The Need
Our client already deployed a very robust set of solutions to run all facets of their business including manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing, and customer care. These systems supported hundreds of employees in multiple facilities as well as having deployments in multiple countries.
Our client was seeking a new solution to address their current issues including:
· The need for a faster way to locate the caller within the multiple enterprise application databases. This occurs thousands of times on a daily basis.
· There were too many applications open on the User’s desktop to perform daily tasks with copy and paste happening constantly between applications
· One dynamics screen to perform all operations from
· Cases management was executed with heavy reliance on Email communication within various departments
· An easy way to report Case life cycle history for all Customers which was less labor-intensive
· Capitalize on the capabilities in the latest and greatest CRM solutions in the marketplace today
· Remain on the Dynamics CRM platform to capitalize on the seamless integration to other Microsoft technologies
· A more streamlined and efficient process for customer issue resolution
· A solution which could be easily deployed and maintained in multiple countries
Research was conducted to examine various CRM solutions available including both salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In the end, our client selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM due to functional footprint, the cost of ownership, and integration to various other Microsoft applications the company already had in place.
The Toolset
· Deployed Dynamics CRM 2011 on-premise solution to replace legacy Dynamics CRM 3.0
· Use of the CRM 2011 Outlook Client for Outlook 2010
· Deployed the Microsoft Customer Case Accelerator (CCA) framework for CRM 2011
· Used Scribe software for data migration and integration to backend ERP
· CCA integration to Avaya telephony solution
· Integration to SAP ERP for Customer and related Contacts feeding CRM
· SharePoint to allow for seamless integration to client document repository
· Various other Enterprise Applications including BPM
Project Execution Highlights
Some of the work performed during the engagement included:
· Reviewed current Dynamics CRM 3.0 design and future state design for CRM 2011
· Analyzed current business processes and how future state processes would be improved when new technologies deployed
· Reviewed project requirements and incorporated into future design
· Delivered requirements documents definition the blueprint for the build
· Reviewed existing reports and developed future state reporting requirements
· Documented requirements for legacy data migration and integration
· Performed all CRM 2011 configurations
· Authored code and script necessary to meet functional gap
· Authored tests scripts for UAT
· Authored migration and integration jobs using Scribe software
· Authored custom training guide
· Conducted live train the Trainer training
· Participated in Go Live cutover activities to ensure Go Live went smoothly
The entire implementation from initial requirements definition until Go Live took five months to complete. This included building, testing, training, and performing migration of legacy data into the newly delivered solution. Neudesic follows a proven implementation methodology which ensures that the project is delivered both on time and within budget.
The Results
· CRM experience vastly improved using CRM 2011 capabilities
· Inbound calls open corresponding CRM and ERP records whenever possible via integration with Avaya phone solution
· The Customer Care Accelerator allows for robust searching across multiple enterprise applications
· The Customer Care Accelerator strategically opens specific enterprise applications based upon the Process selected and stores data form various screen and uses then to populate CRM 2011 records automatically, thus dramatically reducing keystrokes and Copy/paste actions
· Seamless integration to web sites of Shipping Company websites for easy package tracking
· Greatly reduced the overall time necessary to open and resolve a case
· Improved Reporting Capabilities with automatic report creation based on CRM database detail
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I'm very happy to announce the October Feature Release, 2.5.14, for Neuron ESB 2.5. If you are using an earlier released build, you can download this latest release from here Neuron ESB 2.5.14 .
The product team is very excited about this release as it contains many new features which our customers will immediately benefit from. Some of the features included are:
Adapters
- ODBC Adapter - This adapter supports Publish, Subscribe, Query and Execute mode. It allows the use of both stored procedures and SQL statements. Also supports FOR XML clause when the Sql Client ODBC driver is selected. Supports schema generation as well as before and after statements when in Publish mode. Supports using dynamic connection strings to connect to the database. This can be set within a pipeline code step i.e. context.Data.SetProperty(“odbc”,”ConnectionString”,<somevalue>)
- SMTP Adapter - This adapter supports dynamic setting of SMTP properties, XSL transform for message bodies, attachments, InfoPath and delivery notifications.
Service Policies
Support has been added under the Availability tab of Service Policies for customization of the SOAP Fault returned to the calling client when Limited Availability of an Endpoint is enabled. This message can be customized to include either the service name, the service endpoint url or both i.e. “The Neuron end point, '{0}', configured with the following url, ‘{1}’, is not available.”
Messaging
New capabilities regarding how Neuron handles metadata has been added. For example, custom message properties can now be preserved on Request/Response calls. Also, an end to end TransactionId property has been introduced along with a ParentId property to facilitate more advanced and customized tracking and service monitoring scenarios.
Pipelines
- Msmq Pipeline Step - enhanced with PEEK capability
- Pipeline Execution Pipeline Step - this allowed users to call a pipeline within a pipeline, essentially creating composable processes. This step is capable of executing pipelines at runtime that exist in external/secondary ESB solution files, allowing for library of patterns to be centrally maintained, developed and reused.
- Audit Pipeline Step - now accepts an XPath value to determine what part of the message to store in the Neuron database.
Dynamic Connection Strings
Both the SQL and ODBC adapters have been enhanced with the ability for their connection strings to be set at runtime.
Performance Counters:
New WMI performance counters to capture error and throughput statistics from Neuron Endpoints, Neuron Topics and Neuron Parties. These can be used within 3rd party monitoring tools.
Resubmit Failed Messages:
The ability to edit and resubmit messages within the Message Viewer has been completely refactored. Users can now edit a single message and resubmit that message directly to a Party (running associated pipeline processes) or to an Adapter or Service Endpoint (circumventing those same associated pipeline processes).
Bulk edit and Resubmit of messages has also been added. Users may select multiple messages in either the Message History or Failed Message reports and choose to edit and then resubmit all of them at once directly to a Party or to an Adapter or Service Endpoint.
Besides new features, this release includes all the accumulated fixes since our previous 2.5.13 release in July 2011. Important fixes are included which positively affect the following:
- Msmq Topics
- Pipeline testing, configuration and runtime performance
- Service Policies
- Event Logging
The complete list of changes can be found in the Neuron Change Log located at the root of the Neuron ESB installation directory as well as on our support site.
To determine the current version you are working with ,see What version of Neuron are you running?
As an addendum to our shipped documentation, I'll be regularly posting information on how to use the new features, so continue to monitor our blog and forums.
Upgrade Instructions
Upgrading to this release is identical to the previous release and is fairly straight forward, requiring updating existing ESB Configuration files. You can read more about the update considerations on our forum.
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Neuron ESB Architectural Assessments
Remember, Architectural Reviews, pre and post production roll out assessments as well as advanced training are available through the Neuron ESB Product Team. Our goal is to ensure success. |
Stay tuned this channel! Once I finish the “What’s New” and “How to use it” documentation, I’ll post the download link and the docs.
Kind regards,
Marty Wasznicky
Neuron ESB
Neudesic, L.L.C.
Work: (949) 754-5223
Fax: (949) 754-6523
marty.wasznicky@neudesic.com | www.neudesic.com
I learned today that many Visual Studio 2010/SharePoint 2010 solution developers are still using Carsten Keutmann's WSPBuilder tool, despite all the new WSP package, deploy, and debug facilities built into Visual Studio 2010.
I had used WSPBuilder extensively in all my MOSS (SharePoint) 2007 projects but not with any of my 2010 projects. Now come to find out, people like David Stampfli at Microsoft still use WSPBuilder despite all the built-in stuff in 2010!
One word to the wise: there is a separate version of WSP Builder for SharePoint 2010/Visual Studio 2010. It's called WSP Builder Extensions 2010 Beta 1.4 and you get it from here: http://wspbuilder.codeplex.com/releases/30858/download/94507. At first, I made the mistake of downloading the "Recommended Download" (WSP Builder Extension 1.06...) and after installing, I could not find any WSP Builder project templates available in my Visual Studio 2010. Browsing Carsten Keutmann's blog, I noticed that it mentions "Please look on codeplex under Download. It's the last file of the 4 available." After I got the WSP Builder Extensions 2010 Beta 1.4 the templates became available as expected.
From Nov. 14 to 17 Neudesic experts will be on hand at the Enterprise Conference in Santa Clara, CA to demonstrate Pulse 2.0. In booth #210, team members will demonstrate how Pulse transforms SharePoint’s My Site experience into a truly captivating, socially collaborative environment.
Neudesic Pulse 2.0 includes many new features and enhancements designed to further improve, transform and modernize the way people communicate online in the workplace. The latest release includes the addition of social tasks and groups features for focused online team building and collaboration, as well as deep integration with Microsoft SharePoint and UI enhancements.
Recently, Neudesic was named by Redmond Channel Partner as one of eight third-party SharePoint vendors to watch. In the article, Redmond Channel Partner explores the ingenuity and relativity of Pulse for SharePoint users everywhere: “Pulse is Neudesic's answer to improving [the paradigm of Facebook and Twitter]. Neudesic touts Pulse as enterprise social software that works with SharePoint to facilitate rapid and broad communication throughout an organization.”
Microsoft has published a preview of their Q4 2011 Microsoft Dynamics CRM release. There are many exciting and innovative items in the release. This is a feature release so there will be many items that did not make it into the initial CRM 2011 release. These changes affect CRM Online and On-premise. One undocumented but talked about new feature is multi-browser support for the desktop (NEW UPDATE_ THIS IS COMING Q2 2012). Hopefully this is still part of the release.
Summary of New Features
- Unified Office 365 Experience
- Enterprise Cloud – Identity Federation
- Enterprise Cloud – Enhanced Disaster Recovery
- Feature Enhancements to Dialogues, Business Intelligence (Dashboards) and De-Duplication
- Social Investments: First wave of investments from Microsoft along with a mobile client specifically to view postings (though if you want real Social interaction with CRM check out
- Available today)
To read all the details check out the white paper. (Dynamics_CRM_Release_Preview_Guide_August_2011_FINAL.pdf (873.79 kb))
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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Office 365 a compelling argument for the cloud. This eliminates the need for many servers in a companies infrastructure and makes it easier than ever to deploy robust technology quickly, easily and at a low price point. Check out this five minute video to give you a nice overview. CRM & Office 365
Referring back my previous blog on how to to use XDT transforms to have effective multiple cloud service configurations, Multiple Service Configurations is now a new feature in Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio 1.4 (August 2011).
When a new Windows Azure project is created, two service configurations are created by default. Service configurations are stored as files in cloud service project (ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg and ServiceConfiguration.Local.cscfg), and contain properties and settings for the named configurations.
One can create as many different service configurations as required. Current service configuration can be selected in the Windows Azure project's role properties view or in the Publish Windows Azure Application dialog.
The new feature is a great improvement, but leaving a lot to desire: once a new configuration is created, it is independent and shares nothing with other configurations and has to be fully maintained. One could have used multiple Windows Azure projects associated with the same role projects, and different service definition and configuration settings.
Hopefully, Windows Azure tools will soon come with a feature as flexible as XDT transformations, but native to the Windows Azure project.
There has never been a better opportunity to switch from Salesforce.com to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Microsoft has announced a "switcher" offer for companies that are still on Salesforce.com switch easy to CRM Online. Not only do you get a world class enterprise-ready system but you can get it with some of your implementations fees paid for. All a company needs to do is go and sign-up for a free 30 day trial and then go to the site to apply for the incentive dollars. $150 off per user towards anything you want to use it for (data migration, training, etc). Minimum 50 seats and two year commitment. For 100 seats for example, you can get $15,000 towards your implementation.
Not to mention the fact that CRM Online is far less expensive than Salesforce.com. CRM Online is only $44/user per month versus Salesforce.com below
For 100 Users, just in the monthly fees, over the two year period, you can save almost $200,000.