Author: Dave Vora

Power BI & Dynamics CRM Online 2015

The Power BI preview released by Microsoft in Convergence provided a great tool to quickly make sense of large amounts of data. Power BI does all the heavy lifting and provides a quick and easy way to interact with the data. As promised by Microsoft with the release of Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 CRM is now available within PowerBI alongside SalesForce & Google Analytics to gather data and provide data analysis. As of publishing this article the Power BI Dynamics CRM connector will only work with Dynamics CRM Online, it will not work with an on premise CRM installation, hopefully the on premise connectivity is not too far.

May 26, 2015

Dynamics CRM Online & Office 365

Initially when Dynamics CRM Online was introduced it was tied to windows live id, Microsoft’s online authentication platform. Since then it has been replaced by Office 365 login. And it’s not just that Dynamics CRM Online authentication that has moved to Office 365, now there is lot more integration between these 2 systems. The latest one is the connection between Power BI and Dynamics CRM using Office 365. You can find additional details of the same at

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/crmvideos/archive/2014/11/07/using-power-bi-with-microsoft-dynamic-crm-2015.aspx

April 10, 2015

What’s New in CRM 2015

Dynamics CRM 2015 is around the corner and there is a lot of excitement building up towards its launch. CRM 2013 completely changed things by introducing a whole new user interface and CRM 2015 is building on top of it by adding and improving existing features. CRM 2015 has introduced a lot of platform enhancements that make it a solid and great CRM experience. I have listed a few exciting features here but it’s a big list and we will explore through them as we approach the CRM 2015 launch.

December 5, 2014

Dynamics GP & CRM Integration Demystified: Part 2

Continuing from my previous post about Dynamics GP & CRM integration I will go over the tools and technical details on the integration. You don’t have to decide on the integration tool right from the beginning, again it will depend on your requirements and also keeping in mind your future needs. The marketplace is flooded with a lot of integration tools for GP and CRM so take your time in understanding your needs and then choose the integration application.

September 24, 2014

Dynamics GP & CRM Integration Demystified – Part 1

Dynamics GP and CRM are the two most common Dynamics products in the U.S. which are sold together and setup in the same environment. Yet, most of the time, the discussion on the integration between these two systems is scheduled for a later time or in later phases of the project. It all depends on the requirements of the project. In my experience, having the integrations discussion early on resolves a lot of matters in terms of new processes and license costs. Any integration planned between these two systems requires planning and discussion between the different departments that plan on using it.

August 21, 2014

The future of Dynamics GP architecture – “GP Next”

Traditionally, ERP has been a large software package with a substantial server installation as well as a large client application. Along with the maintenance of the server components of ERP you would also have to maintain the client installations with regular updates and service packs. Even with MS Dynamics GP you have to maintain the client installations with service pack updates and new add-on installations, over years it has eased that process by way of auto application of the Service packs and using other MS systems like System Center. MS Dynamics GP is not a simple application. It has enterprise level functions to perform and needs to cater to different needs of various departments in an organization. Currently, we live in times where your applications auto update and the installation of apps on your mobile device can even be done by babies, so can this model of simple application management be replicated to Dynamics GP?

August 11, 2014

Using CRM as a Line of Business Application

CRM is no longer the traditional customer relationship management tool, managing contacts and the sales pipeline. Before, CRM was to be only used by sales people to manage their contacts, relationships and their information. Now, CRM has been shared or integrated to other systems for marketing, analytics, projects, etc. CRM, as an enterprise application, has since evolved into a platform.

July 8, 2014