Microsoft CRM 2013 Additional Features

Microsoft CRM 2013 Additional Features

Bing Maps

This feature has been available since December 2012 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online customers.

This can now also be used by on-premise CRM systems using an API key.

If you have not used the API key then you will get a map displaying where Bing maps would be, but it will not be fully available – you need to sign in and link the API.

To get the API you need to register here:

http://www.microsoft.com/maps/create-a-bing-maps-key.aspx

 

You can get a free 90 day trial of Bing maps – see the terms here 

 

Auto Save

Microsoft CRM 2013 Additional Features command bar

See my screenshot above.  This triggers every 30 seconds.  If you do have plug ins, workflows or form scripts they will be run each time auto save occurs.  This may not be ideal for your use depending on what the workflow does for example!  See more about auto save on my previous blog from August.  This gives more information

 

Auto save will be turned “on” when using Microsoft CRM 2013 for the first time.  If you did want to over-ride this and force a save then on the footer bar on the bottom right there will be a save button which you can press.  You can also use “ctrl s”.

 

You can disable auto save in system settings.  If you do this there will now be a save button on the top left of your entities.  There will also be a save button remaining on the footer bar on the right hand side.  This will also give a status of if the save is actually happening.

 

Even if you have turned off auto save there are some scenarios when auto save will still continue:

if you click on save button on command bar, or save button on the footer bar, or navigate away from the page by clicking on back button, or linked record, or you click on an associated grid auto save will still happen.

 

You can also use the SDK to turn off auto save.  Again you may want to do this if you have workflows that may fire on auto save.   This feature utilises java script.

 

 

Microsoft CRM 2013 Additional Features – People Pictures

 

CRM 2013 supports people pictures (144 x 144 pixels).  The images will be cropped to square and will be available on the contact, account, lead and user.  There is only one image per entity.  There are no custom image fields but for custom entities you can add an image field.

If you do not wish to show the picture, you can remove this from each of those entities.

 

Access Teams is another great additional feature in Microsoft CRM 2013

 

Any entity can be enabled for access teams.  This is a huge shift from CRM 2011 as there are no security restrictions if you are allowed in an access team.

 

Examples when you may use access teams:

 

Account team example

A full team that work together on an account.  May also include an executive sponsor, dedicated support representative and project manager.

Opportunity team example

Sales people that normally work together on sales opportunities.  A typical opportunity team might include the account manager, the sales representative and a pre-sales consultant.

 

Again if you wanted to know more about access teams see my earlier blog 9.8.13

 

You can use access team templates which once you have set them up you can choose the people to work on that team.

 

If you have an owner team from 2011 you need to make sure those records are reassigned or the conversion to access teams won’t work.  If you have security roles assigned to the team then you need to remove these.  We would recommend that you consider access teams fully before you implement this facility.

 

As discussed in my blog in August there are three types of security

 

Business units are used to organise users on the access requirements – records can be owned by a user or users in the same unit.

Ownership teams are used when you need to provide access to a set of users across business units or when records need to be owned by an entity other than the user.  If the teams are small and static with team members not being added or removed frequently this may be a good fit.

Access teams  You would use this when the number of teams is dynamic and not known during design, where there is not a guiding factor for definition of teams, when the users that need access are unique across entity instances and so require one or more team per record instance.  Please note that more than one team is required if different access rights are desired for the teams.

 

Module based dashboards

  • Sales module
  • Service module
  • Marketing module
  • Other modules – CRM social overview dashboard.

Users can set their landing charts to their specific role.

 

Related posts:

New features and licensing in MS CRM 2013

Licensing update 2013

Microsoft CRM 2013 update

 

 

Trust us to make Dynamics 365 a success for you

Contact us