Introduction

We love Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. And hopefully by the time you finish reading this book, you'll love Microsoft CRM too. We understand if you're skeptical about the possibility of falling for a piece of software, but we want you to know right up front that our goal is to show you all of the wonderful and amazing benefits that Microsoft CRM can provide for your business.

Who Is This Book For?

We wrote Working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 for the people who implement Microsoft CRM in their organizations. If you're the person responsible for setting up or configuring Microsoft CRM software on behalf of other users at your company, this book's for you. You might be an IT professional or simply a "power user" from the sales or marketing department. You should be comfortable with technical concepts and understand the role of Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Active Directory directory service, and Microsoft SQL Server. You don't have to be a coding expert to benefit from this book, but you should be able to edit an XML file and understand how relational databases work.

Project managers and software developers looking to extend and customize Microsoft CRM will enjoy our deep review of the Microsoft CRM client-side and server-side software development kit (SDK). We included a large number of code samples that software developers can immediately build and deploy to their own Microsoft CRM installations. And of course, you can extend our code examples to include your own unique modifications specific to your business.

This book can also help prospective customers with their software selection process as they evaluate the customization options that Microsoft CRM offers. You get two 90-day trial versions of Microsoft CRM (both Small Business Edition and Professional) on two CDs that you can use to work with the examples included in this book. The trial versions of Microsoft CRM are fully functioning, so you must meet the system requirements listed on the product Web site to install the software: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/product/systemrequirements.mspx. If you like the trial version of Microsoft CRM and you decide to purchase the software, you can simply upgrade from the trial key to a production key without having to uninstall and reinstall the software. In addition, the trial version of the software includes a sample database for a fictional company called Adventure Works Cycle. You can refer to the Microsoft CRM Implementation Guide for detailed instructions on using the Sample Data Wizard to install the sample data.

Who is this book not for? It's not for end users interested in learning how they could use Microsoft CRM on a day-to-day basis because their company just started using the software. If you don't have System Administrator rights, you won't be able to perform most of the steps in this book, so it probably won't provide much benefit for you. If you're not sure whether you have System Administrator rights, this book probably isn't for you!

This book will also not tell you how to install the Microsoft CRM software and troubleshoot any installation-related issues. We don't cover upgrading an existing Microsoft CRM 1.2 installation to Microsoft CRM 3.0. The Microsoft CRM Implementation Guide gives excellent and detailed advice on the installation and upgrade processes, so there's no need for us to repeat that information here.