This chapter describes the software components that make up a typical CRM installation.
Microsoft CRM 4.0 is provided as a single code base which can be implemented on premise in different ways:
· CRM Workgroup is licensed for up to 5 users.
· CRM Professional allows a single CRM installation on one server.
· CRM Enterprise allows for multi-tenancy where several CRM installations can run side by side on the same server.
Note: The Standard version of CRM 3.0 has been discontinued and user licenses will be upgraded to the Professional version in certain circumstances.
The server is a web application running on Internet Information Service (IIS) and written in the.NET Framework 2.0 and utilises a single SQL Server 2005 database (or one for each CRM tenancy with the Enterprise version). Exchange Server is optional as the local SMTP server can be used for outgoing mail and the email router can be configured either for Exchange or for POP3 email servers. Workflow is implemented with the Windows Workflow Foundation although this is hidden from the average user.
Microsoft is positioning CRM 4.0 directly against Salesforce.com which has 400,000 users in the USA. A Microsoft hosted version of CRM is available in the USA as part of the CRM Live service and is available in standard and professional versions. Both versions allow customisation and the professional service will allow programmer access to the CRM web services.
The CRM Live service for CRM is not expected outside of the USA until early 2009. Microsoft is encouraging partners to offer on demand hosted CRM services and many will also be bundling hosted Exchange email as well.
CRM users can access all CRM functionality either on the local network or over the Internet using just Internet Explorer. The same functionality and user interface can also be accessed from the Desktop Client for Microsoft Outlook which also offers better integration with Microsoft Office. There are also open source and third party applications allowing access to CRM from Mobile Devices or within Microsoft Office.
Note: A single user license for CRM allows the user to access multiple CRM databases as required.
The laptop version allows for a subset of the data (including customisations) to be synchronised with a special Laptop client for Outlook. The user can go off network and modify CRM and synchronise changes back into CRM when they reconnect to the network.
Microsoft has also announced special pricing for user licenses that are read-only or attached to a specific device.
Microsoft has a special licensing requirement for web sites that integrate with CRM. The license is relatively expensive and is required if customers or agents of the organisation regularly log into the web site and view data already entered into CRM or update data.
Note: Using a read-only licence and importing data manually into CRM via a spreadsheet file may be a work around to the requirement for an external license.
Microsoft provides additional software:
· The SDK documents the web services and allows you to access CRM data from your own application.
· The SDK also allows you to integrate software modules as plug-ins (written in .NET 2.0) directly into the server application.
· The data migration framework allows you to migrate thousands of records into CRM efficiently.
· The integration service (not seen by the author) allows synchronisation of data between applications to be configured.
· Microsoft also offers integration with their own accounting packages.
Note: The author sells software to integrate Microsoft CRM 4.0 with Sage Line 50 and other popular accounting packages in the UK. Please see http://www.redware.com/mscrm..
The CRM client is a web-based application which runs on Internet Explorer only and uses Windows security for user authentication. You can also setup forms-based authentication which allows internet users who do not log onto a VPN to access CRM with a user name and password. Emails are sent using the server (SMTP) email agent and so you can access CRM and send emails from any remote machine.
Note: You can set up the security on Internet Explorer to be prompted for a password to access CRM without using a VPN or configuring form-based authentication.
Virtual PC is a great way to evaluate CRM and also develop and test customisations without having to set up a complete development environment. Microsoft ship a Virtual PC version of CRM which can be installed on a machine with 2 GB of RAM and at least 12GB of free disk space.
The Virtual PC installation also contains all the software required to perform development including SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. A full copy of Windows Server 2003 runs in a virtual environment on your PC and is a great way also to demonstrate CRM a or provide your users with a CRM play area.
Installation is straightforward but here are some tips to get best use from Virtual PC:
· Virtual PC has a host key which defaults to the AltGr button found usually at the lower right of your keyboard next to the space bar. Press host+delete for the control+alt+delete necessary to log on to the server.
· Note that the Administrator user has pass@word1 as the user and the keyboard is US format so you will need shift+2 for the @ character.
· Press host+enter to toggle to full screen and back (you may need to redefine the display settings for this to work).
· You may find that the mouse does not travel outside of the Virtual PC window to allow selection of the menu options for the Virtual PC session. This is because mouse pointer integration is not on and to you need to press the host key so that the mouse can be used to select the menu options.
· Set up the networking on the Virtual PC by clicking on the TCP/IP option in your LAN Network Properties and make sure that you have a compatible IP definition with the host machine. Do not choose the same IP address but make the subnet mask and the default gateway (DNS) IP address the same as the host. You should be able to browse the Internet from the Virtual PC.
· It is possible to move files between the real PC environment and the Virtual PC using the drag and drop with Windows Explorer on each machine. If this does not work then you might share a drive on the host machine and access it from the Virtual PC with a dos command, for example net use z:\192.168.1.100\temp. You will get a serious error with the Windows Desktop which can be ignored temporarily whilst you use a DOS session to copy files as follows - copy z:\*.zip c:\temp\*.zip. Remove the share with the following DOS command: net use z: /delete.
· Use the CD-ROM to copy files if you cannot connect with the virtual network or drag and drop. There is a facility to share folders and this requires that you install the Virtual Machine Additions from the menu of a running Virtual PC session (however the author has not managed to get this to work properly).
· Setting up new user is a pain because of the password policy. Change the password policy on the Windows 2003 machine to give you an easier ride. Remember to disable automatic user authentication on the browser so you can log into CRM with multiple identities.
· Set up a Virtual PC for each test site and develop customisations and export the customisations to an XML file which can be installed onto the live CRM installation.
· The undo disks setting allows you to revert to the previously saved session if required.
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