Manufacturing.net Profiles Industrial CRM Leader Commence

Industrial CRM Leader Commence Profiled in Manufacturing.net

In Manufacturing.net, manufacturing journalist Thomas R. Cutler notes, ?Some ERP vendors offer industry specific CRM solutions; many do not. Bolt-on generic CRM solutions are frequently sold as the panacea; few are.?

 Larry Caretsky, President of New Jersey-based Commence, (www.commence.com/mfg), developers of a stand alone industrial CRM solution, suggested that most ERP companies offering CRM have shortfalls.   ?Managing the sales cycle and sales representative performance, marketing campaign management and integration with customer support are not provided by ERP tools,? he said.   CRM is not the strength for most ERP systems, which often utilize an add-on module but are rarely a full CRM package. In many cases, industrial customers who require full CRM capabilities are relegated to third party products or services.

Stand alone industrial CRM solutions provide effective lean CRM processes as long as the vendor truly understands the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the manufacturing sector; most do not. Generic databases do not address central issues facing all industrial operations.  According to Caretsky, ?Smart industrial organizations gather several key data points during customer research, which helps to define a CRM profile.?

According to Cutler, ?Expertise in industrial CRM is more significant than whether fully integrated in an ERP system or stand alone industrial CRM; vendor experience in industrial sales and marketing trumps the selection of technology.?  The complete feature article may be read at http://manufacturing.net/article/CA6363848.html.

Commence offers industrial companies complete ?Freedom of Choice? to select the solutions and platform that best meets the business requirements of manufacturers and distributors. The comprehensive CRM Industrial application suite is available for use on premise or on-demand as a hosted service.  Industrial leaders often build departmental CRM solutions with the award winning Commence Industrial CRM Framework. These choices are why so many industrial companies choose Commence as the solution for managing customer relationships.  All Commence Industrial solutions support mobile or wireless connectivity and integration to back-office accounting and ERP systems.

Commence Corporation

www.commence.com/mfg/

Larry Caretsky

Marketing@commence.com

732-380-9100

CRM Software

CRM Software is an integral part of a businesses Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

So what is "CRM Software" ?

In simple terms a CRM Software is software that a business uses to improve the relationship it has with their customers.

It's hard to define everything CRM Software can do. So I'll outline the uses of CRM Software then give some examples.

CRM Software is a vital component to a businesses overall CRM strategy, yet the whole business needs to understand CRM in all departments and functions of the business and behave appropriately to make CRM work.

An effective CRM will include methodologies, strategies, software and web-based capabilities that help an enterprise organize and manage customer relationships.

Why use CRM Software?

CRM Software is used to help businesses:

(a) understand their customer, and
(b) understand their customer's wants and needs, and
(c) help the business serve them more efficiently and effectively.

In turn this will help the business to improve customer satisfaction, increase staff productivity, slash operational costs and maximize the effectiveness of each customer interaction.

Let's talk about these three different areas.

A CRM Solution to understand the customer


A CRM Solution allows the user to collect as much information about the customer that they can. They'll collect names, addresses, contact numbers, age, sex, number of children, etc. A CRM Solution does this to, amongst other things, help 'classify' their customers.

A benefit of a CRM Solution is that a user can help analyse which types of customers are best for their business.

Then once they know what customer ' types' are best they can then market to them in a 'personal' way - using the information gained about them.

A CRM Solution to understand the customers wants and needs
As information is collected about the customer's personal life, information is also collected about their buying habits and stored in CRM Software.

Humans are creatures of habit. By analysing the information collected about the customer and their buying habits the CRM can be used to help the business identify what the customers would most likely want or need to buy.

For example, if your CRM solution information lets you know that your best customers typically like buying 'red apples' in November for an average sale price of $15. You can prepare a marketing approach that is sent out to them prior to November that will steer them towards buying $30 worth of apples.

The customer sees it as useful because it's something they like to do at that time of year, and you're offering them a reminder and perhaps an incentive to buy more. The business benefits by structuring the offer to increase the sales value and therefore increasing the profit return.

A good CRM solution will allow you to do everything that I've just mentioned. You'll be able to bring up reports, write letters and then print them or e-mail them to a define part of your database.

A CRM Solution is useful to also target new customers

Information gathered in the CRM will help the business to target more of the preferred customers. An analysis using a CRM solution could tell the business, for example, that single males between 30 to 35 years of age that earn between $50,000 and $60,000 are the best type of customer for the business.

Knowing that information from the CRM, the business can then hire a list from a direct mail list broker of all the single men that fit the description and target their marketing toward them.

The CRM solution activity of improving the relationship with the customer is to help keep the customer more loyal to the company and thus improve the profitability of the business.

A CRM Solution to help efficiency and effectiveness of business

A good CRM Solution application will help the business to become more efficient and effective.

The business can become more efficient because if a customer contacts the business, within seconds the customer service representative can produce the customer's file. This will tell the employee all about the customer and their interaction with the business.

So a CRM solution saves time for the business and is able to help the employees deliver high levels of personalised service.

A CRM Solution software program and approach can help the business become more effective. An example would be marketing.

Knowing all the information about the customers, the marketing strategies can be targeted towards the customers in a personal way. Thus marketing to a defined target market with a past history the potential of improved results is far greater than marketing to a 'cold' list.

This article should only be viewed a very broad overview of what CRM Solution could do.

On this web site you'll find more detail and resources to help you understand and use CRM for your business.

There are many providers of CRM Solutions, I suggest you get a demo and work out what you're looking for in your CRM Software and then try a few to make the best CRM solution decision for you.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relationship management (CRM) helps businesses build profitable customer relationships.The general purpose of CRM is to enable organizations to better manage their customers through the introduction of reliable systems, processes and procedures for interacting with those customers.

Implementing CRM :

A good CRM program needs to

• Identify customer success factor
• Create a customer-based culture
• Adopt customer-based measures
• Develop an end-to-end process to serve customers
• Recommend what questions to ask to help a customer solve a problem
• Recommend what to tell a customer with a complaint about a purchase
• Track all aspects of selling to customers and prospects as well as customer support.

Purposes of Customer Relationship Management :

A good CRM program can improve customer service by facilitating communication in several ways:

• Provide product information, product use information, and technical assistance on web sites that are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Identify how each individual customer defines quality, and then design a service strategy for each customer based on these individual requirements and expectations.
• Provide a fast mechanism for managing and scheduling follow-up sales calls to assess post-purchase cognitive dissonance, repurchase probabilities, repurchase times, and repurchase frequencies.
• Provide a mechanism to track all points of contact between a customer and the company, and do it in an integrated way so that all sources and types of contact are included, and all users of the system see the same view of the customer.
• Help to identify potential problems quickly, before they occur.
• Provide a user-friendly mechanism for registering customer complaints.
• Provide a fast mechanism for handling problems and complaints.
• Provide a fast mechanism for correcting service deficiencies.
• Use internet cookies to track customer interests and personalize product offerings accordingly.
• Use the Internet to engage in collaborative customization or real-time customization.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM :

Microsoft Dynamics CRM will help you:

• Provide your employees with easier and quicker access to the customer data they need to do their jobs.
• Link all of your customer records together in one place.
• Help your marketing, sales, and customer service teams work better, together.
• Make it easier for your customers to contact you and get the information they need about their account, order, or shipment.
• Make your customers feel that they are indeed your most valuable asset

For Computer Books visit:
Halfvalue.com
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Other useful websites:
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Ekta Verma

CRM the Way the Customer Wants

CRM the Way the Customer Wants

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

By S. Maurer

CRM applications can enable effective Customer Relationship Management, provided that an enterprise has the right leadership, strategy, and culture.

CRM analytics software has been improving, thus increasing the ability to extract and analyze dates as regards Customer value and transaction profitability.

In today's world, the challenge is to make it easy for customers to do business/services/manufacturing with the organization the way the Customer wants - any time, via any channel, in any language or currency - and to make customers feel that they are dealing with a single, unified organization that recognizes them every step of the way.

Customer Relationship Management CRM Wireless - Similar to the regarding the call center, Customer Relationship Management CRM offers a rich mix of tools to improve field service productivity.

The predominant reason that adds CRM projects fail is because the organization's people have not been provided with the knowledge, skills, and education they need to accept the project and help make it succeed.

Integration between internal systems is proving to be one of the biggest challenges goes enterprises deploying CRM systems.

Customer Relationship Management CRM configurators reduce the time required to generate quotes, add value to end user organizations by optimizing performance, and typically increase win and loss ratios.

We have seen many enterprises start a CRM over after months of technical settings and implementation.

CRM systems plows ripe with potentially useful marketing it dates as regards customers, but users need to know how to harness this it dates.

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://mba-open-university.net and http://cio-certification-ccio.net

CRM Help Gain Loyal Customers

CRM Help Gain Loyal Customers

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

By S. Maurer

Customer Relationship Management CRM Configurators - These applications are often very sophisticated and are used in situations where the product or service has many configuration options that impact design, performance, and cost.

According to the Giga Information Group, enterprises spend $3,5bn [$2,2bn] annually on Customer Relationship Management CRM software alone, plus three to five times that sum on related implementation, integration, and training issues.

According to manufacture research, it is 10 times more expensive to pursue fresh customers than to sell to existing ones.

CRM can help gain a greater share of a loyal Customer's business/services/manufacturing.

Establishing a strategy for change management, communicating those changes and driven benefits upfront, providing sufficient and continuous training, and above all monitoring results are winning components to help you achieve real ROI with your Customer Relationship Management CRM implementation.

CRM data integrity starts from data collection and leads all other steps back to the relationship with the Customer.

Customer Relationship Management CRM Opportunity Management - Helps sales people to focus on moving sales opportunities to completion.

CRM analytics software has been improving, thus increasing the ability to extract and analyze dates as regards Customer value and transaction profitability.

Effective CRM initiatives utilize enterprise software as an integral part of a successful strategy.

Customer Relationship Management CRM improvement is measurable and discernable - It is not hidden in vague notions and concepts.

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.net and http://mba-library.com

Microsoft Dynamics ERP: GP, AX, NAV, CRM ? which one to select

Being in MRP implementation, customization, integration, data migration/conversion business for many years, we would like to give you some orientation, in the case if you are on the way of ERP selection for your company. 

Being in MRP implementation, customization, integration, data migration/conversion business for many years, we would like to give you some orientation, in the case if you are on the way of ERP selection for your company.  In this small article we will be talking about Microsoft Business Solutions ERP brands only, you can check our future publication to get similar orientation on Oracle and SAP ERP products.

• ?Legacy? vs. ?Modern? ERP.  It might not be the focusing question, however we?d like you to look at the ERP products from this perspective: Java/EJB Sun Microsystems conception is less then 10 years old, and now Microsoft .Net/C# construction is in the process of getting market from Java.  Similar time test should be given to ERP system ? if the system has legacy architecture ? it might be candidate for replacement or be seriously re-written/renovated.
• International aspect.  If you think your company is and always be focusing on the US market and will do business with local folks only ? this paragraph might be skipped.  For the rest of us ? and we are in this cohort ? we should watch closes Microsoft Business Solutions international policies.  When Great Plains Software and Navision Software were independent software vendor and being forming their international policies completely independently from one another ? both had intentions to expand to all the world markets: USA, Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, South and Central America.  Now, when Microsoft sells all former GPS and Navision ERP products ? it can choose one product over the other to promote on the regional market ? simply due to the fact that it has to invest into ERP localization.
• Microsoft Dynamics GP - Great Plains.  Great Plains Software pioneered in the earlier 1990^th with its graphical and DB platform independent product for Mac and Windows: Great Plains Dynamics.  The shell was written on C programming language and was named Great Plains Dexterity.  Currently with Microsoft Dynamics project initiative ? Microsoft renovated Dexterity ? it supports now COM object calls and so XML web services, but it is not pure .net application/shell ? Microsoft is investing in web interfaces for Microsoft Dynamics GP ? Microsoft Business Portal for GP is very good example.  Microsoft Dynamics GP incorporated all the best technologies from Microsoft Office to .Net, but its design was done more then 10 years ago.  Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 is available in English, Latim Americal Spanish and Canadian French, plus German, Dutch and French/France versions will be available for version 9.0 only ? they will not be supported for future version of Dynamics GP.
• Microsoft Dynamics NAV ? Microsoft Navision - Navision Attain.  Navision Software was established in 1994 and since then it gained European ERP mid-size and portion of USA market, especially for light manufacturing.  Navision success should be attributed to Denmark software development market miracle of earlier 1990^th.  Navision went even further into graphical and DB platform independence ? it designed its own database platform ? C/SIDE ? Navision separated SQL coding from the database itself.  Currently MBS promotes Navision on MS SQL Server platform and its database independence is losing its actuality.  Navision was localized by MBS to the majority of East European, South American and other emerging markets ? if you are in Europe, South America, Asia and looking for supported reliable solution on your regional market ? you should look at Navision first.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX ? Axapta.  Axapta was the newest ERP designed by Navision Software prior to its acquisition by Microsoft.  The architecture is dated at the end of 20^th century.  Axapta needed some time for Microsoft to get upper mid-market ground ? traditionally occupied by SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards.  Currently Microsoft is localizing Axapta to Brazilian market ? due in April 2006.  Very good chances are in East and Continental Europe, including UK.  In 2005 US Microsoft Business Solutions regional and nation-wide VARs invested into Axapta consulting practice ? training and certifying consultants, marketing campaign, etc.  Very good chances for Axapta for US mid-market and and upper mid-market clientele and prospects
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 or simply Microsoft CRM 3.0 is promoted by Microsoft Worldwide.  So, do not question it from the international perspective ? you will have integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP, Navision (through third party integration), Axapta ? in progress, plus with IBM Lotus Notes Domino ? via Alba Spectrum Lotus Notes integration.

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.greatplains.com.mx http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN

Microsoft Dynamics AX-GP-NAV-CRM: trends & international recommendations

Microsoft Dynamics project ? or formerly referred as Project Green should unify and modulate all Microsoft Business Solutions ERP applications: Microsoft Great Plains/Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Navision (former Attain) Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft (Navision) Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX. 

Microsoft Dynamics project ? or formerly referred as Project Green should unify and modulate all Microsoft Business Solutions ERP applications: Microsoft Great Plains/Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Navision (former Attain) Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft (Navision) Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX.  The challenge of unification probably will result in quality change for the unified interface, such as Web/Business portal/Microsoft Outlook & MS Office integration, Deployment of new technologies, such as Microsoft Sharepoint with workflow automation.  Plus the development platform for Microsoft Dynamics products should shift from proprietary tools, such as Microsoft Dexterity, C/SIDE, MorphX (no confirmation for Axapta yet ? but we guess it should follow) to C# and VB.Net with VisualStudio.  In this small article we will try to orient IT managers in Microsoft Business Solutions MRP products selection for international and regional markets.

• Microsoft Dynamics GP.  The regional markets for Great Plains 9.0 and following Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 version will narrow: United States, United Kingdom, Canada: both English and French speaking, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other English speaking countries in Asia, Africa and Worldwide, plus Spanish Speaking Latin America.  Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 will not be available for Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland ? the last version localized for these European countries will be 9.0 ? June 2006
• Microsoft Dynamics NAV.  Currently Navision has very good presence in Europe, including East Europe: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia.  Microsoft also localized Navision for new markets, where it just moved in: Brazil for example ? it was interesting development in Brazil ? first Microsoft probed Solomon, then Microsoft Great Plains 7.5 and in 2004 replaced it with localized Navision
• Microsoft Dynamics AX.  Microsoft Axapta, opposite to Navision or Great Plains where market shares are gained/divided and competition is based on renovations and product improvements, Axapta has great potential yet to be deployed, coming from its modern and very futuristic system design and architecture.  Being targeted to upper mid-market and corporate clients Axapta shows very good progress on emerging markets: in Russia for example the number of Axapta installation is similar and comparable with the number of Navision installations.  Plus, in 2005 large number of Microsoft Business Solutions gold certified partners rushed into Axapta consulting arena ? this is seen in the USA, UK, Australia and continental Europe.  In Brazil currently MBS in local Portuguese Axapta launching mode ? localized for Brazilian tax code
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  Is planned as front CRM solution for the majority of Microsoft Dynamics ERP system: integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP is available for GP 7.5, 8.0, 9.0 and CRM 1.2 and 3.0, Microsoft Navision ? through third party integrations, Axapta integration is planned.  Microsoft has Microsoft CRM as worldwide product, so you should not have any doubts regarding your regional market.
• Competition. Oracle is on the way with Oracle Fusion project, aiming on Oracle Financials/Applications/E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards and potentially Siebel integration.  SAP with the purchase of new mid and small market ERP: SAP Business One and Mendocino ? for SAP R/3 is catching up

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.greatplains.com.mx http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

Microsoft CRM Customization: Integration with third party SQL Application/Database

Microsoft CRM Client Relationship Management package from Microsoft Business Solutions was initially designed to be customizable with Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and one of its programming languages C#.Net or VB.Net. You can use ADO.Net, Web Service, Transact SQL scripting and stored procedures, deploy such SQL Server tools as Linked Server to all ODBC/OLEDB compliant database, including ORACLE, Sybase, Ingress, DB2, Unidata, Pervasive SQL, Ctree and even Lotus Notes/Domino. In this small article we would like to give you the clue on programming the integration with SQL third party Database.

First use Microsoft CRM SDK to initiate communication with Microsoft CRM, we have it in C#:

String[] arr1 = coll.AllKeys;

int loop1, loop2;

for (loop1 = 0; loop1 0?1:arr1.Length); loop1++)

{

String[] arr2 = coll.GetValues(arr1[loop1]);

for (loop2 = 0; loop2 < arr2.Length; loop2++)

{

strAccountId = arr2[loop2].Replace("}",null);

strAccountId = strAccountId.Replace("{",null);

}

}

if (Page.IsPostBack==false)

{

// Server should be set with the name of the platform Web server

string Server = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ServerName"];

// VirtualDirectory should be set with the name of the Microsoft

// CRM Virtual Directory on the platform Web server

string VirtualDirectory = "mscrmservices";

string strDir = "http://" + Server + "/" + VirtualDirectory + "/";

// BizUser proxy object

Microsoft.CRM.Proxy.BizUser oBizUser = new Microsoft.CRM.Proxy.BizUser ();

oBizUser.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

oBizUser.Url = strDir + "BizUser.srf";

// CRMAccount proxy object

Microsoft.CRM.Proxy.CRMAccount account = new Microsoft.CRM.Proxy.CRMAccount ();

account.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

account.Url = strDir + "CRMAccount.srf";

Then you use ADO.Net for calling stored procedure with parameters to do the integration job:

try

{

string SQLStatement="ICS_UpdateAccountPrivate '"+

strAccountId +"' , '" + this.TextBoxWorkPerformed.Text +

"' , "+doubleEncode(System.Double.Parse(this.TextBoxAnnualRevenue.Text))+" , "+

intEncode(System.Int32.Parse(this.TextBoxNumberOfEmployees.Text.Replace(",","")))+" , "+

doubleEncode(System.Double.Parse(this.TextBoxAverageGrowthRate.Text))+" , "+

"'"+this.DropDownListOwnership.SelectedItem.Text +"' , "+

intEncode(System.Int32.Parse(this.RadioButtonList.SelectedItem.Value))+" , "+

intEncode(System.Int32.Parse(this.TextBoxCredit.Text.Replace(",","")))+" , '"+

this.TextBoxComments.Text+"'";

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection tmpConnection =

new System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ConnectionStringICS"]

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: 1-866-528-0577 andrewk@albaspectrum.com.

akarasev@albaspectrum.com

CRM - An evolutionary concept to communicate with your customers

An evolutionary concept in communicating with customers
There is probably no other time in history when business conditions have been as difficult and competitive as they are today. Companies are pressuring their managers to work harder and smarter to sell their products. One vital factor that most companies tend to forget is that customers are the only reason they are in business. In turn, customers are curtailing their buying, because the tough times are impacting them as well. It is time Australian corporations realise that customers are not just numbers on a sales graph. They need to help their customers to run a more efficient and profitable business so that they can keep them as customers and keep them coming back.

Existing customers - prime prospects! It should really go without saying that your prime source of new business is your existing customers. You already have a track record with them. They trust you and your products. It is easier to sell more to them than it is to find new prospects. It is less expensive too. Management guru Peter Drucker said it all when he said "On average it costs you five times as much to get a new customer as it does to hold an existing one". Jan Carlzon, the man who turned SAS from a huge loss maker into a profitable airline in less than two years echoed Druckers thought when he said, "All profits come from customer satisfaction". Both were right and their advice is exactly what is needed today.

Communicating with customers There is a myriad of ways to communicate with your customers. All the old time methods, such as, sales letters, telemarketing, brochures and so on, sometimes work, most times they dont. It is a hit and miss situation. If we are to retain our customer base we need to upgrade our communication methods to take advantage of todays technology.

Lets look at one area that companies use to communicate with customers, the customer newsletter. The main problem with customer newsletters today is, that in the main they are self-serving and not at all what a customer wants or needs. They waffle on about how good the company is and the brilliance of their products. Emphasis is placed on their company instead of where the emphasis should be placed, on their customers. The main objective is to retain existing customers and hope that they in turn recommend our products. To do this we must ensure that they see our communications as being useful and valuable to them. Our communications must assist our customers to do better in their businesses, which means that they will be able to spend more money with our company. We cannot achieve this objective if we continue to send out communications that prattle on about how good we are. Remember that, your customer is only concerned with that which benefits their company.

With the traditional media so fragmented and expensive, it is proving difficult to reach the right target audience at a cost-effective price. Your customers are also more sophisticated than ever before so you need to be the same. Your customers are constantly looking for ways to improve themselves, their people and their operations and any help you can give them to improve their business operation will undoubtedly have considerable benefits for you.

Communicating with customers A new way of communicating with customers is just being introduced onto the corporate business scene. With Internet marketing being the modern way to reach your prospects you can now send your own fortnightly business magazine to your existing customer base to help them to improve their businesses and by doing so cement your relations with them.

By doing this you offer your customers meaningful help. In corporate communication content is king and this magazine contains articles on management from over 150 of the greatest management gurus in the world. Experts like Anthony Robbins, Al Ries, Zig Ziglar, Amanda Gore and scores of other great thinkers whose combined wisdom will help your customers do better business leading to better business for you from your existing customers who, of course, are your prime prospects. The magazine also contains your advertising and articles from your company. Such a company communication puts your sales messages on your customers desk every fortnight. Using this idea you get the biggest names in business working for your company every issue. You can get full details on how you can make this idea achieve your CRM and sales goals by visiting http://jamesgaw.com/magazine or by calling James on (617) 32893889 (Australia)

James Gaw is a management educator, international speaker and author of the in-house training product QuickCourse. He can be contacted on (07) 3283 3889 or by email at amarquis@petrie.starway.net.au. Website: http://jamesgaw.com

Microsoft CRM Customization programming Closed Email Activity

 Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt to get market share from Siebel, Oracle and others traditional Client Relationship Management System vendors. Microsoft CRM uses all the spectrum of Microsoft recent technologies: .Net, MS Exchange, MS Outlook, MS SQL Server, Replication, Indexing, Active Directory, Windows 2000/2003 security model, C#, VB.Net, HTML, XML Web Service, XLTP, Javascript to name a few.

Today's topic is Activity of email type programming - you usually deal with these customizations when you improve Microsoft Exchange CRM connector. How do you create closed activity - this is the main discussion topic. Well use C#.Net coding

One of the roles of our Exchange Event Handler/Sink is creation MS CRM Closed Activity in handling incoming and outgoing email messages. The interaction with Microsoft CRM uses two approached using MS CRM SDK (handling inbound and outbound XML messages) and via direct access to MS CRM Database. Lets first look at the Closed Activity creation algorithm:

1. First we need to understand the entity we need to create activity for: Account, Lead or Contact. The selection should use specific criteria in our case this is email address:

if ((crmAccount = crmConnector.GetAccount(mailboxFrom)) != null) {

}

else if ((crmContact = crmConnector.GetContact(mailboxFrom)) != null) {

}

else if ((crmLead = crmConnector.GetLead(mailboxFrom)) != null) {

}

2. Then we have to get GUID of MS CRM user, who owns this entity, C# code like this:

crmUser = crmConnector.GetUser(crmAccount.GetOwnerId());

3. Next step is closed Activity creation:

emailId = crmConnector.CreateEmailActivity(

crmUser.GetId(),

Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otAccount, crmAccount.GetId(),

Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otSystemUser, crmUser.GetId(),

crmAccount.GetEmailAddress(), crmUser.GetEmailAddress(), sSubject, sBody);

4. The method to create closed activity:

public Guid CreateEmailActivity(Guid userId, int fromObjectType, Guid fromObjectId, int toObjectType, Guid toObjectId, string mailFrom, string mailTo, string subject, string body) {

try {

log.Debug("Prepare for Mail Activity Creating");

// BizUser proxy object

Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.BizUser bizUser = new Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.BizUser();

ICredentials credentials = new NetworkCredential(sysUserId, sysPassword, sysDomain);

bizUser.Url = crmDir + "BizUser.srf";

bizUser.Credentials = credentials;

Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.CUserAuth userAuth = bizUser.WhoAmI();

// CRMEmail proxy object

Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.CRMEmail email = new Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Proxy.CRMEmail();

email.Credentials = credentials;

email.Url = crmDir + "CRMEmail.srf";

// Set up the XML string for the activity

string strActivityXml = "";

strActivityXml += "";

strActivityXml += "") + "]]>";

strActivityXml += "";

strActivityXml += userId.ToString("B") + "";

strActivityXml += "";

// Set up the XML string for the activity parties

string strPartiesXml = "";

strPartiesXml += "";

strPartiesXml += "" + mailTo + "";

if (toObjectType == Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otSystemUser) {

strPartiesXml += "" + Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otSystemUser.ToString() + "";

}

else if (toObjectType == Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otAccount) {

strPartiesXml += "" + Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otAccount.ToString() + "";

}

else if (toObjectType == Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otContact) {

strPartiesXml += "" + Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otContact.ToString() + "";

}

else if (toObjectType == Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otLead) {

strPartiesXml += "" + Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otLead.ToString() + "";

}

strPartiesXml += ""+ toObjectId.ToString("B") + "";

strPartiesXml += "";

strPartiesXml += Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ACTIVITY_PARTY_TYPE.ACTIVITY_PARTY_TO_RECIPIENT.ToString();

strPartiesXml += "";

strPartiesXml += "";

strPartiesXml += "";

strPartiesXml += "" + mailFrom + "";

if (fromObjectType == Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otSystemUser) {

strPartiesXml += "" + Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otSystemUser.ToString() + "";

}

else if (fromObjectType == Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otAccount) {

strPartiesXml += "" + Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otAccount.ToString() + "";

}

else if (fromObjectType == Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otContact) {

strPartiesXml += "" + Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otContact.ToString() + "";

}

else if (fromObjectType == Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otLead) {

strPartiesXml += "" + Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ObjectType.otLead.ToString() + "";

}

strPartiesXml += ""+ fromObjectId.ToString("B") + "";

strPartiesXml += "";

strPartiesXml += Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ACTIVITY_PARTY_TYPE.ACTIVITY_PARTY_SENDER.ToString();

strPartiesXml += "";

strPartiesXml += "";

strPartiesXml += "";

log.Debug(strPartiesXml);

// Create the e-mail object

Guid emailId = new Guid(email.Create(userAuth, strActivityXml, strPartiesXml));

return emailId;

}

catch (System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException e) {

log.Debug("ErrorMessage: " + e.Message + " " + e.Detail.OuterXml + " Source: " + e.Source);

}

catch (Exception e) {

log.Debug(e.Message + "" + e.StackTrace);

}

return new Guid();

}

5. To make the activity just created be shown correctly you need to setup its flags according to MS CRM standards:

public void UpdateActivityCodes(Guid emailId) {

try {

OleDbCommand command = conn.CreateCommand();

command.CommandText = "UPDATE ActivityBase SET DirectionCode = (?), StateCode = (?), PriorityCode = (?) WHERE ActivityId = (?)";

command.Prepare();

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter("DirectionCode", Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.EVENT_DIRECTION.ED_INCOMING));

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter("StateCode", Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ACTIVITY_STATE.ACTS_CLOSED));

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter("PriorityCode", Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.PRIORITY_CODE.PC_MEDIUM));

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter("ActivityId", emailId));

log.Debug("Prepare to update activity code " + emailId.ToString("B") + " in ActivityBase");

command.ExecuteNonQuery();

}

catch(Exception e) {

log.Debug(e.Message + "" + e.StackTrace);

}

}

public void UpdateActivityQueueCodes(Guid emailId, Guid queueId) {

try {

OleDbCommand command = conn.CreateCommand();

command.CommandText = "UPDATE QueueItemBase SET Priority = (?), State = (?), QueueId = (?) WHERE ObjectId = (?)";

command.Prepare();

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter("Priority", Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.PRIORITY_CODE.PC_MEDIUM));

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter("State", Microsoft.Crm.Platform.Types.ACTIVITY_STATE.ACTS_CLOSED));

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter("QueueId", queueId));

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter("ObjectId", emailId));

log.Debug("Prepare to update activity queue code " + emailId.ToString("B") + " in QueueItemBase");

command.ExecuteNonQuery();

}

catch(Exception e) {

log.Debug(e.Message + "" + e.StackTrace);

}

}

Happy customizing, implementing and modifying! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Boris Makushkin is Lead Software Developer in Alba Spectrum Technologies USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Madrid, Moscow, Europe and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Microsoft CRM SDK, C#, VB.Net, SQL, Oracle, Unix developer. Boris can be reached: 1-866-528-0577 or borism@albaspectrum.com.

borism@albaspectrum.com