With the release of Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 last week, I have summarised the improvements that you can expect if you are using CRM online or have deployed the rollout to your on-premise environment.
Before I provide any details, you should always consider this: With any rollout please test in your development or test environment prior to any production release to ensure that it does not impact your current configuration.
New Features
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Chart Designer Enhancements
- Multi-series charts (limit of 5 series)
- Multiple category charts (limit of 1 series and 2 categories)
- New chart types e.g. Area charts
- Ability to create stacked charts (relative proportions of closely related items)
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Dialogs & Workflow Enhancements
- Lookup capability for any entity utilising a customisable lookup dialog box
- Date field types (i.e. Date only and Date and time)
- Options sets can be displayed as radio buttons rather than just lists
- Data retention when moving back within a dialog is maintained and warning messages are presented if a changed value impacts a later value
- Dynamic record hyperlinks for Workflows & Dialogs ensure all entities now include a Dynamic URL field that can be inserted into emails using the Insert Hyperlink option
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Enhanced Data Management
- Audit User Access via web and web services
- Ignore blank values in duplicate detection
- Exclude inactive records in duplicate detection
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CRM Outlook Client Enhancements
- Reading panel improvements to include hyperlinks to CRM records, compose e-mail and Lync presence
- Reading panel can includes sub grids and notes, with clickable records, again increasing productivity and reducing clicks. See the example below for how this looks:
- Clicking the email in the reading panel opens a new email record with the tracking and regarding pre-set
- Performance Enhancements to E-mail Tracking. Email activity creation will be performed after the email has been sent (this will remove the delay some users saw when sending emails from the Microsoft Outlook client.
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Activity Feeds
- Enable a user to follow important activities related to people, accounts, contacts, leads, sales deals (opportunities) and more
- Activity Feed App provided for Windows Phone (Mango 7.5)
- The solution can be download from the Dynamics Marketplace
Some great links to more information:
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