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How to Create a Query with Picklist Values in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Getting at the Picklist Values is not easy.  You know the values are stored in the entity as numerical values, not the character-based descriptive values.  But how to get at the descriptive values that are useful to we humans?

Here's a sample query that will get you there for Leads (ObjectTypeCode 4), and a custom picklist value for County (sync_county).  The key table you want to get access to is the StringMap table.  But you have to put a couple of strategic filters in place to make it work.

SELECT LeadBase.CompanyName, LeadBase.FirstName, LeadBase.LastName, LeadExtensionBase.Sync_County, StringMap.AttributeName, StringMap.Value
FROM LeadBase INNER JOIN
  LeadExtensionBase ON LeadBase.LeadId = LeadExtensionBase.LeadId INNER JOIN
  StringMap ON LeadExtensionBase.Sync_County = StringMap.AttributeValue
WHERE (StringMap.ObjectTypeCode = 4) AND (StringMap.AttributeName = N'sync_county')

Value Not Available for Selection in Advanced Find Filter

Ever come across a value that you want to search on in Advanced Find, that's just not there?  I'm creating an e-mail list, and I want to exclude all the Contacts I flagged with "Do Not Bulk E-mail."  The field was not there to set a filter on.  Hmmm.

Answer is to go to Customizations for the Contact entity, look up the "Do Not Allow Bulk E-mail" attribute, open it up, and check the property, as shown below.  Change the "Searchable" setting to "Yes."  Save-and-close, save-and-close, publish.

 

Sorting Microsoft Dynamics CRM Views on Second Column

In Dynamics CRM, Views are a powerful screen that shows tabular data in customized column formats.  ONe thing to note however, is that the customized view only starts with one level of sorting.  So, if I want to sort Companies by State, say, that's fine.  But what if I want to sort by State, and then City.

Your initial view will be sorted by State, as indicated by the triangle symbol in the column header.  To create a secondary sort by City, hold the Shift Key, and click on the City column heading.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Recently, I was looking for a Keyboard Shortcut for the "Save-and-New" icon.  So, instead of taking my hands of the keyboard, and clicking Save-and-New, I found that I can use CTRL-SHIFT-S to accomplish the same thing.

See the list of ten different CRM keyboard shortcuts.

Scribe Insight 6.5 Product Launch Webcast

The Scribe team today announced the release of Scribe Insight 6.5.  Insight 6.5 is a major release which includes an extensive list of features that have been requested by Scribe partners.  The new release also includes significant new functionality targeted at enterprise accounts.  These are:

• Failover/Disaster Recovery
• Web Services Adapter
• Support for 64-bit Windows Server 2008

Scribe 6.5  Product Launch Thursday, April 16 @ 11am - 12pm EST

Registration URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8001615779/Registration.aspx?pageName=8nlw1x85309wfbns

The Scribe presenters for the webcast will be:

• Bob Sturim - Vice President, Products
• John Gravely - Vice President, Marketing and Product Marketing
• Lou Antonucci - Director, Sales

What is a Scribe Solution?  Scribe Software provides for a way to integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM with any other system.  If you need to have various systems running, and you need to keep them in sync, you probably should take a look at what Scribe Software has to offer.  Scribe Templates, that are built and run on Scribe Insight and Scribe Adapters, represent the core of Scribe's Solutions. These solutions can then be configured to work within each customer's specific application environment.  More information on Scribe and SyncraTec.

CardScan No Longer Supports Microsoft Dynamics CRM

CardScan, bought by RubberMaid, and touted as a "Brand that Matters," has discontinued selling it's product for CRM.  Not sure why.  I found out most unpleasantly when I called them today for support.  A device stopped talking to CRM, so I called CardScan support to see if they had any suggestions. 

The suggestion was to uninstall and re-install the CardScan software (which actually worked).  I was able to use the original license key.  This was CardScan version 4.1 software for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.

Anyway, not good that they decided to stop selling this device for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  Anybody have any idea why; or if there's another supplier that provides a scanner to get information from business cards into CRM quickly?

A Possible Reason Why Outlook E-mails Tracked in CRM will not Resolve to CRM Contact

I'm using the CRM for Outlook Client, and get an important e-mail from prospect letting me know that she's going to check with her top sales people and get back to me with a couple of dates for a meeting.  I select the e-mail and click on the "Track in CRM" button. 

A day or two later, I'm reviewing the activity history of this company in CRM and I don't see the e-mail that I know I received.  So, I go back to Outlook and find the e-mail in question, I note that it is being tracked in CRM, so I select it and click the "View in CRM" button.  I notice that the e-mail address is highlighted in red which means that it did not resolve to an existing CRM record (be it an Account, a Contact, or a Lead).  I checked the contact record and saw that the e-mail address is, in fact, correct.  So why didn't it resolve?

I recall reading about this on another blog a day-or-two ago, and the exact scenario just happened to me.  What happened was that the CRM Account / Contact records were created from a Lead that had an e-mail address.  Both Account and Contact were created with the same e-mail.  Thus, the e-mail activity does not know which to resolve to: the Account or the Contact.  The way to solve this immediately is to delete the e-mail address from the CRM Account record (the company).  To solve the problem going forward, so that it doesn't happen again, I change the mapping from Lead-to-Account so that the e-mail address is not automatically populated in the CRM Account (company) record when the Lead is qualified.  E-mails are most appropriate at the Contact level anyway, so this makes good sense.  Just one of those little things that makes this powerful CRM system more user-friendly.

Populating the CRM Account Name into Outlook's Company Name

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, there were a couple of ways to make the Account Name from CRM populate into the Outlook Company Name (http://www.workopia.com/howto/DisplayParentAccountOutlookContactForm.htm, http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/MSCRM3/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=170).  Let me give you an example of when this would be extremely helpful: you are going to visit an old client that you haven't seen in a while.  All of sudden you're struck with a minor panic attack because you can't remember the name of an important decison-maker.  Now, you open your mobile device (which, of course, is synch'd up to your Outlook), and search for Contact by Company Name.  Voila, there you have all the names of the Contacts at the company you're on your way to visit.

In CRM 4.0, it's really easy to make this happen by flipping a configuration switch in the setting screen.

Here's a blog-to-blog link that will take you to a site where this setting is well-documented:

http://blog.customereffective.com/blog/2008/02/synching-micros.html