Misc CRM 3.0 Questions

[leeym]

- If a contact is already in CRM, can they be converted to a lead?

- How do I access the Outlook-based CRM tools in OWA? Is there an OWA plugin?

- If an activity (e.g. e-mail, task, appointment) is generated and tracked in Outlook, what happens if it's deleted in Outlook? Will CRM still keep track of it?

- If an e-mail is sent from CRM, how come I don't see it in my Outlook Sent box like all other e-mails sent from Outlook? Is there no synchronization?

- If I add a personal contact to Outlook, then later want to make it a lead, I have to enter the contents into as a lead. Is there a way to automatically 'promote' this contact in CRM to be a lead? What's the best way to handle this?

- Can anyone recommend any good CRM forums or mesage boards?

- CRM has been out for awhile. Are there any necessary patches available? I don't see anything on the Microsoft site.

- What's the best way to backup CRM if we don't have a tape backup? The documentation is a bit vague especially when SQL Server cannot be backed up when all its primary service are running.

- What's the process to restore a CRM backup?

 

[jymm]

bunches of questions - let me know if I miss one

- What's the best way to backup CRM if we don't have a tape backup? The documentation is a bit vague especially when SQL Server cannot be backed up when all its primary service are running.

- What's the process to restore a CRM backup?

The way I understand things is that there are two sql 2005 databases out there for your CRM install. 1) company_MetaBase & 2) company_MSCRM . #1 is where all of the goodies are (custom forms, which rules folks have...) and #2 is the actual data. Do you not back up ANY of your DBs or are these the only ones you have? If you are running sql 2005 - I KNOW that on a regular basis I do backups and data is live, so I am confused by your question about 'primary services running'. Maybe your partner can recommend a sql maintenance plan. I do a bit of overkill - so dont as me what we have since it will sound like a bit much.

- Can anyone recommend any good CRM forums or mesage boards?

Check out your other post here - those blogs are priceless

- If an e-mail is sent from CRM, how come I don't see it in my Outlook Sent box like all other e-mails sent from Outlook? Is there no synchronization?

it is sent in the background - kinda a pain in my opininon. The 'Track in CRM' button is nice to use at the END of the email 'conversation' instead of letting CRM or the Exchange piece put them ALL in there (my opininon since I like only one activitiy and not many for one email excahnge with a contact)

- How do I access the Outlook-based CRM tools in OWA? Is there an OWA plugin?

We went to RPC over http and that seemed to do in this question for us

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/ex2k3rpc.mspx

with your other questions - I know that if you are only talking about converting one lead to a contact you can push the 'track in CRM' button and use that functionality

btw - this link

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/community/default.mspx

lower right of page has links to different news groups (depending on if you are a devlopper or just a user) and it seems to get a fair amount more traffic for questions than good old tek-tips.

This help?