Customization Capabilities

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is designed to be customized to meet the unique needs of your business. Many of the most common customization tasks can be performed using tools included in the application without the need for a developer to write code.

For those requirements that involve more complex interaction with other applications, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides a well-documented set of Web services and application configurations that allow developers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) Software companies that create add-in solutions that work with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. to create solutions.

Customizations can be grouped into the following areas:

• Capturing, Storing, and Finding Data
• Reporting
• Business Process Automation
• Client Extensions
• Data Integration

Capturing, Storing, and Finding Data

One of the core requirements for most organizations is the ability to model the data that is important to their business within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online database. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online includes data structures, known as entities Structures used to manage data. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online entities include Account, Case, and Activity., that apply to many organizations without any customization at all.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides three core sets of features that include supporting entities:

• Sales force automation
  • The Lead A potential customer who must be qualified or disqualified as a sales opportunity. If a lead is qualified, it can be converted to an opportunity, account, and/or contact. entity is used to capture data about unqualified potential customers.
  • The Account A company that might do business with your organization. and Contact A person who represents a customer or potential customer, or an individual related to an account. For example, an individual who purchases products or services for their own use, or an employee of an account. A contact may also be a person involved in a business transaction, such as a supplier or a colleague. entities provide a place to store information about customers.
  • The Opportunity A potential revenue-generating event or sale to an account that needs to be tracked through a sales process to completion. entity provides a place to capture sales interactions and initiate quotes Formal offers for products or services, proposed at specific prices and related payment terms, which are sent to opportunities, accounts, or contacts., orders Confirmed requests for delivery of goods or services based on specified terms. An order is a quote that has been accepted by a customer., and invoices Orders that have been billed. An invoice is also a record of a sale to a customer, including details about the products or services purchased. that are designed to be integrated with your financial applications.
• Marketing management
  • The Campaign A marketing program that uses many communication vehicles to accomplish a specific result. For example, using advertisements and direct mail to increase market share, introduce new products, or retain customers. entity provides a structure to plan, execute, and evaluate marketing efforts.
  • Marketing lists Lists of accounts, contacts, or leads that match a specific set of criteria. allow you to group customers The accounts and contacts with which business units conduct business transactions. or leads Potential customers who must be qualified or disqualified as sales opportunities. If a lead is qualified, it can be converted to an opportunity, account, and/or contact. that meet a specific set of criteria.
• Service automation
  • The Case A customer service issue or problem reported by a customer and the activities that customer service representatives use to resolve it. entity allows for tracking service cases with your customers.
  • The Contract An agreement to provide support during specified coverage dates or for a specified number of cases or length of time.When customers contact customer service, the level of support they receive is determined by their contract. entity provides a way to track customer entitlement for services.
  • The Service Activity A schedulable appointment to provide a service to a customer. A service activity uses one or more resources to perform a service at a specific time and place. entity provides the capability to define and schedule services.

Other entities such as Product An item in the product catalog. Products can be linked to other records, such as quotes, campaigns, and cases., Subject A category used in a hierarchical list to correlate and organize information. Subjects are used in the subject tree to organize products, sales literature, and knowledge base articles., and Activity An action to be performed, such as a task, or a communication item that is sent or received, for example, e-mail, phone calls, and appointments. The status of activities is tracked and the activity history is stored in the system, so users can view the open and closed activities. work across these core features to help synchronize the efforts of your organization.

Each of these system entities can be customized to rearrange the form layout, add and remove fields, add or modify system views, add custom code to the form, or apply client extensions. In addition, you can create new entities and entity relationships Metadata configurations that allow for related records to have lookup fields, which let users link the related records to other records. Any related records can appear in a list that is visible from the record that they have been related to. to enhance the core features or create entirely new features to capture, store, and find data that supports your business.

All entities that store data related to your customers support views Filters applied to a list of records. Users can choose different views that contain all the records or activities of a particular type or that are a subset of that type.. Views are queries that define which records to return and the columns to display. Views allow users to browse for information that meets specific criteria.

Advanced Find A tool used to search for specific records and activities. is a feature that provides users with the ability to create complex queries based on entities, their attributes, and relationships with other entities. These queries can then be saved as personal or system views Views that are associated with record types, managed for the whole organization, and available to all users.System views can be customized by a user who has privileges to customize entities..

The Quick Find View The view used to display results of searches done using the Search for records box. is a special kind of view that controls which entity attributes will be searched when users use the search box. The Quick Find View also controls which columns will be shown to the user in the search results. More information: Customizing Entities.

Top of page

Reporting

When you customize the way you capture and store data you must also customize the way you find and view that data in reports. Customized reports provide the way to view aggregated information about your data or just a different presentation of the data that fits a requirement for your organization.

There are two main ways to view reporting data in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Each way provides a different method of customization.

• Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is installed with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. A number of default reports are included. New reports can be created using the Report Wizard, and the default reports can be modified by using Reporting Services.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online includes an Export to Excel feature that allows users to take data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and view it in Excel. Users can choose to view the data in a static A file that does not change when data changes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. worksheet, a dynamic A file that refreshes data from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online database each time it is opened. worksheet, or a dynamic PivotTable A tool that you can use to reorganize and summarize selected columns and rows of data in a spreadsheet without changing the data..
  • Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data is stored in SQL Server, any ODBC A standard for sharing data between databases and other programs. ODBC means Open Database Connectivity.-compliant application, such as Microsoft Office Word or Microsoft Office Access, is capable of querying Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data for a report.

More information: Customizing and Organizing Reports

Top of page

Business Process Automation

When you need to define a specific series of actions to be performed or simply want to reduce the number of manual tasks users need to perform, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides three options:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online workflow A set of logical rules that define the steps necessary to automate a specific business process, task, or set of actions to be performed on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online records. allows someone who is not a programmer to define specific actions to be performed based on events that occur when users work in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Users with the necessary privileges can create their own personal workflows, and users' privileges can be elevated to allow creation of workflows that apply to different access levels Security role settings that determine, for a given entity, who can access records. There are four options: just the owner of the record, all users in the current business unit, all users in the current or child business unit, or all users.. By default, system administrators and system customizers can create worklflows that apply to the entire organization. More information: Resource Center, Creating and Using Workflows.

  Programmers can also build workflows using Windows Workflow Foundation. More information: Developing Workflows and Activities (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK).

• Developers can create client-side code that executes when certain events occur in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online forms. These can be used to perform calculations within the form, perform data validation, or interact with Web services and other applications. More information: Form Scripting
• Developers can create and register .NET assemblies known as 'plugins' on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Server to create business process automation. More information: Plug-ins (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK)

Top of page

Client Extensions

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online includes features to enable other applications to be integrated into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online so that users can access Web-based applications. The primary client-extension features are:

• IFRAMES Windowless inline floating frames that are typically used for including Web pages in forms. Examples of Web pages that can be included are a page from a Microsoft SharePoint site, a section of HTML such as a button, or a custom application. provide a way to display a Web page or Web application within a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online form. IFRAMES are added using the tools used to edit an entity form. More information: Edit Entity Forms
• Site Map An XML representation of the structure of the Navigation Pane in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, including the areas, groups, and subareas where entities are displayed, and the privileges associated with each subarea. provides a way to include an application that will appear in the main pane of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online application. It can also be used to fine tune the way areas and groups are displayed in the Navigation Pane. You can use Site Map to change the labels displayed for areas in the Navigation Pane. More information: SiteMap (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK)
• ISV.Config An XML configuration document used to update the navigation structure of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, including adding custom buttons, tabs, and menus to entity forms. provides a way to use custom menu items and button controls within Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. ISV.Config can also be used to add additional navigation items within entity forms. Each navigation item is configured with either a URL or some client-side script to perform an action when the navigation item is clicked. More information: ISV.Config (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK)
• A specific URL in each Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online entity form that can be used to create a new record or open an existing record. Other applications, such as Windows SharePoint, can be configured to allow Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online users to interact with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data from other applications. More information: URL Addressable Forms (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK)

Top of page

Data Integration

Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides Web services, other applications can programmatically interact with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data. When combined with the capability of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Event framework to detect changes in data and execute code found in plug-ins, or business automation logic defined in workflows, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data can be synchronized with data stored in other applications, such as an ERP system. This capability is typically used by ISVs to develop solutions to integrate their products with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

More information: Web Services (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK), Event Framework (Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK)

Top of page

Related Topics Customization Privileges Customizing Entities Form Scripting Entity Relationships

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.