As you may have heard, Windows 7 was launched worldwide by Microsoft today. We here at Gateway Solutions have been testing Windows 7 internally for several months and have found that it is not only faster than its predecessor, but has a number of features that makes it the best Microsoft desktop operating system yet.br /br /In our internal testing we did not find any issues running the CRM 4.0 outlook client and Windows 7. That said, Microsoft released Update Rollup 7 for CRM 4.0 today to coincide with the Windows 7 launch. This release introduces major changes to the way the CRM client interacts with Outlook. It also adds official support for Windows 7. Below you will find the download link for Update Rollup 7. Please let us know if you would like assistance in installation or if you had any other questions about Windows 7 or CRM.br /br /Download Link: a href=”http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a4893988-7804-4e23-ab58-740441cc696edisplayLang=en”Microsoft CRM 4.0 Rollup 7/a
October 23 2009 | Uncategorized and crm musings | No Comments »
We recently started a project with a client who had some very complex spreadsheets. They wanted the data from a complex spreadsheet to reside in CRM but the algorithms and formatting frequently changed. Essentially they wanted us to build a tool that was able to keep this data in CRM but was flexible enough to handle significant changes.
We got the idea to create an excel add-in that took in the appropriate data from the sheet and to write that data to CRM. Our initial thought was to create a CRM entity that contained the schema for a particular sheet. One particular fields’ data was held in Cell X123 and so on. However, when I started the project it became clear that this might become a bit of a nightmare to maintain so instead we came up with the idea to use user defined functions (UDF’s).
We wrote a series of UDF’s that would store each piece of information for an entity and when triggered, write them all to CRM. The greatest part is that its completely dynamic. You only need to enter the name of the field, the entity and the value and the data is written into a temporary data structure. For example, the main UDF takes the value as its first argument, the field name as its second and the entity as its third. The function uses the Metadata service to verify that the field is a valid field and then stores the value. When the user presses the Write to CRM button, all of the data stored in the data structure is written directly to CRM. Since many users are familiar with excel and excel functions, it makes it an easy way for an end-user to import complex data into CRM as well as gives them the ability to create their own customizable interface.
August 20 2009 | crm musings | Comments Off
By default, after you complete an activity it will no longer appear on your GoldMine calendar. Here’s how you can make GoldMine show all your activities on the calendar:
1. Open your calendar. Right click in an area in the calendar and choose Activities from the menu.
2. A “Select Activities To View” box will pop up. Here, you can select the Scheduled / Completed activities you want to view.
3. Check the box next to the activities you wish to view on the calendar.
4. Click on OK
Now, all activities – scheduled and completed – will appear on your GoldMine calendar.
August 20 2009 | crm musings | Comments Off
Microsoft has released Rollup 5 in July and we feel it is ready for prime time.
You can download it directly from here:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5101d801-976b-4c11-bdfc-000b970ef4a3
View the KB article outlining the fixes contained in Rollup 5 here:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=970141
August 20 2009 | crm musings | Comments Off
I am a CRM Consultant / Technologist and Microsoft Certified Professional. I am the CRM Practice manager for 
