Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 in 24 Hours [Paperback]

Anne Stanton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0672330679 | ISBN-13: 978-0672330674 | Edition: 1

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you will be up and running with Dynamics CRM 4. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, this book offers a quick way for you to get started with Dynamics CRM by leveraging real business examples, practice exercises, and big picture theory. In addition to learning how to use the core application, you will develop a deeper understanding of how Dynamics CRM fits into today’s business needs.

 

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the questions, issues, and tasks most common to Dynamics CRM.

Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you build and test your knowledge.

By the Way notes present interesting pieces of information related to the discussion.

Did You Know? tips offer advice or show you easier ways to perform tasks.

Watch Out! cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.

 

Learn how to…

• Orchestrate a successful CRM project
• Identify building blocks of Dynamics CRM
• Automate processes
• Create and manage your business units and users
• Use and maintain security roles
• Redefine an account
• Import new contacts and distribute leads
• Create marketing campaigns and capture the results
• Convert a lead to an account and contact
• Configure your display
• Capture contact and activity details
• Email directly from Dynamics CRM
• Master scheduling
• Integrate Dynamics CRM with Microsoft Excel and other applications
• Create simple workflows
• Customize and add utilities

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anne Stanton, Certified Microsoft Dynamics CRM professional and CRM MVP alumni, has been working with line-of-business software for professional service companies for more than 20 years. A passionate technologist with a degree in computer science and a master’s degree in business administration. She has held such positions as Vice President of Commercial Logic, Inc.; Director of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Practice at The Rand Group, LLC; and President and Owner of The Norwich Group. Anne has also been a national speaker for such events as Microsoft Convergence, SMB Nation, Information Technology Alliance, and the Association of Accounting Marketers.

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (November 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672330679
• ISBN-13: 978-0672330674
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #208,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Stanton lives in the Upper Valley of VT/NH. She is an avid gardener, reader, tweeter and blogger. In her spare time Anne does what she can to help others by sharing what she learns along the road of life, as information shared is information gained! Anne has a life long passion for technology, starting in the basement rooms of the University of Maryland at the side of her mother as she tackled a masters and doctorate in statistics and she loves to help leverage technology to solve real world problems.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book to dig in and learn, January 11, 2010

By 

Julie Yack "coloradojules" (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 in 24 Hours (Paperback)

Starting off with two disclaimers. First, this book was sent to me for free by the publisher seeking my review. Second, I do not see the point in flowery words for this type of thing, so this is my honest take.

So, I consider the author, Anne Stanton, a colleague and a friend. I had heard rumblings about her book, but working in the tech book industry myself I understood the need to keep it on the down-low for a while. I was certainly looking forward to the book. There are far too few books for CRM users that are any good. My go-to book recommendation has been the For Dummies series. From a user perspective, it's been the best one out there. Until now. :)

Anne (with a little help from some other super-mega CRM rock stars) takes CRM into 24 easily digestible chunks, 24 one-hour lessons. Can you take this book and go off and make CRM? YES!! Can you take it and go off and make xRM? Not so much. But that is not it's goal, so no worries.

Someone new to Dynamics CRM could pick up this book and become a proficient user quickly and easily. Someone that uses CRM could quickly brush up their skills on lesser used aspects like services and campaigns.

I had it on good authority that the chapter by Guy Riddle on Security was great, and it is. Darren Liu takes on Campaigns, my personal pain point, so many thanks Darren for giving me some more on this. Curt Spanburgh digs into Mail Merge and helps put that together with CRM quite well. Scott Head brings us Add-ins. Irene Pasternack does great coverage of Excel and Reporting.

Ok, so yes by far I love this book. It will reside next to my For Dummies book and phase itself into the #1 spot for my personal CRM reference once I master navigating the content. But yes, there's also a few things that I didn't like so much.

The images are tough. They are sized too small and look a little too dark. I confirmed that it wasn't just my old lady eyes that couldn't make out much useful info. Additionally, the publisher uses circles to point to specific content on a screen image and it about gets lost. I saw one by accident. If you need to go black and white, that's fine, but arrows work much better. If you're stuck on the circles, make them a thicker line.

I think there were two big oversights on helpful hints. One in the workflows and one in security. Here's my two helpful hints.

1. Workflows, if you start it, you must stop it. For example, you design a workflow that triggers on a record being updated and the action is to update the record, you will loop for years or until your performance takes such a hit that you stumble upon it in a desperate hunt for a cause. It's a common rookie mistake, so be aware of it from day one.

2. Security Roles, from a CRM (NOT xRM) perspective, your best bet is to copy a role, not make a new one. There are a handful of hidden permissions that are just easier if they are there for MOST CRM implementations. If you know enough about CRM to know what these are and why you might not need them, this book is not intended for you.

Bottom line, I would have paid for the book, even if it hadn't been offered for free. It's a great resource and Anne, I'm proud of you, another smart chick out there for us to look up to.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very gentle and fluid introduction, January 2, 2010

By 

Muhammad Kaleem Khan "Fire Horse" (ON, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 in 24 Hours (Paperback)

I am a Software developer looking for CRM Dynamics custom development but first wanted to explore the concepts and out of the box functionality. I have thoroughly read until Hour-7 and skimmed over the rest, the book did a great a job so far elaborating and aligning the CRM concepts that most reader will subconsciously be aware of.

I bought another text and was overwhelmed by the information presented only from a usage viewpoint. Definitely, one would have to refer an adavnced title for custom development and that's not suggested by the book's title either. However, unlike its counterparts, the book handles a simple subject with utter simplicity.

No twinkle in fifth star due to size of illustration, hardly can peek into the pictures.