well, rather than because it added sustainable value to the product. With Jujhar, this has gone away; development is a lot tighter with the consistent release of added functionality for long term user benefit.</p> <p>The consistent improvement in the positioning of CRM Online in the Gartner Quadrant is a testament to the focussed efforts of the Dynamics CRM development team.</p> <h4>Dynamics CRM On-Premise</h4> <p>While still in the leaders quadrant, the On-premise version of Dynamics CRM has slipped back a bit. Given Gartner release their results in July, when CRM Online has the new features but CRM On-Premise does not (the two products realign with the November-December release, this explains some of the slippage, although not entirely. The Gartner report suggests slippage is also due to customer satisfaction and the annual update release cycle, compared to CRM Online’s cycle which is every six months.</p> <h3>The Challengers</h3> <h4>SAP (CRM)</h4> <p>This is SAP’s on-premise offering and it has moved out of the leaders quadrant and into the Challengers, with the completeness of their vision being left behind the others. Gartner cites the reason for this is that SAP is focussing on their cloud CRM product, SAP (Cloud for Sales). In other words, while SAP (CRM) will likely be retained in the foreseeable future, it is not necessarily a key component of their market strategy. </p> <h3>The Visionaries</h3> <p>In this case, a visionary is a vendor with a clear vision for the future but not necessarily a full set of features in the product.</p> <h4>SAP (Cloud for Sales)</h4> <p>The cloud CRM offering from SAP is going from strength to strength. Starting out in the bottom left (politely characterised as ‘niche players’), it is now a Visionary. It seems SAP’s shift in focus from their on-premise offering to their cloud offering is paying off. It will be interesting to see if SAP can make it back into the Leaders club next year.</p> <h4>Oracle</h4> <p>In previous quadrants, Oracle had two products, Siebel CRM and Sales Cloud. Oracle have announced that the once 200-Pound gorilla of the CRM market, Siebel CRM, will no longer be sold to new customers. Therefore, the Sales Cloud is the only product now being considered by Gartner.</p> <p>The tail coming from the south east of the Oracle dot is the Sales Cloud one. Therefore, we can see that the Sales Cloud, for the last three years has been residing in the Visionaries quadrant. Perhaps, like SAP, with increased focus on this offering, Oracle will again gain a foothold in the Leaders quadrant.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>Since 2013, the Sales Force Automation landscape has changed from being dominated by four vendors to just two, Salesforce and Microsoft. SAP and Oracle are seeking to return with their cloud offerings and only time will tell if they have come to the party too late to make their mark. SAP are certainly making progress but Oracle are still struggling to make significant gains.</p> <p>As for the leaders, Salesforce still holds the top position but Dynamics CRM Online is rising fast and, with <a href="https://community.dynamics.com/b/msftdynamicsblog/archive/2015/09/08/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2016-delivering-the-next-generation-of-intelligent-customer-engagement" target="_blank">CRM 2016 soon to be released</a>, perhaps this will be enough to challenge the incumbent, just as the CRM systems of old have been challenged and left behind.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-42392297010927259782015-08-30T15:08:00.001+10:002015-09-05T16:15:53.219+10:00Creating a Codeless Opportunity Payment Schedule in CRM<p>This blog is a republishing of the original I did for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog which you can find <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2015/08/27/creating-a-codeless-opportunity-payment-schedule-in-crm.aspx" target="_blank">here</a>.</p> <p>The new calculated fields provide a lot of opportunity for codeless configuration in Dynamics CRM. In this example I will walk through creating an automated payment schedule in CRM for an Opportunity using calculated fields and Dialogs.</p> <h4>Business Case</h4> <p>For larger sales, we sometimes stagger payments over a period of time. Perhaps this is a lease-purchase arrangement or maybe a lay-by payment system. While, in theory, aspects such as interest, deposits and final lump payments could also be incorporated, I will leave these as an exercise for the reader.</p> <h4>The Key Entities</h4> <p>For this example, I will work with two entities: Opportunities and a custom child entity called Payments. In terms of the fields I am using we have:</p> <ul> <li>Opportunity <ul> <li>Days Between Payments (Integer, How many days between each payment) </li> <li>Payments Start Date (Date, When payments start) </li> <li>Total Payments (Integer, The number of payments) </li> <li>Estimated Revenue (Currency, The out of the box field to represent the total amount being paid back) </li> </ul> </li> <li>Payment <ul> <li>Amount Remaining (Currency Calculated, After this payment, how much remains to be paid) </li> <li>Days Between Payments (Same as the field of the same name on the Opportunity) </li> <li>Due On (Date Calculated, When the payment is to be made) </li> <li>Payment Amount (Currency Calculated, How much the payment is for) </li> <li>Payment Number (Integer, The nth payment) </li> <li>Payments Start Date (Same as the field of the same name on the Opportunity) </li> <li>Total Amount (Same as the Estimated Revenue field on the Opportunity) </li> <li>Total Payments (Same as the field of the same name on the Opportunity) </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>In an ideal world, I would not repeat the fields on both the Opportunity and the Payment record, keeping them on the Opportunity record. However, it is not possible to refer to parent fields in a calculated field so it is necessary to denormalize and keep the values in both places.</p> <h4>The Calculations</h4> <p>The formulae for the calculated fields are:</p> <h5>Amount Remaining</h5> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wTJHVHzDeWc/VeKPe9KOMRI/AAAAAAAADaQ/slODX8HT0tU/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCKf-XRDKgMpfIRUQQvRau_dWLOENYDqgOIhYcPMpVPEJdvoq_r-P5btiO0GCqtky6_c2lzJs86rEU-nXXZJr9EuKJ7FfeSPpTenupQD5IXJX7zBRjsHw5ylQ310B6aXhHkYxPRv0QeMVw/?imgmax=800" width="810" height="387" /></a></p> <h5>Due On</h5> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KoIj905Ln4U/VeKPgE0wy4I/AAAAAAAADag/jJ08NuBhY0c/s1600-h/image%25255B7%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vlBNc2Sspxk/VeKPgwWK2XI/AAAAAAAADao/Wyn0BF_P6KY/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="816" height="359" /></a></p> <h5>Payment Amount</h5> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-I1Xsk7cSJ3VogFI8YQtp5Fphyphenhyphen_Mp_N_Zttlqscs_SM2JRc74un82YBNcSeTnkgrFJCK9jbR3iq8zRtK5-LmjcxAFIqzadWqdywMvekIFdogUOSaNKm_Ywo8qSfgw9i1o1VPwTpimiU-9/s1600-h/image%25255B11%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VPG9ByN4RuY/VeKPiCgC-RI/AAAAAAAADa4/8DE-uxbYFHQ/image_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="834" height="540" /></a></p> <p>In theory, with the values we set on the Opportunity and the Payment Number, all other numbers can be calculated.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4AF88cSOC-geJSnr2RewK-LmQ4Mk3LHl084X9DVNp0Z-tirts7252XL8YD8DLX925k8yjUA_c8-8GyydGSpAkif1UNfMwMfaa3SNdFLvrcCQ5wAUQd7fnieK6bp5Tvz_RmjcJrSh3VqVb/s1600-h/image%25255B20%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SJMe1u6HkwU/VeKPj--oxdI/AAAAAAAADbI/c9vF9RJ8xUQ/image_thumb%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="819" height="833" /></a></p> <h4>Automating with Dialogs</h4> <p>In principle, we could leave the solution there and manually create Payment records from the Opportunity. Assuming we map the fields down from the Opportunity to the Payment entity, all we need do is create a new Payment record from the Opportunity, enter the Payment Number and the system will do the rest. However, for a schedule with 100 payments, this is a lot of work.</p> <p>This is where Dialogs come to the rescue. With Dialogs we can automate the creation of all Payment records. To do this I will create two Dialogs: </p> <ul> <li>Payment Scheduler: This initializes the loop and creates the first payment record </li> <li>Payment Creator: This is a child Dialog that calls itself and creates all the other Payment records </li> </ul> <p>What is interesting about this arrangement is that it appears to circumvent the infinite loop detection which can plague workflows when we try to call them to generate multiple records. I tried creating 100 payments and it while it took a few seconds of processing, it worked fine.</p> <p>The Payment Scheduler looks like this:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ozQvHCmPzw4/VeKPkcIO_kI/AAAAAAAADbQ/_2KCabV03nY/s1600-h/image%25255B24%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZgjwKdiEr5E/VeKPlVMc1KI/AAAAAAAADbY/BehlLGA6lmk/image_thumb%25255B11%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="827" height="810" /></a></p> <p>Both Dialogs run from the Opportunity entity. In this one we confirm the four key constants, held on the Opportunity (Total Amount, Start Date, Days Between Payments and Total Payments) and write them back to the Opportunity with the Update step.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kF-_FPW3BRI/VeKPl8ZXpTI/AAAAAAAADbg/Qon6OZWIozQ/s1600-h/image%25255B29%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eI5Oqw7zUzg/VeKPmtI_IrI/AAAAAAAADbo/qRy7Ke8TXK8/image_thumb%25255B14%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="546" height="968" /></a></p> <p>For some reason I could not get the Estimated Revenue to appear for the Prompt and Response default value, even though I could display it as part of the prompt. If this is a problem, you may need to create a separate Total Amount field.</p> <p>We then create the first Payment.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yhC_XtqIpzs/VeKPnYKFq_I/AAAAAAAADbw/U6xQf_MNQI4/s1600-h/image%25255B33%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Tm3b72JOJvo/VeKPoOV1OmI/AAAAAAAADb4/U-ap5uEUqLE/image_thumb%25255B16%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="556" height="650" /></a></p> <p>Finally we call our looping Dialog to create the rest of the Payment records, passing it the total number of Payments.</p> <p>The looping Dialog looks like this:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zct6DfoT4WA/VeKPo-VbJtI/AAAAAAAADcA/mq0T0mlbufw/s1600-h/image%25255B37%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGGx-7ERnb5h81ly8uTAnvcXmNGXlTYFL_EgFLZXqXQlDbByojch_YAm4JlbtduQ3Kp3VC9uuWLGveXRChi6LlaR_Co8HJ5LhW4Rc7NGY8yfPij4j9lPrI4IAehMLhzQfsDBrQ95OJwpue/?imgmax=800" width="767" height="522" /></a></p> <p>Firstly, it takes in the previous Payment’s number and if the last Payment was the final Payment i.e. Payment Number = 1, the Dialog ends. If this is not the case a new Payment record is created.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Zr_xKu-NbSA/VeKPqKPO_4I/AAAAAAAADcQ/-uGXHyAytpk/s1600-h/image%25255B41%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HgpDX18h0xk/VeKPrI-XfvI/AAAAAAAADcY/y-movUEHzeM/image_thumb%25255B20%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="603" height="709" /></a></p> <p>We then update this record to reduce the Payment Number by one.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b6l2mIe_E7g/VeKPrqumE4I/AAAAAAAADcc/WTIehyGmHns/s1600-h/image%25255B45%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7wjxHb9B6XSOfEnupnoSEaMUUGj6yFdq-xihZ_IVB41qKsJwKRHkJcXa6vgFCYh24rl5d0yIxuR_fMiBfB5_w0KBcTqLhyia0WTRB6h7odBmjACCqrPtNbIBxTClp4J8qXYMVYUBPdKU/?imgmax=800" width="609" height="478" /></a></p> <p>The next step in our Dialog is a bit of a dirty trick. We want to loop the Dialog but we do not want a Dialog page to appear many times. Every Dialog requires a Page with an associated Prompt and Response so, to meet this criterion, we embed it in an If-Statement which will never succeed (in my case the associated Opportunity name must be blank, which will never be the case).</p> <p>Once past this, the Dialog calls itself passing through the Payment’s Payment Number.</p> <h4>The Final Result</h4> <p>The end result is a set of Payments against the Opportunity, evenly dividing the Opportunity total across all Payment records. If we want to keep track of when payment are actually made, we could add additional fields like a receipt number field or a simple tick box.</p> <p>To create the Payment records, the user simply fires up the Dialog from the Opportunity.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FPyY4cuC_48/VeKPs742PpI/AAAAAAAADcw/HmvevWIWkKw/s1600-h/image%25255B49%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pUeYl3sn3B4/VeKPtgwogHI/AAAAAAAADc4/qzFZJIi6HI0/image_thumb%25255B24%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="770" height="588" /></a></p> <p>Then, after making sure the four fields have values, they click Next and the Dialog shows its Finished screen.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-87iuzBOAHvo/VeKPuXIJxgI/AAAAAAAADdA/RIopSUp-G5g/s1600-h/image%25255B53%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UUTWNUMqkzw/VeKPvKhAiBI/AAAAAAAADdI/LRVunpPgLJk/image_thumb%25255B26%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="792" height="595" /></a></p> <p>After clicking Finish, the Opportunity now has a full set of Payments against it.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QTHDabVuPxg/VeKPvryjllI/AAAAAAAADdQ/OlXUsqq92Yk/s1600-h/image%25255B57%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dGECH331c3I/VeKPwU1SCeI/AAAAAAAADdY/HaJiftG1b-c/image_thumb%25255B28%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="800" height="498" /></a></p> <h4>Conclusions</h4> <p>While a simple application of the tools, this shows how combining Dynamics CRM functions like calculated fields and Dialogs can create very powerful and intuitive tools for the user. In the past creating a tool like this for the user required plugins and extensive development with limited capacity for maintenance by the CRM Administrator. With this approach the CRM Administrator gets complete control of the tool and its behavior.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-78353791774529304882015-08-26T23:18:00.001+10:002015-08-26T23:31:31.508+10:00Salesforce: The Elusive Goal of Profitability<p>As some of you may know, my former employer, Oakton, was a partner with both Salesforce and Microsoft. While I did my best to judge fairly, any fear of bias is now removed as I have moved to KPMG. <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-kpmg-expand-strategic-relationship/" target="_blank">KPMG is “all in” with Microsoft</a> especially with their cloud, ERP and CRM solutions. Do not get me wrong, their technology enablement arm also work with Oracle and products like Workday but, in terms of CRM, their path is pure. On to the analysis…</p> <p>Last quarter, on the back of a lease termination, Salesforce made a small profit. Has lightning struck twice? Has Salesforce finally turned the profitability corner or are losses still the normal with non-GAAP reporting to cover it up?</p> <p>There was also rumours of a mystery buyer looking to scoop Salesforce up. Who was this mystery buyer and why did they pull out? All will be revealed.</p> <h3>Salesforce Quarterly Results</h3> <p>The GAAP numbers, as reported to the SEC and taken from <a href="http://investor.salesforce.com/about-us/investor/overview/default.aspx" target="_blank">Salesforce’s web site</a>. Any disparity to press releases, especially in regards to profitability, are an illusion created by ignoring certain expenses to generate what are called non-GAAP reporting. The promoters of non-GAAP reporting say it is designed to give a more accurate reflection of the day to day operations, ignoring those inconvenient outlying expenses. However, when the expenses you ignore are regularly occurring, this justification is harder to swallow. Also, I am yet to see a non-GAAP report which shows the business to be in a worse state than the GAAP numbers report. This is why I consider non-GAAP reporting to be little more than a public relations exercise to quell the nerves of nervous share holders and, in my opinion, it is not worthy of actual financial analysis. So here are the ‘real’, GAAP numbers.</p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="800" border="1"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="217"> </td> <td valign="top" width="97"> <p>2015 Q2</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="108"> <p>2015 Q3</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="124"> <p>2015 Q4</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="126"> <p>2016 Q1</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="126"> <p>2016 Q2</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="211"> <p>Revenue</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="98"> <p>1,318,551</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="109"> <p>1,383,655</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="126"> <p>1,444,608</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="127"> <p>1,511,167</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="127"> <p>1,634,684</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="207"> <p>Subscription Revenue</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="99"> <p>1,232,587</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="109"> <p>1,288,513</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="127"> <p>1,345,358</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>1,405,287</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>1,521,319</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="204"> <p>Revenue Cost</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="99"> <p>307,831</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="109"> <p>333,211</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>355,923</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="129"> <p>381,802</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>405,384</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="203"> <p>Operating Cost</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="99"> <p>1,044,154</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="109"> <p>1,072,486</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>1,123,501</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="129"> <p>1,098,260</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>1,209,476</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="203"> <p>Salesforce Income</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="99"> <p>-61,088</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="109"> <p>-38,924</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>-65,765</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="129"> <p>4,092</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>-852</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="203"> <p>Highest Transaction</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="99"> <p>2,037,819,946</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="109"> <p>2,502,030,346</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>2,872,068,400</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="129"> <p>3,186,923,759</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>3,349,320,621</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="195"> <p>Transaction Growth QoQ</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="104"> </td> <td valign="top" width="114"> <p>23%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>15%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="129"> <p>11%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>5%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="193"> <p>Revenue Growth # YoY</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="105"> <p>361,457</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="115"> <p>307,621</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>299,366</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="129"> <p>284,395</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>316,133</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="192"> <p>Revenue Growth % YoY</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="106"> <p>38%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="116"> <p>29%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>26%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>23%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>24%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="191"> <p>Revenue Growth % QoQ</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>7%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>5%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>4%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>5%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>8%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Total Cost % YoY</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>36%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>20%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>18%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>15%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>19%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Total Cost % QoQ</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>5%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>4%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>5%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>0%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>9%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Staff</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>15,145</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>15,458</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>16,227</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>16,852</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>17,622</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Staff Growth YoY</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>20%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>21%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>22%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>18%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>16%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Margin</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>-4.63%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>-2.81%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>-4.55%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>0.27%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>-0.05%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Growth Difference</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>2%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>9%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>8%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>8%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>5%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Cash</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>774,725</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>846,325</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>908,117</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>941,956</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>1,089,351</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Accounts Receivable</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>834,323</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>794,590</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>1,905,506</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>926,381</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>1,067,799</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Cash/AR</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>93%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>107%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>48%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>102%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>102%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Expenses Relating to Stock Based Awards</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>142,411</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>139,460</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>151,802</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>142,560</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>147,779</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Stock Based YoY</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="107"> <p>29%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="117"> <p>-1%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>11%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="129"> <p>9%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="128"> <p>4%</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <h3> </h3> <h3>Numbers of Note</h3> <h4>Transaction Growth</h4> <p>The transaction growth numbers are calculated from the largest transaction count of any day on <a href="http://trust.salesforce.com">http://trust.salesforce.com</a>, on the day of writing the blog. In other words, it is the highest level of activity in the last 30 days, every quarter.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iQePupB4dH0/Vd27K88SF_I/AAAAAAAADXA/ukBRhPUnp7c/s1600-h/image4%25255B1%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OSHEcximw4U/Vd27TPkwd6I/AAAAAAAADXM/da-GTmHL1pk/image4_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="829" height="499" /></a></p> <p>Here is the growth in the last four quarters; it has gone from just shy of 25% growth quarter on quarter, to 5%. It is clear the number of transactions being conducted by Salesforce users is slowing down. My prediction is that, by next quarter, it will be near flat and the quarter after that will begin to drop.</p> <p>So what does this mean? Well it means either:</p> <ul> <li>The user base is doing less with Salesforce </li> <li>The user base is slowing in growth </li> <li>Salesforce software allows you to do the same stuff with less server transactions</li> <li>The transaction fluctuations are settling down and my use of the highest transaction in the period is in error</li> </ul> <p>My guess is it is a combination of the first two but it is a guess. I was hoping the revenue growth would give an indication of what is happening but not the case.</p> <h4>Revenue Growth</h4> <p>Looking at the quarter on quarter revenue growth, we see an interesting upturn in this quarter.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BQf4b_-dss0/Vd27WGd3Z9I/AAAAAAAADXY/cjfoydHKNAQ/s1600-h/image8%25255B1%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ydrebh6EC58/Vd29uFEw3PI/AAAAAAAADXo/x7kRproMbf0/image8_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="812" height="489" /></a></p> <p>So, if the user growth is slowing down, it is not reflected in the revenue. It is a bit of a mystery. The only way I can resolve this is to speculate that Salesforce are focussing more on upselling to existing customers than trying to find new customers. Therefore, the revenue is increasing by having existing customers pay more per user without resulting in a significant increase in system use.</p> <p>In terms of the growth difference between revenue and costs, for the quarter this has slipped into negatives (costs are growing faster than revenues). For year on year, while they have narrowed, revenue is still outpacing costs meaning long term profitability is still an option for the future.</p> <h4>Staff Growth</h4> <p>Staff growth (year on year) has slowed down again this quarter.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qDXQXW7e9rQ/Vd27bCdOCKI/AAAAAAAADXw/EOETEndfgdE/s1600-h/image12%25255B1%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Dou35vp5Ui4/Vd27n9Gt4BI/AAAAAAAADX8/Wm45UxWXJXg/image12_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="778" height="562" /></a></p> <p>Here we see the last six year’s of staff growth and a three year moving average trend line. The growth continues to slow and, as it was last quarter, reflects a staff growth rate of five years ago. As with the last quarter, the slowing of factors such as staff growth and transaction growth suggests the business is finally slowing down.</p> <h4>Profitability</h4> <p>Unfortunately, Salesforce was not able to maintain a GAAP profit this quarter, again slipping into a loss, albeit a small one ($850,000). Perhaps the rumoured buyer saw this coming and backed off.</p> <h3>The Mystery Shopper</h3> <p>Towards the end of April, there was speculation that someone was looking to buy Salesforce. My assumption at the time was either Google, Oracle or IBM. It turns out the shopper was much closer to home; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/microsoft-biggest-salesforce-threat-2015-8" target="_blank">Microsoft</a>. This surprised me when I first heard it but follows a bit of a trend in their market acquisition strategy. To cite a similar example, let us consider Skype. Microsoft had IM and Lync so when they acquired Skype, it was a bit of a surprise, given they already had products which did similar things. However, by taking on the millions of paying Skype subscribers, they had a path for turning a profit as well and carving out a significant part of the instant messaging market.</p> <p>I think this was a similar play. While Microsoft has Dynamics CRM, the only other horse in the race these days, <a href="http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-2JA1AFT&ct=150710&st=sb" target="_blank">according to Gartner</a>, is Salesforce. If Microsoft managed to seal the deal, they would be the only vendor in the Gartner’s leaders quadrant. Unfortunately, Marc’s price was a bit rich and Microsoft pulled out.</p> <h3>Earnings Call Buzzword Bingo</h3> <p>Still no talk of profit, of course (seriously, the word was not mentioned once in the earnings call) but our usual suspects are there. In fact there were no new key words and no words dropped off the list.</p> <p>For those new to the game, I take the transcript of the quarterly earnings report, up to but not including the question and answer session and run it through a word analyser. The result are the words at the front of mind of the the Salesforce executives. As long as the word is mentioned 10 or more times in the last five quarters, it remains on the list.</p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2015 Q2</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2015 Q3</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2015 Q4</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2016 Q1</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2016 Q2</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Number of words</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4731</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3922</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4017</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3495</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4175</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Customers/Customer</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>38</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>34</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>23</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>34</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>42</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Revenue</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>27</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>26</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>25</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>24</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>18</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Cloud</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>22</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>47</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>32</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>28</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>20</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Platform(s)</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>13</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>27</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>18</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>14</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>16</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Service</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>15</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>12</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>5</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>9</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>13</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Growth</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>18</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>16</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>13</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>16</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>17</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Marketing</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>10</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>8</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>8</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>6</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Cash</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>9</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>10</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>11</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Operating</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>8</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>20</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>13</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Enterprise(s)</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>10</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>8</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>7</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>8</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>5</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Dreamforce</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>14</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>1</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>21</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Analytics</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>14</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>11</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>9</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="213"> <p>Software</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>12</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>9</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p>In fact the only things of note are the steady decline in talk about analytics and the massive spike in Dreamforce mentions. Dreamforce is in a few weeks time so it is not too surprising.</p> <p>Words on notice are “Marketing” and “Enterprise(s)”. One more quarter with less than ten mentions and they are off the list. Salesforce has ExactTarget aka the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. If it was doing great things, Marc would be talking about it as much as Dreamforce (which, to my knowledge, is Salesforce’s only profitable venture). The fact that marketing barely features on Marc’s radar makes me think the acquisition is not yielding fruit.</p> <p>As for the diminishing importance of the enterprise, this surprises me a little. Marc used to be about the number of 7- and 8-figure deals he had done. These days Marc does not talk in these terms so perhaps he is finding more traction in the smaller end of town.</p> <h3>Google Trends</h3> <p>Let us see how “Dynamics CRM” and “Salesforce.com” are trending on Google.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DsIu_4L4jXU/Vd27pQuTaqI/AAAAAAAADYI/MLXfK8eMAGQ/s1600-h/image%25255B20%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xe9gER7yCm4/Vd27u9s2YNI/AAAAAAAADYU/iDQ5S1ca9kU/image_thumb%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="792" height="273" /></a></p> <p>Blue is “Dynamics CRM” which holds steady. “Salesforce.com” continue its linear drop. In terms of the region split, it is a story we have seen before. Salesforce is concentrated on the US domestic market.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZC-JxmccKeE/Vd272Jd9rwI/AAAAAAAADYg/f1o4l6-lUDg/s1600-h/image%25255B21%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T5hagCSX_fg/Vd27-PG3pdI/AAAAAAAADYs/xDf_LC3tW04/image_thumb%25255B11%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="782" height="293" /></a></p> <p>While Dynamics CRM is more international.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gPWJ-1jTw2s/Vd28RpYVFnI/AAAAAAAADY8/oB7NgXUuiZA/s1600-h/image%25255B22%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C5p0S5cqhbM/Vd28Upui1JI/AAAAAAAADZI/l0YQhY2tapM/image_thumb%25255B12%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="774" height="286" /></a></p> <p>We also see this in the city split. While Salesforce’s cities are in the USA and India.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tceJJv6DWPs/Vd28ZOOpVCI/AAAAAAAADZU/rWAnI9_7l9w/s1600-h/image%25255B23%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NFxamWuxRSM/Vd2_eEq-HfI/AAAAAAAADZg/p2f14UEHypY/image_thumb%25255B13%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="770" height="310" /></a></p> <p>Dynamics CRM is more metropolitan.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Wpv2FWlt9jk/Vd28hQBQhfI/AAAAAAAADZo/TyNZ6V2556M/s1600-h/image%25255B24%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1zHjyZ2k3Wk/Vd28ns2swpI/AAAAAAAADZ0/wmRaRpSmRHg/image_thumb%25255B14%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="770" height="317" /></a></p> <p>While the positions juggle a little from quarter to quarter, the names remain the same. Salesforce may be well known at home but, abroad, it is a different story.</p> <h3>Insider and Institutional Sales</h3> <p>A trend is emerging in the insider trades.</p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2015 Q2</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2015 Q3</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2015 Q4</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2016 Q1</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2016 Q2</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Insider Sales</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>0.40%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.70%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.60%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.50%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>4.40%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="190"> <p>Institutional Sales</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>2.67%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3.20%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3.11%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3.04%</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="96"> <p>3%</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p>Since the spike in insider sales in 2015 Q3, sales have slowly tapered, dropping 0.1% each quarter. Similarly institutional sales are slowing. In both case they are still selling their holdings, just not as rapidly as before. What does this mean? Perhaps the prospect of someone buying Salesforce at a premium was giving them pause for thought. Now that the deal has fallen through, maybe we will see an upturn next quarter.</p> <h3>Looking to the Future</h3> <p>My last prediction was revenues of $1.66b and breakeven on the profits. In terms of revenue I was within 2% and they did pretty much break even so I call that as a successful prediction.</p> <p>Next quarter I predict revenues of around $1.78b and another breakeven result.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>Salesforce looks to be fighting for profitability but it keeps eluding them. Last quarter, based on a real estate deal, they did make a small profit but this was truly a once-off adjustment and the proof is their inability to make a profit this quarter. Hopefully, as the business slows down, costs will be reined in and Salesforce will return to the profits it used to have four years ago. While every quarter Marc claims it has been “the best quarter ever” or some similar hyperbolic statement, the day they make a sustainable profit and continue to grow that profit, as they once did, I may start believing him. Until then I will continue to believe the Kool Aid being passed around is little more than shareholder Snake Oil.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-64080246599289980622015-08-18T07:25:00.001+10:002015-08-18T07:25:52.454+10:00The Best Free Apps For Your Corporate iPhone<p>One of the perks of a new job are the new toys. In this case, my new employer has given me a Lenovo Helix and an iPhone 5s. I am familiar with Windows laptop/tablet hybrids, owning a Surface Pro, but I have never owned an iPhone before so it has been a bit of a learning curve. One of the drawcards of iPhones are the masses of free apps available, so I dived right in to work out the best ones.</p> <p>This list is the distillation of a bunch of “best apps for business” articles, the relevant top 150 categories in the iStore and the apps I already have running on my Windows Phone (I used my personal phone in my last job). Here we go…</p> <h3>Miscellaneous Work Apps</h3> <p>General apps which make the little things at work a little easier</p> <h4></h4> <h4>HelloSign</h4> <p>As a Windows user, PDF documents needing a signature ARE a hassle. You print them off, sign them, rescan them and then send them on. With HelloSign you import a PDf file into the app, add a signature and email it on. Too handy, and perfect when you need to turn documents around quickly.</p> <h4>Expensify</h4> <p>Take photos of your receipts and it will auto-scan them for the totals and the merchant. You then collate them into ‘reports’ for your expense reporting. Too easy.</p> <h4>Dragon Dictation</h4> <p>An interesting app that automatically translates what you say into text for distribution on various channels e.g. SMS, social or email. It even works with my Australian accent.</p> <h4>Voice Memos</h4> <p>A default app which lets you record your vocal pearls of wisdom and then share them through messaging or mail channels as an m4a sound file. Great for recording those good ideas or blog topics when a pen is not in reach.</p> <h3>Media</h3> <p>These are the apps to mostly do with traditional media e.g. books and newspapers.</p> <h4>Newsstand</h4> <p>Part of the default set of apps that came with the phone, this gives you some reading time when at those airport gates. Unfortunately many of the more popular titles give you one free magazine and then need you to pay to subscribe. Also, if your company has disabled iCloud on the phone, some titles will not work. One title which was free was “Whisky Magazine” which was a special edition covering American Whiskeys. Apparently I need to check out Woodinville in Washington state, a small drive out of Seattle when I go to the MVP Summit.</p> <h4>Flipboard</h4> <p>Similar to Newsstand, pick the topics and Flipboard will serve you articles to while away the hours in transit.</p> <h4>iBooks</h4> <p>The default book app for the phone, there are free books worth a browse. In my case “Dr Karl’s Little Book of Trivia 101”</p> <h4>Podcasts</h4> <p>If the previous options hold no thrall, another default app is Podcasts with an excellent array of audio and video podcasts to choose from. For me, Good Game and Dr Karl on Triplej. Yes, I am quite the fan of Dr Karl.</p> <h4>Pandora</h4> <p>My preferred music streaming service of choice. Give it a song and it will build you a playlist. If you are looking to relax after a tough day in the office, feed Pandora your favourite chill-out track and see what comes back.</p> <h4>Netflix</h4> <p>I <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/samsung-revisited-and-how-chromecast.html" target="_blank">recently blogged</a> about how I am a fan of my new Netflix service. When music is not soothing the savage beast, kick back with a great range of television shows and movies (for a subscription fee). Awesome for hotel rooms where the television service does not quite pass muster.</p> <h4>Photos</h4> <p>The default photo app. This is where your receipt photos from Expensify end up.</p> <h3>Social</h3> <p>Apps for communication on various channels outside of the traditional phone and email.</p> <h4>LinkedIn</h4> <p>If you are not on LinkedIn, you should be. Traditionally hailed as the tool of choice for lazy recruiters, I find it invaluable as a networking/sales tool. Curious about whether that old client is still with that company where you implemented CRM? Check them out on LinkedIn. Want to distribute your blog article to hundreds of professionals who might be interested? Post into a LinkedIn group.</p> <h4>Skype</h4> <p>Now owned by Microsoft, the pervasive VOIP service is ideal for making cheap calls on your phone while overseas. Just make sure it is using the local Wi-Fi service and not the carrier’s data service otherwise you may need to mortgage your home to pay for the call.</p> <h4>Twitter</h4> <p>Another social channel I embrace (@leontribe for those interested), Twitter is SMS for the internet with all messages being public. Great for research on people and organisations and also a great way to consume information on practically any topic of interest.</p> <h4>Facebook</h4> <p>Often maligned as a productivity killer, there are actually many of corporate and professional pages on Facebook. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/21809302488/?ref=br_tf" target="_blank">Microsoft Dynamics CRM Facebook group</a> is an excellent group rivalling the forums for the quality of responses to questions from end users.</p> <h4>Messenger</h4> <p>The same messaging system that appears in Facebook is my preferred instant messaging tool on the iPhone. With this tool you get access to all of your Facebook friends without Facebook being permanently open. For all of the CRM MVPs around the world, Messenger is my tool of choice for reaching them for a quick question about Dynamics CRM.</p> <h4>Messages</h4> <p>This is the iPhone’s default messaging tool. By default it uses the iMessage system which means when you are talking to other iDevices, it does not use SMS for communication. Therefore, to keep the message channel consistent you might want to disable the iMessage option in the settings.</p> <h4>FaceTime</h4> <p>Another default app which I am yet to explore in detail. I understand it is a video chatting application similar to the video chatting feature of Skype. Given Skype does the job I will probably stick with that but it is there for those more used to the Apple way.</p> <h4>GroupMe</h4> <p>This is a group messaging system which allows you to create groups and message within that group. We use it at the MVP Summits to keep in touch but I imagine it will be eventually replaced by one of the other tools above. Not necessarily an essential app but it is one I use.</p> <h3>Office</h3> <p>These are the Microsoft Office and related apps which, even on the iPhone, leave the imitators for dust.</p> <h4>Outlook</h4> <p>I had the pleasure of trying out the Outlook app for Android and love it for what it is. It is not a patch on the Windows equivalent but it does have one feature which the Windows version does not, which is the “Focused” option. The Focused tab shows the emails in your inbox you really need to see as opposed to the regular missives from stores, those interest groups you belong to and so on. How it works it out I am not sure but it does a pretty good job. If I have half an hour at home to see if there is an important email in my inbox, I reach for the Samsung, not the Surface.</p> <p>Fortunately, the Apple version of Outlook has the same feature. Instead of getting up to date on my Facebook wall while heading to work, with my iPhone I now check my Focused inbox. Microsoft need to bring this to Windows Outlook and, hopefully, they will very soon.</p> <p>In terms of how it compares to iPhone Mail app, one annoyance for me with Mail was having to set up mailboxes to see other folders. The ability to merge inboxes is nice though in the iPhone Mail app and something worth having in the Outlook app. Overall though I think my preferences are more down to familiarity than any inherent gap in either product.</p> <h4>Excel, Word, PowerPoint</h4> <p>I doubt I will be creating any of these on the iPhone but they are there so I can read the files that come into my inbox. You can also link these apps to the OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint services to access files there but be careful not to violate corporate policies by storing work documents on these, if your company has such a policy.</p> <h4>OneDrive</h4> <p>OneDrive is an inexpensive cloud storage option and does the job. You can even stream mp4 movies from it, if so inclined. Again, an option in hotel rooms or Wi-Fi enabled transit lounges. Also, remember to comply with corporate policy if they have rules about storing files on third-party cloud services.</p> <h4>Lync 2013</h4> <p>Now known as “Skype for Business”, the app still bears the old name. I am struggling to get this app to connect to my work’s Lync server but, for the rest of you, try it. Even the staunchest of the anti-Microsoft crowd acknowledge how great Lync is. In terms of what it does, “Skype for Business” pretty much says it all; a corporate version of Skype where your ‘friends’ are your work colleagues and, if federated, your customers and suppliers.</p> <h3>Transport</h3> <p>As a consultant we need to get about. Here are the apps to help.</p> <h4>Maps</h4> <p>The default map application for iPhone. Given all the bad press when it first came out, I will probably stick to the alternatives but I do believe Apple has worked hard to make it practical.</p> <h4>Google Maps</h4> <p>No compelling reason other than it is really good and does not rely on locally stored maps. You can be anywhere in the world and, if you have an internet connection, you will have a map.</p> <h4>Waze</h4> <p>GPS becomes social in this great little navigation tool. People report incidences real time and the app even detects if you are moving slower than you should on a road and asks if there is a problem. When I am in traffic and need an alternative route, I reach for Waze.</p> <h4>Uber</h4> <p>The app that is so effective people call for it to be banned. This is a taxi service from your phone. What I love is that I can link it to my corporate card, book my taxi through the app, the payment is automatically deducted from my card, and the receipt is emailed to me. It could not be simpler. Being a phone app you can also see how far away the taxi is and the app gives you an estimated time of arrival based on the distance.</p> <h3>Travel</h3> <p>The apps I use when travelling by plane.</p> <h4>QANTAS</h4> <p>Replace with whatever airline your company uses. These apps are great for online check-in and using your phone as a boarding pass.</p> <h4>Virgin Australia Entertain</h4> <p>Needed so you can connect your iPhone to the Virgin Australia entertainment system.</p> <h4>TripIt</h4> <p>A freemium app which you can send your pdf booking confirmations to and it will keep track of your flights. From there you can share the flight with loved ones or use it to check details when heading to the airport and the booking email is proving elusive. It also allows you to see who else is nearby when travelling, which is great when you are tired of ordering dinner for one.</p> <h4>SeatGuru</h4> <p>An app which helps you book your seat. Give it an airline and flight and it will tell you which seats you should book and which you should avoid.</p> <h4>TripAdvisor</h4> <p>I use this for one purpose only; to find a decent restaurant when travelling. Tell it to find the restaurants nearby and it will give you the list, how far away they are and how they rank. You can then read the reviews to make sure.</p> <h4>Stocard</h4> <p>A new app for me, it promises to keep track of all my loyalty cards. Having been in numerous hotels over the years for work, I have signed up to multiple hotel loyalty programs. Rather than carry around a stack of plastic cards I use infrequently, this app promises to keep them in one place. To get them in there there is even a scan feature to read the bar code on the card.</p> <h4>World Clock</h4> <p>The app for timeanddate.com, this allows you to set up a series of cities and, for each one, it will display the time and date for that city. Great for international calls or for working out when you can call the loved ones back home.</p> <h3>Games</h3> <p>While this is a business apps list, there is one game I will call out when you are travelling.</p> <h4>Ingress</h4> <p>Google’s app which combines Geocaching with Capture the Flag. The missions feature is a great way to explore an unfamiliar city and see a few landmarks on the way. There is the added bonus of helping the Resistance stop the enslavement of mankind by the Enlightened. Fight evil, get some exercise and adjust, through exposure to sunlight, to the local time zone. Who says playing games is bad for you?</p> <h3>CRM</h3> <p>Apps specific to Dynamics CRM</p> <h4>The Two Microsoft Dynamics CRM Apps from Microsoft</h4> <p>While there are a mountain of apps in the App Store which work with Dynamics CRM, there are two official ones from Microsoft. I am yet to set these up but it would be remiss of me, as an Dynamics CRM consultant, not to have them available in case of that impromptu demo we are sometimes required to do in elevators or at business events.</p> <h3>Miscellaneous Apps</h3> <p>Here are the rest which defy classification.</p> <h4>Roambi</h4> <p>I am yet to try it but so many “Must have” lists recommended it I was compelled to download it. Basically, you feed it a CSV file and it produces a presentation-quality graph which you can download and use.</p> <h4>Yahoo Weather</h4> <p>While the iPhone does come with its own weather app called Weather, the lists were also very complimentary of Yahoo Weather so I have downloaded it to see what the fuss is about.</p> <h4>Duolingo</h4> <p>If you are heading to a foreign country, this is a great little tool for learning a few words and phrases. In my case I am using it to keep my Spanish reasonably fresh. It is fun to use and very forgiving, recognising minor errors in accents and misspelling as small omissions, rather than marking them as completely wrong.</p> <h4>Converter+</h4> <p>A conversion app for surviving weights and measures in the USA.</p> <h4>Wi-Fi Finder</h4> <p>An app which locates paid and free hotspots. Ideal when overseas and you cannot use phone data.</p> <h4>Chrome</h4> <p>I am yet to meet an Apple user who rates Safari as a browser so I have downloaded Chrome.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>So there you have it. There is my list of apps in my corporate iPhone to make my job easier. I am sure those of you with iPhones may have other suggestions so feel free to add them in the comments.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-47686371423720777862015-07-31T00:26:00.001+10:002015-07-31T00:26:46.663+10:00The Current State of Parature–Dynamics CRM Integration<p>You may have seen the video depicting the integration of Dynamics CRM and Parature and perhaps you are wondering how to set it up. If you have not seen the video, here it is (<a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JavkJPykyDY" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JavkJPykyDY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JavkJPykyDY</a>):</p> <p><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JavkJPykyDY?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="420" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>The video portrays an exciting CRM future where we have an auto-provisioning support portal and two-way communication between the CRM agent and the customer.</p> <p>Reality, as is often the case, is not completely represented by the advertising but it is possible to achieve something close to what is presented in the video with a bit of work. I know because I just finished working on a project where we did it.</p> <h3>What Do We Get Out of the Box?</h3> <p>In an ideal world, for Parature and Dynamics CRM, there would be two-way communication of entities such as:</p> <ul> <li>Cases</li> <li>Articles</li> <li>Contacts</li> <li>Accounts</li> <li>Activities</li> </ul> <p>All this is, in theory, possible because both products have an API and, if they are sitting in the same Office 365 instance, they should be able to see each other.</p> <p>At this stage though, the only entity that is possible to configure without code are articles and these do not sync between Dynamics CRM and Parature but, rather, the Parature articles appear in the Social Pane on Cases (and any other entities you need it to appear for).</p> <h3>Setting up Knowledge Base Article Integration</h3> <p>The ability to surface Parature knowledge base articles is still quite new. In fact, my most recent project was the first customer site to link an existing Parature instance to CRM Online. If you are new to both Parature and Dynamics CRM Online, the process is quite simple. Once you have bought them through Office 365 and set them up, from Dynamics CRM, you go to Settings –> Service Management –> Set Up Knowledge Base Management. This pops up the configuration window where you type in the details of your Parature instance.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Fw5d2hfmM7Y/Vboz_tUyIUI/AAAAAAAADSU/r0XI3AHJ4yI/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HgXmbbEDgsE/Vbo0BVcmxxI/AAAAAAAADSc/GBk99EsW_jw/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="653" height="709" /></a></p> <p>That is it. The knowledge base articles then appear in the Social Pane on the entities you have selected it for (in the case above, Contacts and Cases). Unfortunately, if you are using Dynamics CRM On-Premise, it is not possible, at this stage, to link it to Parature in the way described above.</p> <p>For customers with an existing Parature instance, the process is slightly more complex. From Parature, you may have noticed a button.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6ZD3dBSkEw0/Vbo0CulvZiI/AAAAAAAADSk/s-Ah9bLc5uE/s1600-h/image%25255B8%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-94QutT2VpCI/Vbo0DvfsV-I/AAAAAAAADSs/xcjP9kSD3N0/image_thumb%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="718" height="73" /></a></p> <p>Clicking on this button requests an Office 365 Administrator login. Once this is provided, a mapping wizard appears so you can link your existing Parature users to users in Office 365. Once this is done, you are finished. As before, you will be able to go to Dynamics CRM and configure the knowledge base integration.</p> <p>In terms of those users mapped, they will now have the option of logging in directly through Parature, as before, or authenticating through Office 365. In terms of setting up new users, once the mapping is complete it is not possible to add users directly to Parature; it must be done through Office 365.</p> <p>With this in place, as mentioned the Parature knowledge base articles now surface in Dynamics CRM.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UjjAEWz3mQc/Vbo0Eb1wHEI/AAAAAAAADS0/eXH4zYkAyX4/s1600-h/image%25255B12%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Tq1Yr1sVFCg/Vbo0Fa_yk1I/AAAAAAAADS8/0KpF9rzcyuE/image_thumb%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="779" height="372" /></a></p> <p>A nice feature is also that when the KB RECORDS tab is clicked on, the title of the Case is automatically inserted into the search box, bringing back relevant articles.</p> <p>Mousing over the article also provides three action icons.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3693tFzLZj4/Vbo0GJh3YuI/AAAAAAAADTE/yKbHfmUCgDE/s1600-h/image%25255B16%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AoENuQn7JEY/Vbo0HKNP0TI/AAAAAAAADTM/kBpYzC1GogQ/image_thumb%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="456" height="171" /></a></p> <p>The first links the article to the Case, copying a reference to it into a custom child entity. The second pops an email with a link to the article in the body (and clicking this icon also automatically links the article to the Case. The third icon opens the article up for review.</p> <p>Overall, the integration is very practical for the Case agent giving them the information they need, where they need it.</p> <h3>Syncing Other Records</h3> <p>For Contacts, Accounts, Activities and Cases, we must get our hands dirty with code. Initially we considered using <a href="https://github.com/Parature/Portal2Case" target="_blank">Portal2Case</a> but this proved too difficult to adjust to meet the specific needs of the customer. In the end, to move data from Parature to Dynamics CRM, we built a windows service which polled the Parature data on a regular basis and returned new and amended records, feeding them through the Dynamics CRM API into CRM Online. To move data from Dynamics CRM to Parature, we used plugins, firing on changes and record creations, which then communicated directly with the Parature API. Go <a href="https://support.parature.com/public/doc/api.html" target="_blank">here</a> for details on the Parature API REST endpoint.</p> <p>With this in place, it was possible for agents to work out of Dynamics CRM to manage Cases without compromising the advantages of Parature. Clients could still go to the Parature Web Portal, log a Case and this Case would pass from Parature to Dynamics CRM, linked to the correct Contact. The agents, through the knowledge base integration also had access to the Parature articles and could send these to the client, if required.</p> <p>For clients logging Cases via email, the support email was redirected from Parature to a Dynamics CRM queue and the automatic record creation and routing rules managed it from there.</p> <p>Parature’s concept of Actions was mirrored in CRM through a custom Activity entity called Case Comments. If the client added a comment from the web portal, this came into CRM as a Case Comment. Similarly, if the agent added a Case Comment to the Case, this appeared on the Portal for viewing by the client.</p> <h3>Future Possibilities</h3> <p>While the current system works well for the customer’s needs, extending the Parature web portal is difficult. One option being considered is to move from the Parature web portal to an ADX Portal. ADX integrates, without code, to both Dynamics CRM Cases, Accounts and Contacts as well as to Parature’s knowledge base. This means the portal would show CRM Cases and the Parature knowledge base and be a lot more extendable.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b7CuZwl7-rY/Vbo0ICi5GfI/AAAAAAAADTU/YSU2wx493L0/s1600-h/image%25255B20%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N4Gfm8X-xdE/Vbo0JKe22xI/AAAAAAAADTc/3D26ulUSxkM/image_thumb%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="945" height="592" /></a></p> <p>If you are needing a portal with access to both Parature and Dynamics CRM, certainly consider the ADX Studios Portal product. Although I have not tested it, for portal integration it is, to my knowledge, deployment agnostic and will therefore work with CRM On-Premise as well as CRM Online.</p> <h3>The End Result</h3> <p>Although the coding of the integration between the two systems was very complex (kudos to Phil Mitchell for pulling off this lofty goal), the end result was similar in functionality to the integration video put out by Microsoft. It was possible for someone to log a request and for an agent to action it in CRM. The agent then replied to the request and this reply appeared in the client’s Case on the Parature web portal.</p> <p>I imagine, over time, the integration between these two products will become tighter so unless the need is urgent I would probably recommend against coding your own integration. In our case, project deadlines meant it was necessary. However, if you have access to Parature and Dynamics CRM and want to play, setting up the knowledge base integration is very simple and worth reviewing.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-17102110783643117942015-07-27T00:07:00.001+10:002015-07-27T00:07:55.197+10:00Samsung Revisited and How ChromeCast Makes Everything Better<p>At the start of the year I bought a <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/the-samsung-galaxy-tab-s-105-windows.html" target="_blank">Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and reviewed it</a>. My assessment at that time still reflects my thoughts on the device; a great screen but it is, ultimately, a game device for the kids. The problems at the front of my mind these days are:</p> <ul> <li>Space is limited (16Gb on-board with a 32Gb micro-SD) which hinders game-caching leading to slow load times, hinders updating and means constant juggling as apps get installed</li> <li>User management is annoying. Unlike Windows, where all users can be made equal, with Android there is the owner (the main administrator) and all others. In my case my wife is the primary user but I am the tech in the family but, to do tablet maintenance, I am forced to log in as her.</li> </ul> <p>There have been a delight though. Outlook for Android (released after my review) is great. It automatically filters the inbox to the mail that matters. If I can figure out how to do this in Outlook 2013 I will be in Outlook nirvana. Every weekend I fire up Outlook on the Samsung to make sure there are no important emails I have missed</p> <p>In terms of the apps I use today with the Samsung, these are:</p> <ul> <li>The games my son plays (Jurassic World, Clash of Clans etc.)</li> <li>Outlook for Android</li> <li>My Bar Free (you tell it what is in your bar, it tells you what cocktails you can make)</li> <li>Chrome (not often used but there when I need it)</li> <ul><!--EndFragment--></ul> <li>Netflix (more of this later)</li> </ul> <p>In my original review I lamented that I had not found a television remote app for the Samsung to control my television. With ChromeCast that is now moot.</p> <h3>The Netflix Workout</h3> <p>My journey with ChromeCast started with Netflix. I got a free six month subscription to Netflix via my internet provider. As I am on a plan with unlimited bandwidth, binge watching soon ensued. The chief problem is my TV is a plain LED TV, nothing smart, not even a USB port. Every time I wanted to watch Netflix, I had to hook up one of the house laptops to the HDMI port of the TV. Then, to browse programs, I kneeled at the media altar working the touchpad of the connected laptop. In a world of remote control, this was too much like exercise. </p> <p>A bit of research revealed that there were devices available which plugged into the HDMI port and communicated wirelessly to a computer.</p> <h3>Miracast vs ChromeCast </h3> <p>Given I am talking about Android, I will not dwell on Apple TV, which does similar things for Apple. For the rest of us, it seems to be a choice of two: Miracast and ChromeCast. Miracast is, in effect,  a wireless HDMI standard; whatever is on your device screen is transmitted to the television.</p> <p>For my purpose, Miracast was cheaper but had disadvantages. The first was flakiness, which I had experienced at clients who tried to use Miracast for meeting room presentations; connection was temperamental. More importantly though, whatever is on your screen gets transmitted to the television. So, no screensaver, no using the device for anything other than transmitting, the device is, effectively, locked.</p> <p>ChromeCast works differently. ChromeCast is a dongle which plugs into the HDMI port of the television but it is, in effect, its own Android device. It is like an Android computer whose screen is the television and whose keyboard is your device which connects to it via your home wireless network. This means that once ChromeCast is transmitting, you can use your controlling device to do other things like read email, browse etc.</p> <h3>How ChromeCast Works With Apps</h3> <p>With apps on the Samsung, you look for the ChromeCast icon <a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LSzliUnc83E/VbTpsVDd3rI/AAAAAAAADRg/Qfga-1DAhVQ/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vfPYFVPLVKw/VbTptD5hygI/AAAAAAAADRo/29DCIHZkc68/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="64" height="50" /></a> and this means you can stream it to your television at the press of a button. Netflix is one such app but there are plenty of others. I am also a fan of Pandora and YouTube which also work.</p> <p>Another is the OneDrive app. What is nice about the OneDrive app is if you have movies stored in OneDrive/OneDrive for Business, you can stream them to the television through ChromeCast without leaving your armchair. OneDrive is now my media player, thanks to ChromeCast.</p> <p>One final cherry on the ChromeCast pie is the ability for it to control the television through the HDMI port. While I cannot get my old Viera to turn on, starting a cast will automatically change channel to the HDMI channel which is quite a neat trick.</p> <h3>ChromeCast for Windows</h3> <p>For Windows, ChromeCast works with the Chrome browser. This provides lots of options. Firstly, if you browse to, say, Netflix or YouTube and click the ChromeCast icon, the app opens on the ChromeCast dongle, just like it would from an Android device. You also have the option of streaming the screen or, interestingly, a tab on the Chrome browser.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hpHo7vFEYQ8/VbTptqgxxhI/AAAAAAAADRw/mUxktI3o8sg/s1600-h/image%25255B7%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wnBPpcOtz50/VbTpufy8iNI/AAAAAAAADR4/1NtL1BXsQQ8/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="591" height="351" /></a></p> <p>This also opens the option of playing with browser options and add-ons. While you cannot mess with the settings in the Android version of Chrome, you can in the Windows version. This means you can, in theory, alter the settings and use Chrome add-ons, to display precisely what you want in Chrome and then cast the tab from your Windows device. This provides a similar experience to the Android device with the power of Windows Chrome and with the ability to minimise the tab and do other things on the device while still streaming.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>For a modest price, the ChromeCast has revitalised my Samsung, turning into an internet streaming device for the media I do not own and turned my OneDrive into an online media player with unlimited storage for the media I do own. Similarly music is just a couple of clicks away with no armchair departure required. No more plugging laptops into HDMI cables and it works with everything I own, Windows and Android alike. I could not be happier.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-35578540151148058792015-07-24T01:04:00.001+10:002015-07-24T01:04:11.105+10:00Tracking the Movements of a Case<p>I am finishing up with my current employer and, in the process, finishing what has been a really interesting project using Dynamics CRM for Case management. The project forced me to learn about new CRM features like routing rules and email conversion as well as Parature integration; all of which will prove rich sources of inspiration for future articles.</p> <p>In this article I will go through a bit of configuration I set up to track the movements of a Case.</p> <h3>Business Context</h3> <p>In our scenario, the client wanted to see if a Case bounced around the different areas of the business or not. To do this, they wanted a log of where the Case had been and for how long. In our situation I was using Teams instead of Queues as the client wanted the areas of the business to take responsibility (ownership) for the Cases assigned to them. Teams lent themselves nicely to this.</p> <h3>Setting up the Case Audit</h3> <p>The first step was creating a new entity to hold the history of the Case movement. I called this the Case Audit. The fields it had were:</p> <ul> <li>Description: The default Name field for the entity </li> <li>Created On: A date field </li> <li>Previously Assigned: When the Case had been moved previously </li> <li>Owner: A Team or User</li> <li>Case Status: The Status Reason of the Case </li> <li>Hours in Queue: Time with a particular Owner </li> </ul> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hY5npAC7TNc/VbECCChvJ2I/AAAAAAAADP0/QgpUia1eD68/s1600-h/image3.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1ExVYK1ygCI/VbECDEI4gHI/AAAAAAAADP8/EkerhPnwfmE/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="921" height="306" /></a></p> <p>This was a child entity to the Case. In the above example, the Case moved from being created by Ranjeet at 12:28pm to the Records (transcript) team to being picked up by me for actioning. You may notice that I am exploiting the Owner of the Case Audit to track ownership of the Case.</p> <p>Creating the entity was straightforward, populating it was a little trickier.</p> <h3>Populating the Case Audit Log</h3> <p>To populate the log, I used a real time workflow.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EcCQgfpQmYo/VbECENJROLI/AAAAAAAADQE/r-_e-nzdE-w/s1600-h/image7.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghlSssMYIqV1NUjdr7nJU-ssVOyNn69Ljczep_OZdlmbcwPAaMEy8GzdQ-CkZI5HhZSl3h7F3HCIIgYGQn-SGREdaW3DkJ2gkZ7lVmijL_QR2OFI31hwDWnzqwIzLF5S1fOsVME9er7TcC/?imgmax=800" width="902" height="569" /></a></p> <p>Looking at when the process runs, it runs:</p> <ul> <li>After the record is created (creating the first entry in the log) </li> <li>Before the status changes </li> <li>Before the record is assigned </li> <li>Before fields change (Owner, Status, and Status Reason) </li> </ul> <p>Then, when it fires, it firstly checks if the Case is Cancelled or Resolved (the act of trying to create a log entry on a closed Case was preventing the Case from being reopened so this got around that).</p> <p>Assuming the Case is active, it then creates a Case Audit record to mark the change and changes the Last Assigned Time on the Case (a custom field).</p> <p>The values for the Case Audit were:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BrkEUfs-0A0/VbECGO39hMI/AAAAAAAADQU/agqtDM_uGso/s1600-h/image8%25255B1%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lj7k_q09hF0/VbECHr-W8EI/AAAAAAAADQc/6AxkdbYSawM/image8_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="962" height="902" /></a></p> <p>The Name field gets populated with sensible values to assist with queries. The Previously Assigned takes the date time value from the Case record, just before it is updated in the next step by this workflow. The Owner of the Audit record is set to the Owner of the Case (meaning we can store a Team or a User), and the Case Status simply takes the Status Reason of the Case. Finally, the Hours in Queue is a calculated decimal field.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MKbDE1vMi0w/VbECIs77mFI/AAAAAAAADQk/AS-Rsx_P5ys/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8KL99EdyJZQ/VbECKZoSrMI/AAAAAAAADQs/HHAo7H2Q870/image_thumb%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="973" height="449" /></a></p> <p>The reason I used DiffInMinutes and divided by 60, rather than DiffInHours is because the Diff functions return an integer, which for quick owner transfers simply was not accurate enough. By using minutes I could track the movement in hours but with two decimal places.</p> <p>So, with this workflow, I got a new entry every time the record changed status (except when re-opening because of the error, which could be worked around with a second workflow, if required) and every time it was assigned to a Team or User.</p> <h3>Charts and Measures Available</h3> <p>With this in place and a few other tricks, a wealth of measures are now available. Firstly, using my <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/bringing-graphs-down-to-record-level.html" target="_blank">record-level graphs trick</a>, on the Case record it is possible to see the history of the Case and how long it had been with each Owner.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgVmgLVXGTpQqdAnDARlWEgHyEbTQajrvTnu6r9dlI5stn-MMecEWbXauPpOdprBbUaQnDjZD_6JNXYNCY3OtPY7yLFGzOfxuzjFLlqvSYVX44DlonxAN5i6AgD3y_mLrSjl4z-hEl8SB5/s1600-h/image%25255B10%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-okMrnP0-rds/VbECV4-HWVI/AAAAAAAADQ8/8in6EWO5RYQ/image_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="1149" height="333" /></a></p> <p>While the graph is only for one day in the above example, if the Case remained open across multiple days this would also be reflected in the above graph. On the Case, we have the following measures.<a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P6jRW1oxWgg/VbECYbEWCbI/AAAAAAAADRE/Ot9istx9ZvY/s1600-h/image%25255B14%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbBtCrmvyO7MH049FwDgqpSz1a0Ew5J-ixIEcFc0HBo1N5fhP84w2kk4oskinIOxMR2lYk9J3Sq4AkjFZyr9-YA6BWQ3UltdOEwdmD3NbK0RdWrK-kWCDwtKh3mVLrXWy1KUyfCO0yscBW/?imgmax=800" width="630" height="544" /></a></p> <p>The Initial Queue, Latest Queue, Moved Off Queue (when someone took ownership), and Queue Hops (how many Teams the Case has been to) are populated by a second workflow running after the change in ownership. The Hours in Queue measures how long the Case bounced around teams before being owned by a user and is a calculated field using the Case Created On field and the Moved Off Queue. The Hours To Resolve is a calculated field using the Moved Off Queue and the Modified On field which only populates if the Case is resolved (calculated fields can be conditional).</p> <p>Non-Working Hours is a rollup field, looking at the Case Audit entries and summing up the Hours in Queue values for entries with a status other than In Progress (rollup fields can be conditional). Finally, the Last Audit Entry is the field populated by our workflow and used to generate the next Case Audit record.</p> <p>With all these in place, we can also generate charts such as the average hours Cases stay with a Team and the average time for resolution.</p> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p>With some of the newer tools of Dynamics CRM such as calculated fields, rollup fields and real time workflows, we can provide insight into our CRM data without resorting to BI tools or exporting to Excel, giving instant feedback to the business. If you have not yet played with these new features, I strongly recommend giving them a try.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-27453767903095422712015-06-30T23:22:00.001+10:002015-06-30T23:22:49.859+10:00Top Ten Secrets to a Successful CRM Deployment: Part Three–Technology<p>This is the last part of my “Top Ten” series from my MS Dynamics World talk <a href="http://msdynamicsworld.com/event/secrets-successful-crm-deployment">“Secrets to a Successful CRM Deployment”</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/top-ten-secrets-to-successful-crm.html" target="_blank">Part One</a> went through people aspects of CRM deployments <br /><a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/top-ten-secrets-to-successful-crm_27.html" target="_blank">Part Two</a> was about process issues with CRM deployments</p> <p>This part goes through the new things in Dynamics CRM 2015 which contribute to a smooth deployment in order of, in my opinion, smallest to largest impact.</p> <h3>1. Data Sovereignty For Australia</h3> <p>This is really only for us folk in Australia. In the past, CRM Online was available for Australia through the Singapore data center. With the introduction of the <a href="http://www.crn.com.au/News/402224,office-365-goes-live-from-australian-data-centres.aspx" target="_blank">data centers in Sydney and Melbourne</a>, we now have the option of getting CRM Online without the data ever leaving Australian shores. Even the geo-redundant back-up stays in Australia. While data sovereignty is not a huge issue for most industries, for the finance industry there is still a lot of reservation about data heading overseas. One of the major regulatory bodies for the Australian financial industry, APRA, has, in the past, issued <a href="http://delimiter.com.au/2010/11/16/financial-regulator-issues-dire-cloud-warning/" target="_blank">strong warnings about using online services</a>.</p> <p>While APRA’s position has relaxed over time, there is still concern in the industry about embracing the cloud. The new data centers remove this barrier by ensuring financial organisations can use CRM Online and guarantee the data stays within Australia.</p> <h3>2. Hierarchical Views</h3> <p>I talked a little about hierarchical views in my <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/crm-corpse-relationship-management.html" target="_blank">Corpse Relationship Management</a> post. This new feature provides a graphical view of a list of records which are related to each other but is only good for one entity type at a time.</p> <p><img border="0" alt="[zhierarchy%255B4%255D.png]" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUkTfzxoBqQB0rLxGFV138Z0ue4ldTTfFcCixbMK57Y-L6dn2o-tmhD_k0_wts2_uY9dsxhBihq_snO8k9hvbXBjJaCtA2pkVz6T99taOmgtkskqUIgdOjGzVoLYDMUrmo1_IsnE1YnWRw/s1600/zhierarchy%25255B4%25255D.png" width="1031" height="477" /></p> <p>Where I see this helping deployment and user adoption is in helping users visualise their data in ways not possible before in CRM. For example, in the corpse example, where the hierarchy is the link of which zombies created other ones, it is clear that Jim Grim is very active at creating zombies whereas this information may not have been clear in the traditional form views.</p> <h3>3. Improvements in Business Process Flows</h3> <p>I must admit I have not yet fully embraced the flow bar at the top of the record forms but the idea of it certainly piques the interest of prospects during pre-sales meetings. The latest improvements bring it closer to being an integral part of the Dynamics CRM experience. </p> <p>Process flows have come a long way in a relatively short period of time; they can now span multiple entities and multiple processes, for a given entity, are possible. The latest improvement is <a href="https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn887193.aspx" target="_blank">branching</a>. Branching allows us to put conditionals into our process reflecting more closely what happens in the real world.</p> <p>If you ever look at a process diagram for a real business process, more often than not there is a point where a decision needs to be made. Here is part of the standard sales process from SureStep. The green diamonds are decision points.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TAnrXV1vl18/VZKYBAIGLPI/AAAAAAAADOM/O8zxI-VM6Rk/s1600-h/image3.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Y50PCIppltg/VZKYDxoVDiI/AAAAAAAADOU/jDIbyjnnQyU/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="977" height="827" /></a> </p> <p>With the new branching options, it is these green diamonds that are managed with process flows. With a better alignment to actual processes, flows can be implemented in CRM and give a new employees a clear, guided process to follow, improving adoption and allowing them to learn the system and the business processes quickly.</p> <h3>4. Excel Export Fixed</h3> <p>Something that is a regular source of confusion for new users is the Excel export which is, more accurately, an XML export. When the export hits Excel, is throws an error because Excel is not sure if the XML file is Excel-compatible. Thankfully, the Excel export utility has been rewritten from the ground up and now exports ‘proper’ xlsx files. These work without error in Excel and work with Excel Online (the old format was incompatible with Excel Online).</p> <p>One of the strengths of Dynamics CRM is their focus on giving normal users the power to analyse their data without requiring strong technical knowledge or expensive consultants. Fixing the Excel export so it works as the user expects is a great leap forward in assisting users to fully embrace Dynamics CRM.</p> <h3>5. <strike>New Email Editor</strike> Improved Business Rules</h3> <p>In my talk, I referred to a new email editor in Dynamics CRM. Unfortunately, Microsoft did not deliver on this one for Update 1 and we still have the old email editor with the new one being only available in Dynamics Marketing. However, Microsoft have improved the business rules as I discovered today when configuring a system for a client.</p> <p>Business Rules (the configurable form behaviours) now allow for If-Then conditions and the grouping of conditions with AND/OR logic. So, for example, if you need a field to appear based on the value of two other fields, this is now possible.</p> <p>While much could be done with JavaScript in the past, these new changes mean many form behaviours can be managed through codeless configuration. Making forms simpler and reactive to the user’s input is a great way to overcome forms which are “too busy” or “too hard to navigate”.</p> <h3>6. Folder Tracking for Mobility</h3> <p>A new feature which, for me, the jury is still out on is <a href="https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/mscrmdaily/archive/2015/04/24/2015-update-1-folder-level-tracking" target="_blank">folder tracking for mobility</a>. This feature brings the tracking capability, previously only available to Outlook to any device. In essence, the user simply drags an email to a special folder and CRM picks it up and tracks it to CRM.</p> <p>Tracking is a very popular feature of the Outlook client and is often the driving reason for using the Outlook client. Bringing similar capabilities to any mobile device is likely to delight those users who use CRM on the road and also need an efficient way to get emails into the database against key records.</p> <h3>7. Custom Help Web Pages</h3> <p>An unsung hero for Dynamics CRM 2015 is the <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/2014/09/26/new-feature-coming-in-2015-create-custom-help-for-your-users.aspx" target="_blank">custom help web pages</a>. While it was possible to create custom help web pages back in the v1.2 and, from memory, the v3 days, when CRM Online came out it became a lot harder. Thankfully CRM 2015 allows you to pepper CRM help with your own content. This is perfect for customised systems where the user may need assistance with a new entity or for the new user trying to get to grips with the system.</p> <h3>8. Global Search</h3> <p>Every user I show this to, loves it. CRM now sports a search box at the top of the web client. Typing in a key phrase searches multiple entities at once and displays the results in a friendly format in a flash, making it easy for users to quickly locate the record they are after.</p> <p>In the project I am working on now, which is a customer support system, typing in the name of a client brings up their Contact record but also any Cases (Enquiries) they have raised.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-D2hDZzB3lWU/VZKYEqS7o1I/AAAAAAAADOc/2XRzK4jU-aw/s1600-h/image%25255B4%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gXi3EbdCOCM/VZKYFjb4o0I/AAAAAAAADOk/QSl143p-aTM/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="1038" height="301" /></a></p> <p>For sales, this could be Accounts and Sales Opportunities. I created a similar search using <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/codeless-universal-search-for-dynamics.html" target="_blank">workflows a number of years ago</a> but there is no need for mine now that it is baked into the product and infinitely easier to administer.</p> <h3>9. Navigation Improvements</h3> <p>Dynamics CRM 2013 introduced the new touch-friendly navigation. The problem was it was not very mouse-friendly and, to locate areas of the system, often required scrolling around big tiles.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cbgg2jhUUF8/VZKYGdgiJMI/AAAAAAAADOs/bmHFW5F6nv8/s1600-h/image7.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-roFkiQevYh0/VZKYHWHwZLI/AAAAAAAADO0/UDQzZJ0-97s/image_thumb3.png?imgmax=800" width="1062" height="136" /></a></p> <p>This is now fixed, going to a cascading menu structure which works for both touch and mouse users.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkFBLRa2n54/VZKYIl1WmUI/AAAAAAAADO8/PasF_eu8ccM/s1600-h/image11.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijQTFFhsFgBBy6slIHsEh5cR4UaQWawfeZNLho5-p6HrXj6TvhE4BKReFY8VoGoth-kFQrDe-PokD5CIwvmyAiJ5EiJww20um_-AcjrMyTE1e8UXt1uDNLpYyAwauzuX0h5XifSLYSVBE0/?imgmax=800" width="1078" height="420" /></a></p> <p>Without a doubt, for my clients moving from CRM 2011 to 2013, this was the biggest complaint. Those who have subsequently moved to CRM 2015 could not be happier and as this is the part of CRM users interact with the most, it is great Microsoft have made it so adoptable for all types of CRM users. </p> <h3>10. Themes</h3> <p>Many, many years ago, when I worked with SalesLogix, there was one thing I did to every demo system to guarantee a smile on the prospect’s face: add their logo to the system. That was over 15 years ago so it is great to see Microsoft bring the ability to add themes to Dynamics CRM.</p> <p>With the new themes feature, you can add a logo to the web client and change the colours used in the product. An example of this is the canary yellow you can see in the previous example (their choice, not mine). Branding CRM with the client’s marque and colour palette helps the users see it as their system and warm them to it.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>While more product-specific than the previous two articles, there is a lot to love in Dynamics CRM 2015 and Update 1 from a user adoption perspective. If you are still on CRM 2013, seriously consider upgrading for the new menu and if you are about to implement a new CRM system, consider using themes to make the system truly part of your business.</p> <p>I hope you enjoyed this set of blogs and, while a set of books could be written on tips and tricks for CRM implementation and adoption, with any luck this provided some insights into how to manage the people and processes around CRM and what features of the product you can use to ensure the system gets the opportunity it deserves to thrive.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-60460133245129333972015-06-27T00:32:00.001+10:002015-06-27T00:32:12.315+10:00Top Ten Secrets to a Successful CRM Deployment: Part Two–Process<p>Microsoft and Google have done it! Live Writer again talks to Blogger so my migration to WordPress gets a stay of execution. Well done giants of industry, we appreciate your efforts.</p> <p>This is part two of three ‘top ten’ lists of things which can make or break a CRM deployment. <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/top-ten-secrets-to-successful-crm.html" target="_blank">In the first part</a> I talked about people. This time it is about the process.</p> <h3>1. CRM is More Than Sales</h3> <p>In the beginning there was Sales Force Automation but CRM has come a long way since then. CRM now has Service AND Marketing but it is more than that as well. In fact, plenty of CRM systems have nothing to do with any of these. CRM systems manage business processes and are especially good when those processes involve interacting with external parties. I have seen CRM systems which manage employee of the month nominations, floor safety audits, and online auctions. </p> <p>When implementing a CRM system, think of it as a system to manage processes, well defined or otherwise. Thinking in terms of sales, marketing or service may hinder, rather than help the design and never discount bringing a process into CRM because it does not fall neatly into one of the ‘standard CRM modules’.</p> <h3>2. Process Re-engineering is Inevitable</h3> <p>Dynamics CRM is very flexible, and there are often at least three ways to achieve an outcome, but every piece of packaged software has design limitations or assumptions built in. A classic assumption with most CRM systems (Dynamics CRM included) is a person only works for one company. In the case of the medical industry, this is a very poor assumption with doctors often splitting their time between working at a hospital, running their own practice and perhaps working in a research institute.</p> <p>Of course these limitations can be worked around, as I have <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/capturing-multiple-contact-roles-in-crm.html" target="_blank">written about in the past</a>, but this may lead to a process which is unfamiliar to the end user or, perhaps, requires a click or two extra than anticipated. Similarly, if CRM is replacing an existing system, processes may be in place which are not ideal but are simply “how things are done”.</p> <p>CRM implementations are an excellent opportunity to review how things are done and how they can be improved and often the system and the humans meet somewhere in the middle, both adapting to the other. </p> <p>One recent presales meeting I was in, I explained this very idea that a CRM implementation is an opportunity to assess the business’ processes in light of the technology being brought in. The client immediately saw the possibilities of revitalising the business through the technology catalyst.</p> <h3>3. NEVER Replicate an Old Process in a New System</h3> <p>Similar to the previous example, the idea that you can take an old system and simply imprint it onto CRM is a recipe for disaster. One project I remember in particular moved from CRM partner to CRM partner in Australia, each time ending in a lot of money spent and little to show for it. The problem was the client, a very large sporting association, wanted their old membership system replicated perfectly in CRM. This was a system which had evolved literally over a hundred years with hundreds of business rules hard coded into the back end of it. </p> <p>Some of these rules related to war time or long-forgotten Sunday trading laws; some rules related to membership levels no longer used in the club or held by any member. Regardless, the client had no interest in reviewing the list, had no interest in reviewing its processes, and wanted CRM to look exactly like the old system.</p> <p>This approach always fails because it discards all the benefits of a packaged platform system like Dynamics CRM</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L1MwRLguZXc/VY1iYyJZqdI/AAAAAAAADNw/zaDYol10kMw/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_WCOLhdDTWQ/VY1iafMEzqI/AAAAAAAADN4/DrxsIuMhrsM/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="893" height="471" /></a></p> <p> Dynamics CRM has forms look a certain way and has the layout of the controls work a certain way. This makes it easy to set up and work with. If you want everything to behave in a very specific way, build the system from the ground up. CRM has the advantage of pre-configuring commonly required components such as Outlook integration, role-based security and activity management. If you are not going to take advantage of these or wish them to be completely rebuilt, CRM is not for you.</p> <p>The other aspect of this is in refusing to review your existing processes, in light of the new system, you run the risk of making a bad process run more efficiently. If you annoyed your customers before through a bad experience, imagine how successful you will be when you do it faster and with the capacity to do it to more people.</p> <h3>4. Bad Data = Bad System</h3> <p>Data cleansing is never easy or pleasant and it is very tempting to ignore the problem. To do the job properly requires a dedicated team of data ninjas working full time for weeks or months. For a CRM system, the best options are either bite the bullet and sort the data out or throw away the majority of it and just bring in the data you know are good. The worst thing you can ever do is bring your bad data into CRM with a view of sorting it out later.</p> <p>I am ashamed to admit I once did this for a client. As well as the Account and Contact information from the users which, for the most part, was clean, they also had the legacy accounting data, also with Accounts and Contacts. We brought it all into CRM and soon discovered our mistake. The accounting data was a double-up of the user data and also brought in a bunch of old, irrelevant records. There was no clear source of truth and we were heading for disaster. Fortunately we saw the error of our ways and deactivated all of the accounting records before go-live.</p> <p>While CRM has lots of excellent tools for data management, from a user adoption perspective you have lost the war before the battle has begun if you start with bad data. With multiple data sources, there is never a clear source of truth; no one knows where the correct version of a contact record resides. If you bring all your data sources into CRM without cleansing, all you do is centralise the bad data so there are now three versions of the same record in the one system, all of which are potentially incorrect. Users will learn to mistrust the system and will likely revert to their old systems and processes.</p> <h3>5. Big Bang = Big Failure</h3> <p>I am not a fan of fixed priced projects. One of the reasons for this is because it encourages the client to try and get as much as they can as quickly as possible and, in really bad cases, the project becomes more about scope juggling than about what the business actually needs.</p> <p>In the worst of cases, the client demands a big bang approach. All areas of the business are going to switch to the system all at once and every possible item on the wish list will be implemented. Cost-benefit considerations are thrown out the window, as are product roadmaps. Everything will be built, even if it takes 18 months and 6-7 figure budgets.</p> <p>The biggest problem with the big bang approach is most of what is built is obsolete by the time it is finished or was never needed in the first place. Where this is commonly seen is in reporting. With the prospect of a new, centralised system, management start brainstorming every possible report they can extract out of the system. They specify the precise format and, inevitably, the only way the reports can be built to meet the specification is with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). SSRS reports are technical and expensive but are very powerful and flexible. In some cases I have seen literally 100 reports specified even before the first field has been added to a form.</p> <p>No one sees a bloated system which does everything the business needed a year ago and nothing the business needs today as a success. Budgets are gone and the system is locked in, doomed to become a white elephant. In the case of reporting, the client often discovers they can get the information they need with Excel and Advanced Find with no need for expensive report writers.</p> <h3>6. Keep Things Simple</h3> <p>My position is to implement a good platform that does at least as much as the existing system and removes the severe pain points. Also, I try to keep coding to a minimum. It is very tempting for a junior consultant, especially one with a development background, to say yes to everything the client asks for, knowing it can be built with code. However, while the client may ask for something, if the cost outweighs the benefit, it will never been seen as a success.</p> <p>While a client may not like that they have to do two clicks instead of one to perform an action and a button on the ribbon could solve this, if the time saving is not there compared to the development cost, “fixing” it should be resisted. I have a friend, also a CRM Architect/Consultant who likes pushing the boundaries. This is not necessarily a bad thing but he will often give the client one thing they want which they may not need because it is something unusual and exciting. Often, to deliver it, requires a bit of unsupported work and a fair amount of expense. Unfortunately, while the intent is good, when things go awry it is that part of the project which the client focuses on and not the rest of the system.</p> <h3>7. Plan For Phase 2, 3, 4…</h3> <p>The better approach to big bang is to phase the implementation. Phasing the implementation means intelligent decisions are made in light of where the product is heading and where the business is heading. Decisions on where limited budgets can make the most impact means CRM is shown in its best light. The phased approach also means the opportunity to work with the client over a longer period of time and to be a key part of their success. I have customers who I have literally worked with for years, solving different problems as priorities dictate and budgets allow. Phasing the project, in my opinion, gives the best possible chance for success.</p> <h3>8. Show the System Early and Often</h3> <p>I mentioned in Part One that using a demo version of the system in the workshop is a good idea. My position is show it off as much as you can. Even in the presales, while a meeting may be a meet and greet, there are times when a prospect I am meeting, tired of PowerPoint and promises, has insisted on seeing something there and then. Always have a demo system ready to go even if you do not intend to use it (it has literally won deals for me in the past). I believe in the product I sell and know that the more the client sees it, the more comfortable they become with it. Often, in the early meetings, their biggest objections get raised so having a system ready to tackle the issue head-on can be very powerful in influencing the decision.</p> <p>While it is good to give the prospect as much exposure to the product as possible, leaving them alone with a 30 day trial is not. Without training, it is very easy for the prospect to become overwhelmed and feel the system is too complex.</p> <h3>9. Choose the Right Software For You</h3> <p>Despite what you may read on dynamics.com, while Dynamics CRM is a great product, it is not right for everyone. One of the worst reasons I have seen for organisations to select a software package is because someone used it once and liked it. It is a good reason to consider it but no piece of enterprise software lives in a vacuum so it is essential that your CRM plays nicely with the rest of your local ecosystem. Thankfully, most of the projects I have worked on have obeyed this rule; Microsoft shops go with Dynamics CRM and Apple/Google shops go with Salesforce. </p> <p>A client whose On-Premise CRM system I implemented a couple of years ago is now looking to improve the reporting capabilities of the system by leveraging the power of SQL Server and setting up a data warehouse. I recall at the time of implementation there were stakeholders, familiar with Salesforce, who felt Dynamics CRM was a poor choice for the business. Time has proven Dynamics CRM has done its job and now, as it expands in the business, it can efficiently make use of the business’ Microsoft stack.</p> <h3>10. Build it for the Future</h3> <p>Funnily enough I am in this situation now where I must choose to sacrifice work today to set up the client for the future. I have a client who is implementing CRM and has needs which I know will be addressed directly in the next six to twelve months. The lesser consultant would take the client’s money and build what they know will be obsolete in the near future but this is a poor approach.</p> <p>The better approach is share what you know (without violating Microsoft NDAs of course) and allow the client to make a reasoned judgement. If the requirement is urgent and waiting will cost the business too much then so be it but, usually, the client can wait and, as a consultant, you gain the trust of your client. Short term consulting dollars at the expense of the client relationship is never worth it.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>Just as managing the people in the project is vital for success, so is managing both the implementation process and the business processes which will be impacted by the project. For the implementation, guiding the client appropriately for the long term is vital. For their processes, embrace that change will come and help them manage it.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-90713807634355148242015-06-20T00:58:00.001+10:002015-06-20T00:58:39.776+10:00Top Ten Secrets to a Successful CRM Deployment: Part One–People<p>I recently gave a talk for MS Dynamics World on <a href="http://msdynamicsworld.com/event/secrets-successful-crm-deployment" target="_blank">“Secrets to a Successful CRM Deployment”</a>. In the talk I gave 30 tips on maximising the chance of success for CRM projects, broken down into three categories (people, process and technology), making it a top ten list for each.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pC9Hklwmyb4/VYQuGOnOLJI/AAAAAAAADNI/qNaMIZ8IeQ8/s1600-h/image3.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uLkZWybhPJA/VYQuHehDgkI/AAAAAAAADNQ/W7ytcgUHVpI/image_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" width="640" height="547" /></a></p> <p>This month I will go through these three top ten lists and highlight some examples where I have seen CRM project flourish or come unstuck because of these factors. This article focuses on the people aspects of a CRM project.</p> <h3>1. Recognition of a Problem</h3> <p>In a 12-step program, the first step is recognising there is a problem. So too with CRM implementations. If the people whose destiny is to use the CRM system see no value in implementing it, they will protect what is familiar to them and frustrate the implementation of the new system.</p> <p>Sometimes this resistance is a force of one and sometimes it is the entire user base. On one project I did a few years ago, the resistance was the brains behind the old system who refused to admit their system, cobbled together, piece by piece, over a decade, was no longer appropriate for the business. While a key stakeholder in the implementation of the new system, he slowed the process down significantly through constant challenging of the new system and trying to find reasons to stay with the old system. His challenges had to be addressed and absorbed significant time in workshops, meetings and emails.</p> <p>While challenging a consultant’s design is healthy, the ultimate goal for everyone is solving the problems of the business. Pretending there are no problems to protect one’s ego or to maintain the status quo is a poor foundation for a successful project.</p> <h3>2. Definition of Success</h3> <p>A key part of a successful CRM implementation is recognising what success is. This needs to be defined early and documented for reference. I usually define it as part of the introduction to the project’s functional specification. </p> <p>Without a clear, documented definition of success, by the time the CRM project is implemented (which can be months later), the issues which seemed insurmountable in the old system are a thing of the past and additional goals emerge which may not be as easily addressed. Clients then focus on the new goals and get frustrated when it proves difficult to address these within the scope of the existing project. </p> <p>No one wins. The client feels cheated, the consultant feels unappreciated and the system risks not being adopted.</p> <p>One project I worked on was introducing Dynamics CRM and a web portal to an organisation. The key driver for the project was stakeholder/activity management. This was very difficult with their incumbent <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/you-know-you-need-crm-system-when-you.html" target="_blank">BONA</a> system. Dynamics CRM, with its Outlook integration was exactly what the customer needed. However, their web server setup was a nightmare and getting the portal to work was a slow process, delaying the project.</p> <p>Success was not defined early and, after the system went live, it was the problems with the portal which was at the front of mind of the client, not the great leaps they had made at managing their customers.</p> <h3></h3> <h3>3. Buy-In By the Executive</h3> <p>Change is modelled from the top so if the executive are not behind the initiative, even if there are advocates elsewhere in the business, the culture the executives preside over will prevail. Lip service is not enough. The senior project sponsors must demonstrate their support in strong, symbolic ways. Examples I have seen include promoting a naming competition for the new system or ordering bright t-shirts for the trial users to wear. It can even be as simple as attending and participating in the CRM design workshops. After all, their time is important so if they are willing to sacrifice half a day or a day in a workshop, the initiative must be important.</p> <h3>4. Use the Workshop to Generate Buy-In at the Coalface</h3> <p>Officially we do workshops to gather requirements and understand the needs of the business. If this is the case, why not do it via a questionnaire? Other than the fact that every question generates at least two others, design workshops are powerful tools in ensuring the success of an implementation.</p> <p>Design workshops need to be done with a demo system at hand for full effect. This has multiple benefits. The people in the workshop, often the trial users, gain familiarity with the system. Also, if there are specific doubts about whether the system will be able to meet the needs of the business, these can be addressed directly with a live demonstration.</p> <p>The workshop participants will see a system modified to suit their needs, and spread the word about the benefits it will bring when they speak to the curious co-workers outside of the workshop. So many times people who walk into a workshop on day one with cynicism and low expectations leave with excitement and optimism at the end of the week.</p> <h3>5. Involve the Dissenters</h3> <p>More often than not, a CRM implementation is a political landscape. We have touched on those blind through self-delusion in point number one but there are many reasons why there may be dissenters on a project:</p> <ul> <li>People who resent “high-paid” consultants doing a job they are perfectly capable of</li> <li>People who know Salesforce/Access/SharePoint is better and Dynamics CRM can offer no real value</li> <li>People who fear a loss of power and influence with the removal of old processes and systems</li> </ul> <p>In all of these cases, bringing the dissenters closer into the project is the best approach. For those resenting the consultants, show them that a CRM implementation is more complex than just installing software; that there is a subtlety to designing the system that, if done correctly, requires an intimate knowledge of the product and experience gained through many projects before this one. </p> <p>For those who see no value in Dynamics CRM, challenge them and work with them. Through the workshops they will see value they had not considered and realise the picture is often a lot bigger than they had anticipated.</p> <p>For those fearing the loss of power with the change, give them the opportunity to become the new system expert. If people within the business look to them for ad hoc system support, it will be natural for these same people to turn to our would-be dissenter for support in the new CRM system. Let them become that strong advocate and guide.</p> <h3>6. Get a Partner/Consultant Involved</h3> <p>For an unscrupulous CRM consultant there is nothing better than hearing that a company is managing a CRM implementation internally without a CRM specialist. The reason is that in three to six months time that same company will be begging for help and to unwind the damage will cost at least twice the amount if the company had been guided correctly from the start.</p> <p>Back in my <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/upgrade-vs-rebuild-interest-vs.html" target="_blank">“Upgrade vs Rebuild”</a> blog from a few weeks ago, I spoke of a Dynamics CRM system stuck in version three. What I did not explicitly mention in that article was the system had been an internal implementation. The system was built with internal staff and then left for a decade until it fell apart. If a CRM consultant had been present, even if the initial design had remained the same, as new versions of CRM came out, the client could be encouraged to upgrade and evolve the system as functionality in Dynamics CRM improved. Adopting this approach would result in a system with potentially less unsupported code and better aligned to the contemporary needs of the business.</p> <p>Without fail, and not because of self interest, no CRM consultant or partner will recommend a customer go through a CRM implementation alone. Even when I am introduced to CRM opportunities and determine the company I work for is a bad fit for the project because, for example, the client is too small to be effectively serviced by a medium-level consultancy, I ensure I introduce the client to someone who can assist them. No one ever thanks you for throwing them under the bus.</p> <h3>7. Make Sure You Have a Functional, Technical, and Implementation Consultant on the Project</h3> <p>While the skills may reside in one person, all three are necessary to ensure a good design for the system. Without a good functional CRM consultant, the project runs the risk of over-engineering. A good CRM developer can make Dynamics CRM do anything. The job of a functional CRM consultant is to make sure they do not need to. Many times a complex interplay of plugins, web pages and entities is proposed to solve a problem when a clever dialog or workflow gets close enough to meet the needs of the business for a fraction of the cost.</p> <p>Without a good technical CRM consultant (developer) the system is ham-strung. With every new version of Dynamics CRM, there is more that can be achieved through configuration. For example, I am making good use of the new Service Management capabilities of Dynamics CRM on a current project which, a version or two ago, would have needed multiple plugins to achieve a similar outcome. However, there is always a necessary part of any CRM system which configuration cannot achieve. A good developer changes what would otherwise be a manually-intensive process into a button click. A creative developer who considers the cost-benefit of their work is worth their weight in gold.</p> <p>Finally, there is the implementation consultant. For on-premise implementations, without a consultant with a deep server implementation spike, the project is heading for disaster. Client networks are never perfect so having someone on the project that can navigate Active Directory, set up claims based authentication and cluster servers is essential. For online implementations, the skills are different, focussing on things like Azure and Office 365 knowledge but the necessity for their presence is the same.</p> <p>I have seen over-engineered projects which cost a fortune and been thrown away because of the developed complexity. I have seen projects with frustrating manual processes because the project did not have a good coder on board to recognise where they could provide delights to the business and, finally, I have seen projects trying to navigate broken authentication, aging, overworked servers and flaky network routers. With the right team, obstacles the size of mountains become gravel on the path.</p> <h3>8. Get the Executive to Tell You What is Important For Reporting</h3> <p>This point, and the next point, talk at the Ying-Yang relationship between the end users and their managers which <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/why-do-we-need-crm-systems.html" target="_blank">I talked about four months ago</a>. A key function of a CRM system is to inform the business to help them make improvements. In the project I am on now, we are implementing an enquiry management system built on Dynamics CRM Online and Parature. The manager of the customer service agents has very clear ideas on the kinds of things he wants to monitor.</p> <p>This is great because, when a consultant knows that the outputs of the system are, he can work to ensure the correct inputs are in place to generate the required information. In this particular project, the manager is keen to know things like:</p> <ul> <li>Average length of time a Case remains in the queue before being picked up</li> <li>Average length of time per day for Case resolution</li> <li>Average time a Case remains with each team before being passed on or resolved</li> </ul> <p>Knowing these key parameters means the right fields, charts and dashboards can be added. This will ensure the management get the information they need to guide the business.</p> <h3>9. Make Sure it is Practical for the Users</h3> <p>Setting up all the reports in the world will not help if there are no data going into the system. Therefore it is essential the system is practical for the users.</p> <p>A project I did quite a number of years ago was my first at a new employer. Being keen to please and being a little less wise than I am today, I fell into a number of pitfalls. Firstly, there was no end users in the workshop. The general manager assured me he knew exactly what the end users needed and the workshop would be me and him. In fact, the general manager knew exactly the 200 fields he needed to generate the reports from his sales funnel and assumed the end users would have no issue filling in the virtual paperwork. He was wrong.</p> <p>The system went in and only a small fraction of the fields were ever populated, much to the general manager’s frustration. The system was not well-liked because of the busy forms and languished for quite a while. Thankfully, the client eventually upgraded the system which provided an opportunity to revisit the design and, this time, end users were involved leading to a much better system.</p> <h3>10. Training is Essential</h3> <p>When presented with the CRM project Gantt chart and a large associated cost, a common focus for a client is to look for creative ways to cut the costs. The first place is often training, followed closely by the design workshops. While workshop questions can be tackled offline (see point four for why this may not always be a good idea), it is much harder to train effectively via email.</p> <p>A sure-fire way to cripple user adoption is to not show the end users how to use the system effectively and efficiently. It is guaranteed that users will return to old systems or do the least possible in the new system as everything is just a little harder than it should be.</p> <p>This is so common it is hard to think of a single example but, often in pre-sales meetings, if the client has an existing implementation of Dynamics CRM and they acknowledge that no one really uses it, the root cause is a lack of user training.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>I am sure other people-related issues come to mind as you read my top ten, and feel free to add them to the comments, but what should be clear is that a CRM implementation is much more than a software implementation. The success of a CRM project is strongly dependent on the people involved, on both the client and consultant side and how they engage with each other. Regardless of how great Dynamics CRM is, without careful consideration of the people engaged in the project, a project has a strong risk of being another cautionary tale in someone’s blog.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-87151512890026506862015-05-30T23:53:00.000+10:002015-05-30T23:54:11.172+10:00Upgrade vs Rebuild, Interest vs ResponsibilityApparently blog writing software worldwide has been knocked out by Google’s recent turning off of an old authentication method. If, like me, you use Blogger, the good news is Microsoft and Google are coming up with a joint solution to the problem. If that is not good enough, you can create a WordPress blog site and import all of your blogs. I will give them a week or two before making the jump.<br />
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This week’s blog is inspired by a piece of work we just completed and the follow-on work which may result from it.<br />
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<h3>
The Proof of Concept</h3>
Within their industry, the client checks the compliance of service providers through regular visits and tracks what measures need to be applied to meet the legal standards required. In some ways they are similar to restaurant health inspectors. They were managing this process through Microsoft CRM v3 (yes, this was before it was called Dynamics CRM). Understanding it was time to move on, they wanted to do a trial upgrade to see what could be preserved and plan out the actual upgrade.<br />
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Microsoft CRM v3 was the second version of CRM after v1.0/1.2 (there was no version 2). This was the early days of CRM and introduced the Marketing and Service modules of the product. It also introduced the extension tables for the entities, allowing many more custom fields than was possible in v1 and allowed for the creation of custom entities. <br />
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Despite making the product ‘practical’ and propelling it past Sage ACT! which had, in my opinion, been Microsoft CRM v1’s closest competitor, it still had significant shortcomings. The predecessor of plugins, “callouts”, had significant limitations, as did the API, so it was no surprise that the client had been very creative in their customisations of the solution.<br />
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It was common for consultants to embrace ‘unsupported customizations’ in v3 because of the limitations. Unsupported customizations are changes made to Dynamics CRM which Microsoft do not support i.e. they cannot guarantee they will survive updates and Microsoft reserves the right not to support a system where they have been employed. <br />
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In this specific case, the client had added stored procedures to the SQL Database (a CRM no-no), and renamed CRM tables and replaced them with SQL views (a really big no-no). They had avoided the use of callouts and done practically everything with JavaScript, web pages, and windows services.<br />
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To upgrade to Dynamics CRM 2015, it is necessary to take the system through every version. So the upgrade went from Microsoft CRM v3 –> Dynamics CRM v4 –> Dynamics CRM v2011 –> Dynamics CRM v2013 –> Dynamics CRM v2015. Practically every part of the CRM architecture was revised and tweaked over these versions. For example, between v3 and v4, Dynamics CRM went from a pure on-premise solution to a deployment-independent solution i.e. CRM Online and, more recently, the product went from only supporting Internet Explorer for its web client to supporting all major browsers.<br />
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Not surprisingly, very little of the customizations survived the process, with most having to be removed just so the upgrade worked at all. Our own l33t CRM developer, Colin Slack, brought one of the major pieces of customizations all the way through so the client could see how the product looked in Dynamics CRM 2015.<br />
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The client was happy with what they saw and we set about putting a proposal together for the actual upgrade.<br />
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<h3>
Three Options</h3>
It became clear there were three options available to us to get a working Dynamics CRM 2015 system:<br />
<ul>
<li>Upgrade Lite: Literally get the current system and make it work in Dynamics CRM 2015</li>
<li>Upgrade “Proper”: Upgrade the code where needed but, with the significant advances in the configuration capabilities of Dynamics CRM, where possible replace what was JavaScript in CRM v3 with configuration in CRM 2015</li>
<li>Rebuild: Start with a fresh implementation of Dynamics CRM 2015 and determine what the business needs (as opposed to what was possible with CRM v3) and configure/customize as required</li>
</ul>
Costing the options it also became clear that the effort to rebuild was significantly less than the upgrade options and much less risky in terms of nasty surprises in the many years of code applied to the old system. It also allowed a more robust design. For example, JavaScript, the tool of choice in the existing design, relies on the user opening a form to trigger the code. This means the JavaScript will not fire on the import of records, if a web form is used, or if mobility options are used. While not part of the business processes today, it is inevitable that this will become a problem some time in the future.<br />
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The problem was the client was fixed on their path. All along they had assumed that the way to go was to upgrade and for us to convince them of a different approach was difficult. To complicate matters, the decision makers were reluctant to get the business involved in the intensive workshops necessary to understand the business processes for the rebuild but largely unnecessary for the most expensive Upgrade Lite option.<br />
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This discussion is still not resolved and it may be the business prefers to go for the more expensive option to avoid disruption to ‘business-as-usual’, discounting the ‘best practice’ option. Ultimately it is their business and they must choose the best path for them.<br />
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<h3>
Conclusions</h3>
The reason I wrote this was to highlight that while upgrading is normally the obvious choice, it does not always mean it is the best choice and, under certain circumstances, rebuilding the system can make sense. <br />
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In this case, the most cost-effective, risk-averse option was rebuilding but, with the consultant having incomplete information, this did not mean it is the best option for the business. While, as consultant, we may get frustrated with clients who pay us money to hear our advice and then not heed it, it is ultimately the business executives’ responsibility if the business succeeds or fails, not ours, and we must respect that.Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-25368194669984101132015-05-28T10:38:00.001+10:002015-05-28T10:38:53.837+10:00Salesforce: Frictional Forces and Equilibrium<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Microsoft Live Writer has finally given up the ghost and will no longer link to Blogger so I am having to use Google's online writing tools until I find another option. All suggestions welcome.<br />
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Salesforce has done it. The elusive goal of making a profit. Will Marc return to GAAP reporting? Is this a one-off like that <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/salesforce-turns-corner-kinda.html">tax write-off from a few years ago</a>? Is this the start of a golden era for Salesforce? The numbers will reveal all.<br />
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<h3>
Salesforce Quarterly Results</h3>
The numbers are from <a href="http://investor.salesforce.com/files/doc_financials/2016/CRM-Q116-Earnings-Press-Release-w-financials%281%29_v001_m9cn47.pdf">Salesforce’s Financials page</a>. These are the numbers reported to the Securities Exchange Commission and are the GAAP numbers, not the non-GAAP numbers we hear in the press releases.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 663px;"><tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">2015 Q1</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">2015 Q2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">2015 Q3</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">2015 Q4</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">2016 Q1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Revenue</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">1,226,772</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">1,318,551</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">1,383,655</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">1,444,608</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">1,511,167</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Subscription Revenue</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">1,147,306</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">1,232,587</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">1,288,513</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">1,345,358</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">1,405,287</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Revenue Cost</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">292,305</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">307,831</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">333,211</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">355,923</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">381,802</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Operating Cost</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">989,808</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">1,044,154</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">1,072,486</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">1,123,501</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">1,098,260</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Salesforce Income</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">-96,911</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">-61,088</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">-38,924</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">-65,765</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">4,092</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Highest Transaction</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">2,037,819,946</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">2,502,030,346</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">2,872,068,400</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">3,186,923,759</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Transaction Growth QoQ</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">23%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">15%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">11%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Revenue Growth # YoY</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">334,139</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">361,457</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">307,621</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">299,366</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">284,395</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Revenue Growth % YoY</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">37%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">38%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">29%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">26%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">23%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Revenue Growth % QoQ</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">7%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">7%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">5%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">4%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">5%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Total Cost % YoY</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">37%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">36%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">20%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">18%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">15%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Total Cost % QoQ</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">3%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">5%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">4%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">5%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">0%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Staff</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">14,239</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">15,145</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">15,458</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">16,227</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">16,852</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Staff Growth YoY</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">38%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">20%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">21%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">22%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">18%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Margin</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">-7.90%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">-4.63%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">-2.81%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">-4.55%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">0.27%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Growth Difference</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">1%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">2%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">9%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">8%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">8%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Cash</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">827,891</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">774,725</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">846,325</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">908,117</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">941,956</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Accounts Receivable</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">684,155</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">834,323</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">794,590</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">1,905,506</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">926,381</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Cash/AR</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">121%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">93%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">107%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">48%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">102%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Expenses Relating to Stock Based Awards</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">131,092</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">142,411</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">139,460</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">151,802</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">142,560</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="132">Stock Based YoY</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="86">14%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="107">29%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">-1%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="118">11%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="109">9%</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
Numbers of Note</h3>
In terms of what is jumping out at me is a general slowing down in the growth of the business. Transaction growth (the growth in the number of ‘operations’ done on the Salesforce servers) has halved in six months. Revenue growth year-on-year is showing a steady decline over the five quarters above and is the lowest it has been in five years. Thankfully cost growth has also slowed down and, by comparing the revenue year-on-year to the cost year-on-year we see growth is decelerating faster, which is good for profit. Like revenue growth we are seeing a cost growth similar to that of five years ago.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicwVD8TeVAC6MZXcxHGDzfFqxEMuhkZoRmwQTvIZL-2jXMFNRW8YZOVjZJtyKGcGgv26Fdc2BOxW0yzRchbO39q-I183CgGOpttaH7h2ls7l1Wt31vxJfM4r3PM9DeZiRGe5oUnve035NS/s1600/SFDC_Revenue.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="411" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicwVD8TeVAC6MZXcxHGDzfFqxEMuhkZoRmwQTvIZL-2jXMFNRW8YZOVjZJtyKGcGgv26Fdc2BOxW0yzRchbO39q-I183CgGOpttaH7h2ls7l1Wt31vxJfM4r3PM9DeZiRGe5oUnve035NS/s640/SFDC_Revenue.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Here it is in graphical form. The solid green line (Cost) is running pretty much parallel now with the solid red line (Revenue) with both declining. Cost is also as lot less volatile than the past which is also a good thing. Note that while the lines are parallel, as this is growth, revenues are still growing faster than costs which means we are on a path to profitability.<br />
<br />
Staff growth is a similar story. A steady deceleration with growth numbers similar to those of the start of 2010.<br />
<br />
The business growth slowing is good because the aggressive growth strategy was unsustainable and unprofitable. By putting the brakes on, especially on marketing and sales spend, Salesforce has returned to a break-even position. As mentioned, the financials are similar to those of five years ago. Five years ago Salesforce was profitable.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Unusual Entries</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Back in 2013, Salesforce turned a profit because they got a $130m tax rebate. Is this the same again? The only entry which stands out is the once-off “Operating lease termination resulting from purchase of 50 Fremont” which reduced operating expenses by around $37m. As the profit made was $4m this certainly had an impact.<br />
<br />
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It will be interesting to see how the next quarter pans out<br />
<br /></div>
<h3 class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Cash and Accounts Receivable</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
As I <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/salesforce-newtons-second-law.html">predicted last time</a>, Cash and Accounts Receivable have come back in line after the end of year spike to bring in those last-minute contracts.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFx8bsSlB0VIsOCY3nZhEPBzfdYLKgXw9oeS1o1j3nm0Vm099VyiG-HXoOia59lTfwk8uqP_3WncYKOKeao650346c4sXX47TMtMDCG4q2hJIVhdiiSIVIbBCbWoC98OgvqF1MHo-B7jF/s1600/SFDC_CAR.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFx8bsSlB0VIsOCY3nZhEPBzfdYLKgXw9oeS1o1j3nm0Vm099VyiG-HXoOia59lTfwk8uqP_3WncYKOKeao650346c4sXX47TMtMDCG4q2hJIVhdiiSIVIbBCbWoC98OgvqF1MHo-B7jF/s640/SFDC_CAR.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Like our Revenue and Cost measures, the Cash and Accounts Receivable are starting to level out.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Earnings Call Buzzword Bingo</h3>
I was especially interested in this one because we now have a profit to brag about. At 3,500 words this was one of the shorter transcripts in recent quarters. Regardless he managed to utter the phrase “We are all about customer success” twice and his version of bragging about the profit, “Non-GAAP EPS of $0” three times. The words “profit”, “profits” and “profitability” got mentioned once each.<br />
<br />
Not a huge amount but they are words Marc is unfamiliar with so you can forgive him for not over-working them.<br />
<br />
Four times his used the phrase “our customer success platform” which is the new branding for the Salesforce stack; the develop platform most dreaded by developers, according to <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2015#tech-super">StackOverflow</a>.<br />
<br />
The rules for Earnings Call Buzzword Bingo are simple. We get the quarterly transcript and count up the words and phrases. Words on the list have had ten or more mentions in the past five periods with the text used being the call transcript after the introduction and up to, but not including, questions.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 644px;"><tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">2015 Q1</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">2015 Q2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">2015 Q3</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">2015 Q4</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">2016 Q1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Number of words</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">2400</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">4,731</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">3,922</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">4,017</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">3,495</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Customers/Customer</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">22</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">38</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">34</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">23</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">34</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Revenue</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">19</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">27</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">26</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">25</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">24</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Cloud</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">15</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">22</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">47</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">32</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">28</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Platform(s)</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">10</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">13</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">27</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">18</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">14</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Service</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">13</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">15</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">12</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">5</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Growth</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">9</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">18</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">16</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">13</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Marketing</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">5</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">10</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">8</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">4</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Cash</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">10</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">11</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">9</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">10</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">11</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Operating</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">11</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">11</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">8</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">20</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">11</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Enterprise(s)</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">8</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">10</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">8</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">7</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Dreamforce</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">11</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">14</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Analytics</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65">14</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">11</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="293">Software</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="65"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="66">12</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">4</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In terms of words we have lost, unfortunately ExactTarget and Salesforce1 are no longer the golden children they once were and we lose them from the list.<br />
<br />
No new words stood out other than ‘incredible’ (ten times), ‘world’ (17 times), and ‘success’ (12 times). These are a bit generic though so I am not adding them on.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Google Trends</h3>
Our quarterly review of Google searches for “Dynamics CRM” and “salesforce.com”.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglCZ7aqyrXbBZtcF7CXOakZGCDY87Rd0Z3HBDxFJhR2h5SlTGV8v-6G3aKedYByDL-2GbJILgJ3c1DbOQcrMmLP2-rmfzqC-K7v855HyIH83-1OXWKCPzQls_1PguXirh6fEd_7XzdYXrR/s1600/SFDC_Interest.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglCZ7aqyrXbBZtcF7CXOakZGCDY87Rd0Z3HBDxFJhR2h5SlTGV8v-6G3aKedYByDL-2GbJILgJ3c1DbOQcrMmLP2-rmfzqC-K7v855HyIH83-1OXWKCPzQls_1PguXirh6fEd_7XzdYXrR/s640/SFDC_Interest.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
People are still more interested in Googling about Dynamics CRM.<br />
<br />
In terms of regional interest, nothing really has changed in terms of the countries looking at the two terms but the cities is interesting. Firstly, let us look at “salesforce.com”:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIujH8TbIIshCVed63mrVEK2aK1wICA13uge7YqGp7oLs2zKzmTfTsEce_szg8FMdeuMB_e2Rw0l9cEyiIP9leSqDohpTsYWj-ncxa3sllWmaFvz9LRMKapvA6VdHdaHiwyfIub0EPFer2/s1600/SFDC_SRegional.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIujH8TbIIshCVed63mrVEK2aK1wICA13uge7YqGp7oLs2zKzmTfTsEce_szg8FMdeuMB_e2Rw0l9cEyiIP9leSqDohpTsYWj-ncxa3sllWmaFvz9LRMKapvA6VdHdaHiwyfIub0EPFer2/s640/SFDC_SRegional.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Clearly the interest is from the Americas where five of the seven cities are based. The other two are in India.<br />
<br />
For “Dynamics CRM” we have:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkSYVtqdXfsoOvhccHGvj9ZBsfFIbaXYxTIfknxDTKoQVe-4c80Vk1RijAouDlbfvBs4Vd9EeR04e1lgQumyipHFz6e47ifHhC-PwJAxaKVPAbOZpr-k20fHL2Or0xj5Ew8SAwG_x9I97/s1600/SFDC_DRegional.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkSYVtqdXfsoOvhccHGvj9ZBsfFIbaXYxTIfknxDTKoQVe-4c80Vk1RijAouDlbfvBs4Vd9EeR04e1lgQumyipHFz6e47ifHhC-PwJAxaKVPAbOZpr-k20fHL2Or0xj5Ew8SAwG_x9I97/s640/SFDC_DRegional.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I did not know where Chiyoda was and had to look it up; it is, effectively, Tokyo for the purposes of our review. Of these top seven cities precisely zero of them are in the Americas.<br />
<br />
It is clear which is the more metropolitan of the products and which one the international community is curious about.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Insider and Institutional Sales</h3>
So how has the slowing growth affected those in the know?<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 595px;"><tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="228"></td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">2015 Q1</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">2015 Q2</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="75">2015 Q3</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="72">2015 Q4</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">2016 Q1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="228">Insider Sales (as a percentage of holdings)</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">0.50%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">0.40%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="75">4.70%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="72">4.60%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">4.50%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="228">Institutional Sales (as a percentage of holdings)</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="71">2.71%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="68">2.67%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="75">3.20%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="72">3.11%</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="79">3.04%</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
No clear patterns here other than a small decline in Insider and Institutional Sales over the last three quarters. Given this is the case, they do not seem overly concerned with the slowing growth. This being said no executive has made a purchase of Salesforce shares in the past six months and they are still selling an awful lot of shares.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Looking to the Future</h3>
Last quarter I predicted revenues of $1.56b and a loss of around $50m. Obviously the loss was off, although I would be closer if not for the $37m lease termination. I did ok with the revenues though being only 3-4% off.<br />
<br />
In terms of the next quarter, I predict revenues of around $1.66b and an income around the breakeven mark i.e. $0b.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Conclusions</h3>
The frictional forces of the market are finally affecting the turbulent trajectory of Salesforce and it is slowing down. In this case, though, a slowing of growth is not all bad. The slowing has given Salesforce the opportunity to return to profitability or, at least a break-even point. Also, the slowing of the business has brought a stability to the figures.<br />
<br />
It will be interesting to see if this is the start of a profitable Salesforce or an outlier with more losses to come.Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-26079901605730619342015-05-21T00:32:00.001+10:002015-05-21T00:42:18.642+10:00Tools for an Awesome CRM Demo<p>It has been a few weeks since I wrote a blog as it has been crazy-busy but I am still here and still committed to writing my “three per month”. There should be a Salesforce announcement soon so this will be likely the next post but, for now, it is all about Dynamics CRM.</p> <p>There used to be a time when, for a demo, you had to copy your 30G virtual machine, spin it up and pretty much configure and customise from scratch. Thankfully things have become a lot easier. To this end I thought I would share some of the tools I use to put together my CRM demos.</p> <h3>The Base Image</h3> <p>This first one is probably my best secret weapon. Obviously, you can <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=252780">sign up for a 30 day trial</a> and get an almost instant CRM in the cloud but, if you are a Microsoft partner and have a bit of extra time, there is another option.</p> <p><a href="https://www.microsoftofficedemos.com">Microsoft Office Demos</a> allows partners to spin up a fully featured 90-day Office 365 environment, including CRM, if you choose the first option.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mw9bzQZBV14/VVya-Alf2UI/AAAAAAAADKg/CeDAgeCHx74/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zciN6spWbsw/VVybAFF_HMI/AAAAAAAADKo/k6jpMuX8E2E/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="662" height="349" /></a> </p> <p>Moreover, the demo environments can be set up clean or for specific verticals.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-92EQrHewJSE/VVybBH3YiOI/AAAAAAAADKw/3rwN-dzKkQQ/s1600-h/image%25255B7%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q2Q-flpoP3A/VVybCOp8lGI/AAAAAAAADK4/UvQLRs4ud7U/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="653" height="301" /></a>  </p> <p>If you are looking to impress, these are a great way to do it. The verticals have language specific to that vertical as well as custom elements to really show Dynamics CRM in its best light. As mentioned though, they can take a few hours to set up so do not do this on the morning of the demo.</p> <h3>Web Portal</h3> <p>For simple portal setup, it does not get much easier than ADX Studio. Once you have your base CRM image in place, go to <a href="https://demo.adxstudio.com/">ADX Studio’s Demo site</a>, feed it the details of your CRM environment and your login details and it does the rest. Again this can take a few hours but is well worth the wait.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uKwkP6DiFB0/VVybDQYJPqI/AAAAAAAADLA/JOoAABTK3P8/s1600-h/image%25255B12%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-90FZ3EcClNE/VVybETirkEI/AAAAAAAADLI/Wtbw-B0C7Qo/image_thumb%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="646" height="529" /></a> </p> <p>As you can see, there are also verticals available here. If you are unsure, go with the “Customer Portal” as you can always add additional portals later through CRM Settings. Customer Portal gives commonly requested features such as Customer Self-Service, Knowledge Base, Ticketing, Event Management and Service Requests.</p> <p>Modifying the look and feel is as simple as editing a WordPress site, if not simpler, and requires no code knowledge.</p> <h3>Chipping Off the Rough Edges</h3> <p>There are two other tools I recommend to smooth off the rough edges of your demo. The first I have used for many demos and the other comes highly recommended by the MVP community. The first is one, I have mentioned before, which is <a href="http://www.xrmtoolbox.com/">Tanguy’s xRM Toolbox</a>. It is full of useful bits and pieces. I mainly use the icon loader and the SiteMap editor but there is loads more in there and anyone who works with CRM should have this one within reach.</p> <p>The second is Scott Durow’s <a href="http://www.develop1.net/public/page/Ribbon-Workbench-for-Dynamics-CRM-2011.aspx">Ribbon Workbench</a>. This allows you to mess with the buttons on forms and the like. As mentioned this is not a tool I have used directly but it is on my list of tools to master and, with the ability to assign Actions to buttons, I am sure it is soon to become my new best friend. </p> <p>If you need to mess with the navigation of your demo at any level, these two tools get you there.</p> <h3>Bonus Workflow</h3> <p>If the demo requires sending an email, this is a trick I use to keep things flowing nicely. Generally, your demo environment will not have email set up but you want to give the illusion it does. This simple workflow changes an email from “Pending Send” to “Sent” as if it really did go out.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZlnNjakpg-U/VVydRk0gvUI/AAAAAAAADLU/nrxOr2YR7Wo/s1600-h/image%25255B4%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lSD-89TzRk4/VVydSRhVKCI/AAAAAAAADLc/YGe9Ng-Y8cM/image_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="668" height="369" /></a> </p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>I am sure others have tools they use e.g. PowerBI, and I welcome adding these to the comments but, for me, this handful of tools allow me to put together a great demo without taking a week or two like it used to in the old days.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-31363626937064064352015-04-13T15:34:00.001+10:002015-04-13T15:34:23.707+10:00Passing MB5-705: Managing Microsoft Dynamics Implementations<p>I just passed MB5-705: Managing Microsoft Dynamics Implementations. Lots of lessons learned so I thought I would write them down while they are still fresh.</p> <h3>Know the Ground You Are Fighting On</h3> <p>Firstly, understand what is ahead of you. In this case, the exam is 90 minutes long and has 45 questions. You need to score 700 to pass which, I assume, is equivalent to a 70% pass rate but this this not completely clear on the Microsoft site. If this is right though, it means you can get up to around eight questions wrong.</p> <p>In the exam, you can mark questions for review. What I tend to do is answer the questions and, if I am not sure the answer is right, mark them as for review. Then, at the end, I go over these until I get under the eight question threshold then I cross my fingers and hit the finish button.</p> <p>In terms of the topics covered, the details can be found <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-au/exam-mb5-705.aspx">here</a>. Here are the high-level topics (the link goes down to a summary of the areas covered under each of these headings):</p> <ul> <li>Explain projects and project management</li> <li>Define Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step</li> <li>Initiate a project and prepare for the diagnostic phase</li> <li>Deliver Decision Accelerators</li> <li>Generate a proposal and final licensing and services agreements</li> <li>Describe project management disciplines</li> <li>Use waterfall delivery</li> <li>Use agile delivery</li> <li>Manage the deployment and operations phases</li> </ul> <p>In this exam, all topics are weighted equally.</p> <h3>Gather Intelligence From Allies</h3> <p>There is a blog out there which, if you heed its advice, will be really, really, useful. Kevin Crampton aka @kevtravel put out this <a href="https://dynamicscrmchat.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/microsoft-exam-mb5-705-preparation/">blog post</a> which is an excellent summary of resources and even includes his notes. The reason I only <u>just</u> passed the exam is because I did not give this blog the consideration it deserved. Learn from my mistake and do what Kevin tells you.</p> <h3>Gather Intelligence From Double Agents</h3> <p>Let us broach the dirty subject of ‘Brain Dumps’. It is a poorly kept secret that there are operators out there who, for a fee, will sell what they claim are ‘questions closely resembling the Microsoft exam questions’. Microsoft have made their position on brain dumps crystal clear. On their <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/certification-exam-policies.aspx">Exam Policies and FAQ</a> page they state: </p> <p>“If a candidate violates any testing rule, exam policy, or term within the exam agreement (NDA), or engages in any misconduct that diminishes the security and integrity of the Microsoft Certification Program in any way, the candidate may be permanently prohibited from taking any future Microsoft Certification exams. In addition, the candidate may be decertified from the Microsoft Certification Program, and test scores and certifications may be revoked.</p> <p>Examples of such misconduct, misuse, and fraud include, but are not limited to, the following: <br />… <br />Using unauthorized material in attempting to satisfy certification requirements (this includes using "brain-dump" material and/or unauthorized publication of exam questions with or without answers) <br />…”</p> <p>Using brain dumps is a bad idea for a number of reasons:</p> <ul> <li>Microsoft can revoke your certification and ban you if you use them (as per above)</li> <li>While I have no evidence for this, I hear that Microsoft periodically reword questions to trip up the brain dumpers</li> <li>My understanding is the answers are randomized in their order in the exam so ‘A’ will not always be the answer</li> </ul> <p>While I see value in the brain dumps as a test exam to identify areas which need study, to use them is a violation so do so at your own risk.</p> <h3>Gather Intelligence From Previous Battles</h3> <p>The pre-cursor to this exam was MB5-858. This is an exam I studied for in the dark past and still had my study notes for. This was useful to refresh my memory but it is fair to say, on its own, this information was insufficient to pass the exam.</p> <h3>Gather Your Weaponry</h3> <p>Kevin provides an excellent summary of tools to use to help pass the exam. There were two key resources which proved invaluable to me. The first one was the SureStep Client (make sure it is the <a href="https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/australia/deployment/downloads/service-packs/MSDSureStepdownloads">2012 version</a>). While a lot of material in the SureStep 2010 client is the same as the 2012 client, the exam tests the 2012 client so it makes sense to be up to date.</p> <p>The second was the <a href="https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/readiness-training/student-training-materials/course80450">client materials for the 80450 course</a>. This material closely follows the topics in the exam and is very useful for revision.</p> <p>For both of these you will need Internet Explorer (they use the File Manager tool to down load them) and a partner account on PartnerSource.</p> <h3>Once More Unto the Breach</h3> <p>If this is an exam you are studying for, I wish you the best of luck. If you prepare and follow my advice (and Kevin’s) you should be fine. Even if you do trip up, Microsoft are offering second chance exams at the moment (well, in Australia anyway) which takes the pressure off a little.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5719332149137711434.post-53585983402592701672015-04-07T15:58:00.001+10:002015-04-07T16:07:33.577+10:00Forrester Trajectories for Enterprise CRM: 2008-2015<p>Every now and again, Forrester or Gartner release a report on the comparative strengths of the market leading CRM systems. Forrester has just put out their “The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites For Large Organizations, Q1 2015”. If you Google around you will be able to obtain a free copy in exchange for <a href="http://www.pega.com/forrester-crm-2015">giving your contact details to one of the major CRM vendors</a>. </p> <h3>Forrester Trajectories</h3> <p>My most recent trajectory analysis was in <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/gartner-trajectories-for-sales-force.html">July last year</a>. Basically, I took the Gartner reports from 2012 to 2014 and plotted how the products moved over time. This time I have done it for the Forrester CRM Suites for Large Organization reports for 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2015.</p> <p>Here is the result.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-zalJT8Vln5M/VSNx-xOG0zI/AAAAAAAADJI/99on9LnTkXc/s1600-h/Forrester%252520Large%2525202008-2015a%25255B4%25255D.png"><img title="Forrester Large 2008-2015a" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="Forrester Large 2008-2015a" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-TYu5hoiqXPs/VSNx_tdVyqI/AAAAAAAADJQ/1bfV9TlKD94/Forrester%252520Large%2525202008-2015a_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="653" height="679" /></a> </p> <p>Yes, my Photoshop/GIMP skills have come a long way in six months.</p> <p>The selection of products is based on those which have ended up in the leaders quadrant which are:</p> <ul> <li>Microsoft </li> <li>Oracle Siebel </li> <li>Pegasystems </li> <li>Salesforce </li> <li>SAP Cloud for Customer </li> <li>SAP CRM </li> </ul> <p>SAP Cloud for Customer was not mentioned in the previous Forrester reports so it has no trajectory line. for the others, the white circle is where the product is in 2015 with the tail being its path over the previous reports.</p> <h3>Products Left Behind</h3> <p>In the previous reports, the Leaders quadrant also had:</p> <ul> <li>CDC Software (2010) </li> <li>Oracle CRM on Demand (2012) </li> <li>RightNow (2012) </li> </ul> <p>CDC Pivotal (now Aptean Pivotal CRM) is considered by Forrester to be suited to the midsize market (250-999 employees) and therefore does not appear in the chart. Oracle CRM on Demand no longer appears in any list so I am not sure what has happened to it, unless it has been bundled in with Oracle Siebel. RightNow was bought by Oracle in 2011 and is now known as Oracle Service Cloud with Forrester considering it a customer service solution and not an enterprise CRM solution.</p> <h3>Market Presence</h3> <p>Of the six players in the Leaders quadrant, four have a large market presence:</p> <ul> <li>Microsoft </li> <li>Oracle Siebel </li> <li>Salesforce </li> <li>SAP CRM </li> </ul> <p>These have been the four main players for quite a while now with me highlighting them in <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/forrester-and-gartner-trajectories-for.html">my trajectory blog in 2012</a>.</p> <h3>Challengers</h3> <p>The challenger of great interest to me is Pegasystems. Again I mentioned it as one to watch back in 2012 and here it is. Over the seven years it has emerged from the Strong Performers and is now a Leader. I wrote in 2012 that I had never heard of Pegasystems. These days, while the product does not feature on my radar often, I personally know three people in Australia working for them. </p> <h3>Other Trajectories of Interest</h3> <p>Of the four main players, all have moved back in their strategy score, presumably a normalisation relative to the wider market. Sadly, the only one of the four that has also moved down in its offering score in Microsoft. The Forrester report evaluated Dynamics CRM 2013 so, with the improvements in CRM 2015 and the additional capabilities available through Dynamics Marketing and Social Engagement, I expect this position will improve in the next report.</p> <h3>Industry Consolidation</h3> <p>In terms of the number of players featuring in the Forrester report we have:</p> <ul> <li>2008: 14 (6 in the Leaders quadrant) </li> <li>2010: 18 (7 in the Leaders quadrant) </li> <li>2012: 17 (7 in the Leaders quadrant) </li> <li>2015: 9 (6 in the Leaders quadrant) </li> </ul> <p>While the number of leading players has stayed about the same, the total number of CRM solutions in the entire space has dropped significantly by about 1/3 since 2008. I observed a similar trend <a href="http://leontribe.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/gartner-trajectories-of-crm-solutions.html">back in 2011</a> for sales force automation products.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>While the industry continues to consolidate, the same four players still dominate the CRM market with Microsoft losing a little ground, in terms of their offering, relative to the other players. Pegasystems continues to move from strength to strength and it will be interesting to see if they become the fifth horse in the race in the near future.</p> Leon Tribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05713816319075495059noreply@blogger.com2