CRM 2011 – Free Developer Training Course for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Released

I saw this flash up on twitter the other day and when I have looked at it again I realised that this was released quite a while ago but it’s always good to refresh information.  The original link went to here which actually gives a very succinct summary of the training course

it covers these sections

• Introduction to the Dynamics CRM 2011 Training Course
• Solutions in Dynamics CRM 2011
• User Experience Extensibility
• Visualizations and Dashboards
• WCF Web Services
• LINQ and oData
• Plug-ins
• Processes
• Client Programming
• Silverlight
• SharePoint and CRM
• Azure
• Upgrading from CRM 4.0 to CRM 2011
• Dynamics Marketplace

The course is based around the excellent channel 9 videos and although it downloads 127 megs of data the videos are not downloaded and when you click on them it basically streams them off the internet.  I felt this was a bit disappointing because you might want to work on this offline but then really everyone is online these days.

I had to use CRM 2011 whilst it was in beta and these videos were extremely helpful, especially in terms of understanding OData, LINQ, solutions, WCF and Plugins.

to go download the course go here

Dynamics CRM 2011 Developer Training Course

to read about the different aspects of the training in more detail go to this page

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh237511.aspx

an example is this is how they describe solutions in the training kit.

Solutions in Dynamics CRM 2011

Presentation/Video	Description	Hands-on Labs
Solutions – Data Modeling	Describes the metadata-driven data model and tools that are used for customizing data to build xRM (Anything Relationship Management) and extended Microsoft Dynamics CRM business applications.
Solutions – Introduction	Introduces the new Solutions feature that allows packaging of the customizations and code.	Solution Packaging
Solutions – Managed and Unmanaged	Covers managed and unmanaged solution package types.
Solutions – Publishing	Explains various options for configuring and publishing a solution.
Solutions – Modularization	Covers best practices for creating one or more solutions, particularly for modularizing and sharing components within a solution.

another useful link they have on that page is a link to the entity model

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Entity Relationship Diagrams

this would probably be pretty useful if you are starting out in CRM development, if you have been developing CRM for a while then you will have learnt about the relationships the hard way

CRM 2011 – How Skype could push Microsoft Dynamic CRM to the next level

I read an excellent article about how skype could be Microsoft’s best acquisition ever, well this is a bold statement.

I have read previously why Skype could be a good purchase for Microsoft because Skype already has 500 million users and if Skype continue to get more users and Microsoft can integrate Skype in CRM or office then it will have been a great purchase.

I think buying skype fits in with the direction Microsoft is heading towards.  I think Microsoft are going to integrate social media into CRM and Skype could certainly join it.  I have written why I think Microsoft will soon be leading the CRM market

here is a quote from the article about Skype

And I’m not just saying this because we sell Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM product.  I’m saying this because, when implemented the right way, any good CRM system will track all the communications between a company and anyone who comes in contact with that company.  So nothing falls through the cracks.  And everyone knows what’s going on with customers, prospects, suppliers and partners.   The clients I know who have succeeded with CRM not only realize these benefits now but are also building an asset that will significantly contribute to their future valuation.

But there’s one thing missing in Microsoft’s CRM application, like many of the CRM applications on the market today.  And that’s phone integration.  Easy integration.  For years my clients have asked for help making their CRM systems “talk” to their phone systems.  They want a contact screen to “pop” up when someone calls into the company (or gets transferred to a sales or service rep).  They want to be able to make outgoing calls immediately when clicking a contact name.  They want to be able to record phone calls and link them to a person’s account in the system, not only to keep an historical record of the call but also to sometimes cover their butts when people are trying to remember what was said.

 

The article finishes off with a nice summary

I’ll tell you why:  Skype’s technology, if it’s part of Outlook and Dynamics CRM out of the box, will make it quicker and easier for us to communicate with our customers.  And that will increase our sales.  And that’s what’s fun for me.  And my clients too.  Buying Skype could be Microsoft’s best acquisition ever.