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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 synchronized with Microsoft Outlook of Microsoft Office 2007.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a Customer Relationship Management software package developed by Microsoft. It is a part of the Microsoft Dynamics family of business tools.

The current version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is 4.0 (Update Rollup 5 - 4.0.7333.1644 - Release Date 2 July 2009)

History

The most notable updates of CRM version 3.0 over version 1.2 (version 2 was skipped entirely) are the ease of creating customizations to CRM, the switch from using Crystal Reports to Microsoft SQL Reporting Services to run reports, the ability to run on Windows Vista and Outlook 2007, and support for Exchange 2007.
CRM version 4.0 introduced Multi-Tenancy features which can be used for companies with separate brands or multiple divisions. Example: a company has two divisions, one that sells bicycles from a store front and another that sells via the web. In this model, multi-tenancy would enable the company to have one CRM installation, separating each database and customization of the application.

CRM 4.0 also implements CRM Online, a hosted solution that is only offered directly from Microsoft.

Versions

Microsoft Dynamics CRM comes in 4 versions for installation by a partner/customer; these versions can be highly customized using advanced extensions. The CRM Online version cannot be extensively customized because of security issues.

- Workgroup Edition

This edition is only allowed 5 CAL's maximum, it is not possible to add more CAL's. If more CAL's are needed, an upgrade to Professional or Enterprise should be done. Also all the server roles are installed on 1 machine and cannot be separated. You can only create 1 organization in this version and the use of External Connectos is not allowed. This version is ideal for small organizations that can use it with the SQL Server Workgroup Edition and on a Windows Small Business Server.

- Professional Edition

Has the same functionality as the Workgroup Edition except there is no limit on the CAL's. To allow more than 1 organization to be installed or to install CRM roles on different servers you should upgrade to the Enterprise version.

- Enterprise Edition

Has the same functionality as the Professional Edition but without limits. This version is to be used when multiple divisions should be accessing CRM from one platform.

- Service Provider Edition

This edition is actually an Enterprise Edition that is configured to accept Internal user requests from AD and external user requests (through IFD). This version is mostly implemented by Microsoft Partners that offer Hosted CRM functionality. When letting external users connect to this CRM version through the Internet.

Licensing

Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers flexible software licenses. Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers two types of licenses: Server license and Client Access License (CAL). Each deployment should have at least one server license and one CAL. CAL is also known as a user license.

There are two types of Client CAL:

- Named User CAL: This is tied with the user name i.e. the user can access MSCRM from any computer.

- Device CAL: This is tied with the Device i.e. CRM can be accessed from only one device. This model is useful in environments such as Call Centers.

Read Only Licenses

New in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 are readonly licenses. Users that do not have to have write permissions can be assigned Read Only licenses. These licenses are cheaper because they do not allow any write operations on the records. If later a user should be able to perform a write operation, a step-up license can be bought to upgrade the Read-Only license to a Full Client Access License.

External Connector Licenses

Whenever an application (windows or web) reads or writes data from/in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, an external connector license is required. External Connector licenses are only valid when bought for a Professional or Enterprise edition. It is not allowed to use them with a Workgroup Edition.

These also come in 3 forms:

- External Connector : Is a combination of the Limited External Connector (that provides Read Only functionality) and the Full Use Additive External Connector (that provides Write Only functionality)

- Limited External Connector: Provdes Read Only funcitonality for the external application. This license can be upgraded to an 'External Connector License' when the Full Use Additive External Connector is bought.

- Full Use Additive External Connector: Provides the Write functionality to a "Limited External Connector" license.

Features

Dynamics CRM version 4.0 adds a number of new features, including support for duplicate data detection and other enhancements. Perhaps most importantly, CRM 4.0 provides true multi-tenancy, which will allow the creation of multiple organizations on a single server. CRM 4.0 was released with the following improvements:

More powerful and easier to configure Reporting and BI (now based on SRS instead of Crystal)
More powerful data import tools, de-duplication capability now included
Enhanced entity relationships – many to many, self-referential
Improved programmability - enhanced Web Services, unified event model, plug-ins to replace callouts
Light enquiry user licence now available - potentially reducing the costs associated with rolling out across larger organizations
Multi Tenancy - One server can host more than one business organization
Multi Currency
Multi Lingual
Microsoft Office Communicator / Windows Live Messenger presence integration support
Cloud Computing with Microsoft Online Services

Updates

Microsoft publishes updates for Microsoft Dynamics CRM (called Rollups) every two months. At the time of writing, Rollup 6 is available.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5.0

Microsoft announced the next release will be available around the end of 2009. This version, now in the beta testing phase, has a few notable changes:

Native integration with WSS 3.0
Ability to create a query behind a lookup
Placing of a grid with childrecords on the parent record
Autofilter sorting capability like in Microsoft Office Excel
Microsoft Office Ribbon interface replaces menus

External links

References

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 [[Image:Microsoft Dynamics CRM.gif|thumb|right|275px|Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 synchronized with [[Microsoft Outlook]] of [[Microsoft Office]] 2007.]]