Top Ten Dynamics CRM Best Practices

Dynamics CRM is a great tool that can speed up development of line of business solutions. The processes you follow in analyzing, customizing and optimizing the solution are every bit as important as the tool itself.   These best practices summarize our approach and years of experience in delivering solutions based on Dynamics CRM.  

1.    Measure twice and cut once.  This old saying for builders applies equally to software projects.  Dynamics CRM may be used to build many different types of solutions.  Prior planning saves time and reduces technical risk on any IT project.

2.    Document existing organizational entities, workflows and business units. Use cases may be appropriate for complex business rules. 

3.    Optimize workflows and processes and create a high level entity model. Be sure not to pave the cow paths by automating inefficient processes.   This stage is your opportunity for business process reengineering.

4.    Map the entities, workflows, and processes to the appropriate out of the box CRM components. Take advantage of off-the-shelf functionality when you can, but don’t be afraid to create custom entities to match your business.

5.    Identify custom entities, entity customizations, and workflow extensions/modifications needed. Document these customizations before you perform them. This is a good time to get approval from the customers of the changes you will make.

6.    Identify fields to be removed and fields that need to be added.  We suggest you hide fields rather than delete them in case you need them later.  Also hide menu items for entities that you are not using.  

7.    Create and validate CRM forms for new entities. Arrange the fields on the form for all entities and check field validation and ease of use.

8.    Determine optimal data migration strategy as needed. Dynamics CRM and third parties provide many tools for data migration, but this is still a challenging and time consuming phase of the project.   Identify needs for data cleansing at this time as well.

9.    Identify reports needed and remove inappropriate out of the box reports. Reports are highly visible to users and often define the success or failure of a project.  Users will thank you if you can make reports easy to use and flexible.

10. Identify documentation and training needs. No system is complete until it is documented and users are trained.   Today users rely less on printed documentation and more on online help and video training. Keep it as short and simple as you can to encourage people to use the documentation.

InfoStrat has created a rich set of templates for all these steps in the process as part of our xRM methodology.