Faxing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Related Links • Winning strategies to beat your competition • Set your e-mail messages apart with a signature • Improving sales capabilities with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0

On This Page

	Route Your Faxes
	Create and add cover pages
	Requirements for using fax integration

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM-Fax Router Service adds routing logic and send-and-receive functionality to fax activities. It also gives you the ability to add a cover page to an outbound fax. After you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM Small Business Edition on a computer running Windows Small Business Server that has Fax Service working correctly, no further configuration is required to enable send and receive faxes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

When fax integration is installed, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Small Business Edition adds a Send button to the fax activity Actions toolbar and adds a Cover Page to the fax activity form.

Route Your Faxes

Microsoft Dynamics CRM fax integration handles both outgoing and incoming faxes.

Outgoing faxes

When you click Send on the fax activity form, the fax is submitted to the Fax queue in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Then, the fax activity is routed to Fax Service, which merges the fax activity content with the fax cover page (if one is selected,) and then sends the document to the fax device.

The rules for managing outgoing faxes are controlled by the Microsoft Fax Service Manager for Windows Small Business Server 2003. For more information about fax routing and management, see the Help documentation that is included with the Microsoft Fax Service Manager.

Incoming faxes

A queue named “Fax queue” is created the first time a fax is received from the Fax Service. After the queue is created, it collects incoming faxes that Fax Service receives when the recipient cannot be identified as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user or as an alternate queue.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM fax routing logic detects incoming faxes that come from Fax Service and submits them to the following folder. The CRM install folder is the folder where Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server is installed.

By default, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM installation folder is located in the following folder:

When a fax file is submitted to the incoming faxes folder, the fax is processed and submitted to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM fax queue.

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM-Fax Router Service uses “fuzzy” logic, which is the ability to correspond data values that form an incomplete or imperfect match. With fuzzy logic, it can use character information on the fax document, such as the recipient's given name (first name), surname (last name), and e-mail address to match fax data to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user or queue. Because fax routing uses optical character recognition (OCR) scanning, you cannot handwrite recipient information for faxes that are routed by the Microsoft Dynamics CRM-Fax Router Service.

Faxes can be assigned to a user or routed to a queue. If the Microsoft Dynamics CRM-Fax Router Service matches the recipient named in the faxed document with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user, a fax activity is automatically created and assigned to the user with the faxed document attached to the activity. Alternatively, if Fax Service matches the recipient named in the fax and a Microsoft Dynamics CRM queue, a fax activity is created, routed to the queue, and assigned to the owner of the queue.

If Fax Service cannot match the recipient named in the fax with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user account, the fax remains in the Fax queue and is assigned to the owner of that queue. To determine the owner of the Fax queue, click Settings, under Settings click Settings, click Business Unit Settings, click Queues, and then double-click Fax queue. The owner of the Fax queue appears in the Owner field.

When you click Send, some file types that are attached to the fax activity are included with the outgoing fax. By default, the file types that are routed with the fax are:

Top of page

Create and add cover pages

You can select a cover page to include when you send a fax. To create and edit fax cover pages you use the Fax Cover Page Editor that is included with Windows Small Business Server. To start the Fax Cover Page Editor, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to Communications, point to Fax, and then click Fax Cover Page Editor.

Fax cover pages have a .cov file name extension. By default, Windows Small Business Server includes the following cover pages:

To add an additional fax cover page that appears in the cover page list of the fax activity form, you must save the cover page file to the following folder, which is located on the computer running Windows Small Business Server:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\MSFax\Common Coverpages

Top of page

Requirements for using fax integration

These are the requirements for using the fax integration and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0:

Top of page