who is customizing MS CRM 3.0?

has anyone tried to do this yet? Customize MS CRM 3.0, that is...

how good are the configuration tools? they seem like you can add
columns nicely to some table but not others?

does anyone have an idea on the complexity of adding new relationships
and new entities? stuff not included in the configuration tools?????

any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance!

- dan

RonaldL
Fri Mar 17 08:16:28 CST 2006

Hi Dan,

A lot of people are customizing MS CRM 3.0. Customizing CRM is very easy and
straight forward. Relationships are a bit more difficult. I'd like to
recommend you to download the CRM 3.0 VPC from microsoft and try out how
everything works in there. You will get a good feeling of the application
then.

Also, take a look in the SDK for more detailed information.

Kind regards,
--
Ronald Lemmen
Avanade Netherlands
http://ronaldlemmen.blogspot.com/


"harlow.28" wrote:

> has anyone tried to do this yet? Customize MS CRM 3.0, that is...
>
> how good are the configuration tools? they seem like you can add
> columns nicely to some table but not others?
>
> does anyone have an idea on the complexity of adding new relationships
> and new entities? stuff not included in the configuration tools?????
>
> any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance!
>
> - dan
>
>

harlow
Fri Mar 17 13:46:52 CST 2006

have you used the SDK?? when you say "relationships are a bit more
difficult" ... what does that mean? just a few extra steps or is it
nearly impossible? - dan

RonaldL
Mon Mar 20 08:49:11 CST 2006

Hi Dan,

What I'm telling you about the relationships is that you'll need to practise
a bit with that before you'll fully understand that. It definately isn't
impossible, but its not that easy as adding and removing attributes.

I have used the SDK as well yes. It's a great resource for making more
advanced modifications to your mscrm implementation. C# or VB programming
skills are required though.

Kind regards,
Ronald
--
Ronald Lemmen
Avanade Netherlands
http://ronaldlemmen.blogspot.com/


"harlow.28" wrote:

> have you used the SDK?? when you say "relationships are a bit more
> difficult" ... what does that mean? just a few extra steps or is it
> nearly impossible? - dan
>
>

harlow
Mon Mar 20 19:14:54 CST 2006

ok. so you've added relationships and the accompanying screens?
what's an example of a relationship that you added and how long did it
take to put the screens and tables and relationships in there?

i've done a lot of VB coding so i know how to do that. if it's just VB
coding then it shouldn't take long. if it's more confused than that,
then i'd like to know before buying the product. - dan

RonaldL
Tue Mar 21 02:33:27 CST 2006

Hi Dan,

I've added relationships between the entity 'account' and a new entity
called 'project'. This was a 1-m relationship, every account can have more
projects, but a project can only belong to one account. Building this entity
including the relationship took me about 0,5 hour.

Since you have already quite some experience with programming, the SDK
should be easy to use. You can download the sdk here
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9c178b68-3a06-4898-bc83-bd14b74308c5&DisplayLang=en
or view the sdk in msdn here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/CrmSdk3_0/htm/v3d0customizationusingsdk.asp

I believe that you will be very good able to use MS CRM.

Kind regards,
--
Ronald Lemmen
Avanade Netherlands
http://ronaldlemmen.blogspot.com/


"harlow.28" wrote:

> ok. so you've added relationships and the accompanying screens?
> what's an example of a relationship that you added and how long did it
> take to put the screens and tables and relationships in there?
>
> i've done a lot of VB coding so i know how to do that. if it's just VB
> coding then it shouldn't take long. if it's more confused than that,
> then i'd like to know before buying the product. - dan
>
>

Richard
Mon Jun 19 02:55:01 CDT 2006

Ronald,

We also have the need foor projects in our CRM. You wrote that you made a
1-m relationship account-project. Does this mean that you cannot add multiple
accounts / contacts to a project. This is essential for us.


--
Richard


"Ronald Lemmen" wrote:

> Hi Dan,
>
> I've added relationships between the entity 'account' and a new entity
> called 'project'. This was a 1-m relationship, every account can have more
> projects, but a project can only belong to one account. Building this entity
> including the relationship took me about 0,5 hour.
>
> Since you have already quite some experience with programming, the SDK
> should be easy to use. You can download the sdk here:
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9c178b68-3a06-4898-bc83-bd14b74308c5&DisplayLang=en
> or view the sdk in msdn here:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/CrmSdk3_0/htm/v3d0customizationusingsdk.asp
>
> I believe that you will be very good able to use MS CRM.
>
> Kind regards,
> --
> Ronald Lemmen
> Avanade Netherlands
> http://ronaldlemmen.blogspot.com/
>
>
> "harlow.28" wrote:
>
> > ok. so you've added relationships and the accompanying screens?
> > what's an example of a relationship that you added and how long did it
> > take to put the screens and tables and relationships in there?
> >
> > i've done a lot of VB coding so i know how to do that. if it's just VB
> > coding then it shouldn't take long. if it's more confused than that,
> > then i'd like to know before buying the product. - dan
> >
> >

RonaldL
Mon Jun 19 03:22:02 CDT 2006

Hi Richard,

Many to many relationships aren't possible by default. only 1-many
relationships are. With this in mind, you can create an extra entity which
will serve as a connection table. You should create two relationships from
this connectionentity: one to many with projects and one to many with
contacts. You now can connect as much contacts with as much projects as you
like.

Hope this helps,
--
Ronald Lemmen
Avanade Netherlands
http://ronaldlemmen.blogspot.com/


"Richard" wrote:

> Ronald,
>
> We also have the need foor projects in our CRM. You wrote that you made a
> 1-m relationship account-project. Does this mean that you cannot add multiple
> accounts / contacts to a project. This is essential for us.
>
>
> --
> Richard
>
>
> "Ronald Lemmen" wrote:
>
> > Hi Dan,
> >
> > I've added relationships between the entity 'account' and a new entity
> > called 'project'. This was a 1-m relationship, every account can have more
> > projects, but a project can only belong to one account. Building this entity
> > including the relationship took me about 0,5 hour.
> >
> > Since you have already quite some experience with programming, the SDK
> > should be easy to use. You can download the sdk here:
> > http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9c178b68-3a06-4898-bc83-bd14b74308c5&DisplayLang=en
> > or view the sdk in msdn here:
> > http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/CrmSdk3_0/htm/v3d0customizationusingsdk.asp
> >
> > I believe that you will be very good able to use MS CRM.
> >
> > Kind regards,
> > --
> > Ronald Lemmen
> > Avanade Netherlands
> > http://ronaldlemmen.blogspot.com/
> >
> >
> > "harlow.28" wrote:
> >
> > > ok. so you've added relationships and the accompanying screens?
> > > what's an example of a relationship that you added and how long did it
> > > take to put the screens and tables and relationships in there?
> > >
> > > i've done a lot of VB coding so i know how to do that. if it's just VB
> > > coding then it shouldn't take long. if it's more confused than that,
> > > then i'd like to know before buying the product. - dan
> > >
> > >