August 2006 - Posts
Recently I was asked to upgrade a client's Windows 2000 Professional PC to XP Pro. Eversince, we have had problems with the Network Connections window. When we right click on My Network Places to bring up the Network Connections, the window would be blank. I tried reinstalling XP and that seemed to work. Well, at least until I rebooted. Then the Network Connections would be blank again. I posted my problem on the SBSC partner newsgroup and received very timely response. However, after some thrashing around, one of the Microsoft techs suggested using MSCONFIG to set up a 'clean boot' which included turning off the non-Microsoft services. I did so and this fixed the problem! However, some of the services that were disabled were kinda nice to have. So I went through a process of elimination and eventually determined the problem to be Windows Defender! I uninstalled Windows Defender and the problem appears to be resolved. It's quite possible that our copy of Windows Defender got corrupted, or since this was an upgrade from W2KPro, perhaps a different version was initially installed. But removing it worked.
Tonight I scheduled a CRM certification exam with Prometric. It was an interesting experience. I have taken many Microsoft exams but this is my first Microsoft Business Solutions exam. I had tried to sign up numerous times via the Prometric web site but it always errored out. Tonight I tried it by phone. As I went through the scheduling process, I was asked for my VOICE Authorization number. My WHAT??? The first person I spoke with wasn't very helpful so the call ended. I brought up PartnerSource website and went to VOICE (
Virtual Organization Information Center). I found my Account Number. Perhaps that's what I need. I called Prometric once again. Luckily this time the person I was speaking with was a bit more helpful. He told me that the number needed was in the Executive Summary section on VOICE. There it was, under Account Information, "Auth Number". I gave that to them and they were happy. I take the exam this Tuesday. So, if you are studying for the CRM exams, be sure you have an MBS account and know where to find your VOICE Authorization.
When you use the CRM Laptop client and choose to 'Go Offline', CRM will copy data from the server's SQL database to the laptop's MSDE database. But how do you determine/select just what data is to be copied? Fortunately the user has quite a bit of control over what is actually copied.
While Online, one can go to the CRM menu and select Local Data. This will bring up the Local Data form which lists the various types of data that can be synchronized to take Offline. Examples are My Accounts and My Contacts. However, you have a lot of control over what is actually copied. From the Data Groups tab, clicking New from the Action bar opens the Data Group form which looks a lot like an Advanced Find form. You can select the entity you want to use and then specify the criteria for the records you want to include. Double-clicking on an existing entry from the Local Data form allows you to edit the criteria for an existing selection. Selections can also be deleted or deactivated. Once deactivated, the Data Group is then listed under the Inactive Data Groups tab. From there they can be Activated once again.
Local Data is only available on the CRM menu when you are Online. Once you go Offline, the Local Data, and other synchronization items, disappear from the menu.
Since the synchronization process simply copies data between the server and the laptop, and since the data from the laptop overwrites the server when going back Online, it's best to carry the minimum amount of data. This is how you can limit it.
At the North San Antonio Chamber Expo the other day, I was highlighting both Small Business Server 2003 and CRM. It was interesting to see that CRM was the main attraction and there was little to no interest in SBS. I think the reason is that SBS is the foundation, the pipes, the plumbing, etc. It's not what the trade show aisle wanderers are interested in. Instead, they are interested in what THEY would need and use. They can relate to CRM. SBS is for their IT guys (or consultant like me) to worry about. Of course a CRM sale to a small business will likely include SBS so that's OK. CRM can be the bait.
Yesterday we participated in the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Expo trade show. We were fortunate enough to able to secure the Microsoft Across America truck which was a BIG hit!
The MSAA folks were great! The truck driver, Charles, called me the day before to coordinate and parked the truck in the venue's parking lot overnight. I showed up at 7 AM (yawn!) and we got the truck all set up. Well, Charles got the truck set up and I watched. Vince and Dan, the MSAA Technology Specialists showed up and set up everything inside. The truck mades a VERY good impression once it's set up. AND they provided lots of literature and goodies to give out. A favorite was a neat little pen. Sorry I didn't take a picture of it but folks loved it.
I took a few pictures of my booth at the show and the truck. You can view them on my web site at http://www.lentzcomputer.net/MSAA%20at%20the%20Expo/Forms/AllItems.aspx. If you are a partner and have an opportunity to use the truck, DO!
Today the Microsoft Across America truck came to San Antonio to support me at the North San Antonio Chamber Expo! It was great. But more on that tomorrow. I'm whupped! But tonight I wanted to express a concern I had.
While chatting with the Technical Specialists on the truck, they asked me a question they said no one would/could answer. At how many users does CRM become a cost effective solution? How small can an installation be and still be worthwhile? When I started going into what the costs of a Small Business Server 2003 platform would cost, as a starting point for a CRM SBE, they were very surprised that I was considering installing CRM on SBS! Seems they had been told, by their Microsoft channel, that CRM wouldn't work on SBS! I explained that there were some issues with installing CRM on SBS but that these were overcomeable (is that a word?). They seemed quite surprised and delighted.
These guys were great, and I really appreciate all they did today. But I am concerned that they had been led to believe, by Microsoft, that CRM wouldn't work on SBS.
Tomorrow is the Expo! The North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Expo. This is our annual business to business trade show. I have been one of the sponsors of the show and as such my company name has appeared in all the promo stuff. I also get a booth. AND I have the Microsoft Across America truck coming! There is about 10 miles (well at least more that 100 yards) between where my booth inside the show will be and where the Microsoft truck will be in the parking lot. Gonna be fun. Maybe I'll lose a few pounds running back and forth. My sweet wife is assisting me and I've talked the Chamber into providing a few Chamber volunteers to help me man everything.
My booth is all set up. Got a nice big (4 is 'X7') banner, a podium with a 19" LCD monitor from which I'll display a rolling slide show and perhaps some CRM demos, a really nice pull-up banner for CRM, and banners for SBS and SBSC. I think I'm all set! I'll post pictures from the show.
One of the things that has impressed me was printing some of my collateral stuff. Microsoft has provided some great stuff in PDF format. However, in the past when I've tried printing it out, it comes out pretty whimpy. This time around I checked out OfficeMax and found they sell a Brochure and Flyer paper for inkjets! I bought 50 sheets for $15. Put it in my $39 LexMark inkjet printer. WOW! Was I impressed with the output. With that paper it put out very high quality brochures. It is hard to tell the difference between the ones I got from Microsoft and the ones I printer myself. Of course printing some of the Microsoft flyers is a bit hard on the ole color ink cartridge. I'll have to get a refill before I use it again. But print again I will.
One of the things I had to learn was to print the brochures and flyers in 'borderless' format. That way it fills the page with the image Microsoft produced. I first tried printing a brochure without doing borderless and it came out with a border that threw everything off. Since it was a tri-fold brochure, the idea was to print it on both sides of the paper. But the border shifted the image but not the same on each side. So the borders were on opposite ends of the paper so the tri-fold didn't work. But doing borderless worked great! I just hope the flyers and brochures out at the MS truck don't melt in the 100 degree temperature (plus the asphalt effect!).
Gonna be one whupped puppy tomorrow after the show. Wish me luck and a good show.
Due to the number of screen shots, my recent article,
E-mail Enabled Queues, is quite large, almost 16MB! Therefore I have also posted a compressed version which is available at
http://www.lentzcomputer.net/Experiences%20in%20CRM/E-mail%20Enabled%20Queues.zip
Tomorrow I'm planning to attend the Partner Connections event at the Microsoft Technology Center in Austin, Texas. I've been there many times, but always have to do a lot of pre-thinking to find it. Tonight I thought I'd exercise my new GPS and let Streets and Trips guide me. Unfortunately, locating the Microsoft office in Austin was no easy feat. First, the address given in the Microsoft Events was simply the building name. When I attempted to use that, it gave me the location of a motel somewhere in the vicinity of the venue, but certainly not AT the proper location. Then I looked up the address of the Microsoft office in my CRM database. It's located on North MOPAC Expressway. Well, try finding that on Streets and Trips. Luckily, since I've been there many times, I have a fair idea of where it is. Looking on the map, I see that MOPAC is actually called N SR-Pac! Sure makes it easy to find stuff, huh?
This Saturday my CRM study group got into Queues. In particular we started delving into how to set up e-mail enabled queues such as Sales and Support. That prompted me to write a bit of an article on the subject. The article includes a bunch of screen shots, perhaps too many, so it's a bit big. So I've posted it on my web site,
www.LentzComputer.net in the Experiences in CRM document library. Please have a look if you're interested. You can go directly to the article by clicking
here.
This weekend I am installing Small Business Server 2003 R2 on a VPC in order to be able to see how well CRM plays with it. Charles Van Heusen was kind enough to send me a link that addresses some of the issues I can expect. SBS R2 of course has been recalled but should be out shortly. The reporting features of SQL 2005 seem to be pretty robust for CRM. As I install SQL 2005, I am installing the SQL Reporting Services in hopes that that will ease the pain we all have felt installing CRM SBE on SBS 2003.
Also, today my CRM study group took some time to do deep dive into e-mail enabled Queues. An e-mail enabled Queue might be something thing like a Sales queue where prospective customers could send sales inquiries to an address like Sales@MyCompany.com. The messages would be available for all users in the Business Unit to pick up and act on. Pretty cool stuff. I am completing an article on the subject which I will make available shortly.
One of the great features of the CRM Outlook Laptop Client is that you can take it with you. If you are running CRM on your laptop and need to travel, you can click the 'Go Offline' button and a copy of a subset of your CRM database will be synchronized with an MSDE CRM database on your laptop. Then you can go off and access your data on the road, in the airplane, well before 8/10, in the hotel, etc. Then when you return to your home network, you hit the 'Go Online' button and all your updated data will be synchronized back to the main database. Unfortunately, CRM's not real smart about it. It simply does a Bulk Copy update. Any data on the server is changed by the synch. Say you changed a record on your laptop on Saturday. Someone else updated the same record on the server on Sunday, and you returned and went Online on Monday. Your Saturday changes would overwrite the Sunday updates done on the server.
Recently I had a very clear example of how this is a problem. Frankly most times, because you only have a subset of the data, and perhaps you would therefore be the only one updating those records, it's not a problem. But in my case, I went Offline one day and carried my notebook in to a demo so I could show my prospect how I use CRM. I made a few changes. I also carry a Pocket PC and use the Pocket Outlook calendar to record my appointments with my customers and keep track of what I do and how long I do it for. I use this to create my invoices so this is important! I used it that day. When I returned, I synchronized my Laptop CRM by going Online. Then I synchronized my Pocket PC. All the notes I had made on my PPC for my appointments were wiped out. Seems that eventhough my Pocket PC appointments were made after any changes I may have made on my Laptop client, they were BEFORE I SYNCHed. So the data from my laptop updated the server data, and therefore my Outlook calendar etc. This established a time stamp for the updates on the server. Then when I updated my Pocket PC, those updates were older than the synch so they were overwritten by the synch. In other words, I lost all my notes and such. Now, since this wasn't the first time I've been down this road, I had copied my notes to Notes in Outlook before I synched so I didn't really lose anything. But had I not been aware, I could have lost a lot! A good practice might be to either make copies of important items, or 'touch' each of them before synching with Outlook, after you've gone back Online. That way the time stamp on the Pocket PC data is later than the time stamp on the CRM/Outlook data created when you went Online.
In future months you are likely to hear me talking a bunch of Mumbo Jumbo here on Larry's Taco Talk. You see my daughter just joined a Dallas company as Marketing Manager. The name of her new employer? Mumbo Jumbo, of course!
Mumbo Jumbo produces a line of on-line computer games. Not the gambling kind. My son is into games. My wife loves her Free Cell. Mumbo Jumbo's web site is www.mumbojumbo.com. Check 'em out. I will be :-)
I was called in by a client the other day because he was experiencing a problem with GoldMine. Whenever he'd try to access the E-mail C's ienter, GoldMine would shutdown. Sure enough, when I tried it, it shut down. Remembering to look in the Event Viewer, something we normally only remember to do with server problems, I found that the application was crashing because of an error in module 'yvsvga.dll'. Seeing the 'vga' in the module, I figured it might be a problem with the video on the machine, a notebook. I set the video acceleration to zero but that didn't resolve the problem. I then Googled (that's in the dictionary now!) it and found references to a Trojan rootkit!
That evening I signed on to an MVP chat and posted that I was having problems with Haxdoor.Backdoor.I. Dave Nelson, Windows Security MVP and my new best friend, offered to help. He provided me with a link to the latest version of HijackThis and a utility called Haxfix from a friend of his named Markie. Haxfix fixed the problem. However, Dave recommended, strongly, that I counsel my customer to change his passwords, especially for any bank accounts he might access on-line. Seems this little bugger runs a keylogger and probably phoned home with all my clients most intimate secrets! I have so advised the client.
Today I was doing a demo for a CRM prospect. I was showing them how to look up Knowledge Base articles. I noticed that Full Text Search was not available as a choice of search method. I know I've seen it in various study materials that the Full Text Search is not available in the Outlook Client when operating Off Line. But I had never actually had a opportunity to try it. Suddenly it struck me why it wouldn't work Offline but would Online. The reason is that when you are Online, you are using the full blown SQL on the server. This has Full Text Search. When running Offline, you are using a local MSDE instead of full SQL. MSDE does not support Full Text Search.