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Implementing Multi-Company in Dynamics SL (Feature Pack 1)

I'd like to just post some lessons-learned for implementing Multi-Company.  These are not always obvious from reading the implementation guide.  I recently implemented Project Flex Time, and that was a lot of fun -- a genuine learning experience.  Here's hoping a few of these gotcha's will save you and your users a little time as you anticipate a few of the more subtle implications of implementing Dynamics SL multi-company.

1. You will have to make sure all your BP Users are setup to default to the desired company.  (See separate post.)

2. You may lose custom look-ups in back-office application when you re-do the .csv's for the new company.

3. You actually have to run the setup from the BP Setup to see the new company in Business Portal.

More details on this topic to follow as we progress.

How to Set Default Company for User in Business Portal

In the Business Portal for Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 Feature Pack 1 (and most earlier versions, also), when you implement a second company in your system, and then log onto the Business Portal, you will notice that you now have a choice to flip between one company and the other. 

If you're not careful though, you will notice that some users are defaulting to one company as opposed to the other.  And the company they default to will be the alphabetically-sorted first company in the Company List.  To control the default company by user, you will have to go back to Business Portal Administration Pages / User / User Properties, and look at the Roles on a user-by-user basis.  The thing to look for is the "User" Role -- then note if the User is setup for "All Companies" or a specific company.  Make sure the User is set to the (BP default) company of choice...

A Simple CRM 4.0 Workflow to Quickly Create Phone Call Activity Details

The more I work with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, the more you get the feeling that this is one healthy beast of a CRM system.  There's a lot of questions when you start working with it, and ask the software to do simple things...but there's almost always a solution. 

Over the last couple weeks I started to wonder, why the heck can I not create a real quick Phone Call Activity that will show up on my Smart Phone without my having to re-type or cut-and-paste the phone number from the respective Lead or Contact.

One of the things that makes the software powerful is that it can tailored to suit a multitude of roles.  You've heard it before, but it's true.  I spend a lot of time tweaking my forms and views to make sure I capture as much relevant information about prospects and customers as I need.

To the point, though, I found a great post that answered my quest to the T; that is, I found that by using Workflow, I could easily -- and I do mean easily -- get the data fields from either the Lead or the Contact to populate into the Phone Call Activity.  It's not out of the box stuff, but you can do it with a little knowledge.  I won't keep you waiting any longer: here's the link: Enjoy!