Configuring Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Published: January 26, 2007
After you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM, what must you do to get it ready for users? Determining what to configure and where to do it in Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be complex. This article describes several of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM components that the administrator should configure after installing the application before allowing users access. Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM has a rich feature and functionality set, this article is not meant to be an exhaustive resource to configure all deployments. Instead, use this article as a guideline to determine what components to configure based on your organization’s needs.
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Before you configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you must evaluate several system, sales, service, and marketing components and then determine how to coordinate them to suit your organization’s needs.
First, you should evaluate the following system components:
| • | Business units, teams, and territories: By using these components to group users, you can define the patterns of who has access to which data and determine who has access to records. Additionally, business units can be nested to form parent and child relationships where child business units cannot access data in the parent business unit. |
| • | Users and security roles: Add your users and assign security roles so that users only access the information in ways that match their job responsibilities. |
| • | Name, date display, and auto-numbering: Using the default system settings can work, but you can configure these components to get data to display the way you want it to in forms, views, and the service calendar. |
| • | Customization: Customization lets you match Microsoft Dynamics CRM to your organization’s needs. |
For the sales area, you should also evaluate the following sales components:
| • | Workflows: Use these features to structure and automate business tasks or sales processes. |
| • | Product catalog: When configured, the product catalog becomes the central repository for products, price lists, and discount lists. Additionally, the product catalog features a flexible pricing engine that you can use to calculate product prices based on a variety of pricing methods. |
| • | Add sales literature: This feature provides a way for you to add, remove, and manage the documents associated with your products and services, which make them available for users to access and send to customers. |
For the service area, you should also evaluate the following service components:
| • | Subjects: Use subjects to structure and categorize certain types of records, such as cases, articles, and products. |
| • | Templates: Contract and article templates speed record and document creation and also help drive early adoption for new users. |
| • | Queues: Queues act as a holding container for work items such as activities, cases, and knowledge base articles. Additionally, you can set up a queue to have e-mail sent directly to it. For example, you can set up a support queue that receives e-mail messages from customers. Then, a dispatcher can create and assign cases based on e-mail messages received in the support queue. |
For the marketing area, you should also evaluate the following marketing components:
| • | Marketing lists: Targeted marketing lists are necessary to complete a successful campaign. |
Most configurations are completed in the Settings area in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. (You cannot access the Settings area by using Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Microsoft Office Outlook.) To locate the Settings area, start the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web client and, in the Navigation Pane, click Settings. To create and manage workflows and sales processes, you must run the Workflow Manager tool. This tool must be run from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server computer.
To access the Workflow Manager tool and many of the areas in Settings requires the System Administrator security role. For more information about security roles, see Microsoft Dynamics CRM Help.
System configuration checklist
The following table describes several of the system components in the recommended order to configure for a typical deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These components should be configured before making the application available to users.
Action | Requirement | Location |
Configure business units | Required | Settings > Business Unit Settings > Business Units |
Customize security roles | Optional | Settings > Business Unit Settings > Security Roles |
Configure territories | Recommended | Settings > Sales Territories |
Add users | Required | Settings > Business Unit Settings > Users |
Configure teams | Recommended | Settings > Business Unit Settings > Teams |
Configure name format display* | Recommended | Settings > Organization Settings > System Settings > General tab > Name Format field |
Configure date and time display** | Recommended | Settings > Organization Settings > System Settings > Date tab |
Set auto-numbering*** | Recommended | Settings > Organization Settings > Auto-Numbering |
Entity and view customizations | Optional | Settings > Under Settings, click Customization |
Notes
* Name format display determines how contact names are displayed, such as last name, first name, and which name is the default display.
** Date display determines how the date is displayed on the Service Calendar. The default date display is mm/dd/yyyy and time is h:mm tt.
*** The Set Auto-Numbering dialog box contains tabs for each record type that uses auto-numbering. The record types are contracts, cases, articles, quotes, orders, invoices, and campaigns.
Sales configuration checklist
The following table describes some of the sales components to configure for a typical deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM before making the sales area available to users.
Action | Requirement | Location |
Set fiscal year* | Required for sales quotas | Settings > Organization Settings > Fiscal Year Settings |
Set up workflows | Required for sales processes | In the Workflow Manager tool.
To start Workflow Manager, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft CRM, and then click Workflow Manager. |
Set up price lists | Required for quote, order, or invoice records | Settings > Product Catalog |
Configure sales literature | Optional | Marketing > Sales Literature |
* Important: After the fiscal period has been set, it cannot be changed.
Service configuration checklist
The following table describes some of the service components to configure for a typical deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM before making the service area available to users.
Action | Requirement | Location |
Configure sites | Optional | Settings > Sites |
Set up templates for contracts, e-mail, and articles | Recommended | Settings > Templates. |
Create queues | Recommended | Settings > Business Unit Settings > Queues |
Set up subjects | Required for cases, articles, and sales literature | Settings > Subjects |
Create services | Required for service scheduling | Settings > Services |
Marketing configuration checklist
The following table describes some of the marketing components to configure for a typical deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM before making the marketing area available to users.
Action | Requirement | Location |
Configure marketing lists | Recommended for campaigns | Marketing > Marketing Lists |
Additional resources for configuring Microsoft Dynamics CRM
For detailed information about configuring the components in the Settings area, see the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Help.
For information about creating workflows and sales processes, see the Workflow Manager Help.
