Executive summary: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Interface design and ease of use (Leaning curve for hosts and moderators) it looks like Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Office Ribbon interface replaces menus. It is introduced a new Office 2010 contextual ribbon for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamics CRM browser clients and for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for Microsoft Office Outlook. The new ribbon delivers a consistent, familiar navigation and user experience that helps you better integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with your Office 2010 environment. lets you configure a workspace that is personalized to meet your unique role and information needs. Personalizing a workspace means that you can set the default pane and tab that display, have control over what links appear in the workplace view, how many records appear in lists, how numbers and dates display, and the language for your user interface. displays forms based on user roles. This role-tailored design ensures that the business professionals in your organization have fast access to the relevant information they need. Role-based forms also prevent users from viewing data that they are not authorized to view. Content loading and persistence The asynchronous service, as the host of the Windows Workflow Foundation runtime engine, cannot always cache and keep active all objects that accumulate during continued workflow activity. When certain conditions, such as restart or shutdown occur when a workflow is running, the workflow runtime engine uses a persistence service to save the state of the workflow instance onto the disk. If a server that is running the asynchronous service is shut down or if the workflow crashes during execution, the workflow can be restarted from its last persisted point after the server restarts. When the workflow is no longer idle, the state of the workflow instance is restored in memory to the state at the last persisted point. Connectivity users now have the ability to make their own connections between entities. While users will still have the ability to use the relationship functionality between accounts, contacts, and opportunities, use will be deprecated moving forward supports standard DoD authentication protocols, such as Active Directory, to protect the security of sensitive information. Personal, secure online work spaces allow Action Officers to keep work-in-progress private until ready for review by others System requirements Processor : Quad-core x64 architecture 2 GHz CPU or higher such as AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon systems Memory : 8-GB RAM or more

 Hard disk : 40 GB or more of available hard disk space, Note: Computers with more than 16GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, and dump files. Display: Super VGA with a resolution higher than 1024 x 768 Operating systems: Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional SP3, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP3, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Web Browser: Internet Explorer Web browser versions: Internet Explorer 9 or Internet Explorer 8 Outlook Client Requirements: Operating systems: Windows 7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions), Microsoft Windows Vista SP2 (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions), Microsoft Windows XP, XP Professional SP3 Microsoft Office: Office 2010, 2007 Microsoft Office system SP2, Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 Administration, ease of deployment, scaling, LMS integration users now have the ability to make their own connections between entities provide real-time notifications and quick sharing of information through short updates create and share inline charts with drill-down intelligence expands its workflow capability by adding interactive dialogs. Recording sessions Sessions can easily be recorded by controls at the bottom of the screen. Auditing is not supported on metadata changes, retrieve operations, export operations, or during authentication. Participant response methods Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 offers a number of ways in which participants can respond. Chat (Text-based instant messaging) people can discuss and receive instant response Q&A Dialogs present a consistent message to customers. Also, dialogs collect and process information by using step-by-step scripts to direct users through every process. increase dialog performance and versatility by incorporating workflow logic. This logic invokes automated tasks by using the responses that a customer or user makes during the dialog script. Support for a date and time data type, dynamic links to entity records, and retention of user input when moving backward then forward through the Dialog has been added. Emoticons new feature called Like/Unlike . With this feature, you can express your immediate feedback about a post. Use Like/Unlike to exchange kudos with your co-workers, praise the work of your subordinates and measure the popularity of the posts. Whiteboard (Dashboard) Dashboards are a powerful feature

 Use a dashboard to see at a glance all the information to make key business decisions. Assemble and present information from several places in Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a quickly-read format. This means that you do not have to search multiple areas for the information you want. Dashboards are easy to create, and are easy to revise as your changing business needs require. Application sharing create and share inline charts with drill-down intelligence The existing support for teams has been enhanced by making a team a security principal that can own and manage records. Hosting, licensing, pricing hosted at your own location on your own servers or at a location of your choice Many Microsoft partners offer cloud-based hosting for Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions A Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 deployment operates by using a single license key. Unlike earlier versions, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 no longer requires additional license keys to be added when changes are made, such as adding a client access license (CAL). The single license key contains the Microsoft Dynamics CRM version, server license, and the CALs. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online is subscription based and is simply priced at $44/month per user. Additional Microsoft CRM storage can be purchased for $9.99 per gigabyte per month MS CRM Workgroup includes the server license and allows for up to 5 users. This is priced at $2,100. MS Enterprise Server also requires a CAL for each user and costs $4,100. MS Client Access License (CAL) is $795, and the configuration requires an Enterprise CRM server license. Other features Activity Feeds Microsoft Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds provide real-time notifications and quick sharing of information through short updates. These updates appear on your personal wall in the What's New area of the Workplace . Activity Feeds enable you to follow and learn about important activities that take place around people, accounts, contacts, leads, and anything else that you care about. Updates can be posted manually by you, or automatically based on predefined system rules through a workflow. Activity Feeds can also be posted to by external applications through the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web services API. Activity Feeds expose Microsoft Lync real-time presence functionality so that you can initiate communication activities such as IM, phone calls, and emails. Goal Management Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 gives you the ability to define key performance and business health indicators. This way you can track and measure results against your organization's goals or metrics, and easily and quickly define goals for a campaign or fiscal period. You can combine smaller goals, such as for specific teams or territories, into the overall goals for your organization. Create a rollup of all the goals into the actuals that show how you are tracking.

Solution Management Solutions in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 are a new way to save customizations and share them with other users. You can create a solution or import a solution created by a developer outside your organization. You can share a solution with other users. A managed solution can be edited only by specific users. An unmanaged solution can be edited by any user with the appropriate user role. A solution can have version numbering, relationships with entities and other components, and security features based on user roles Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace is your online solutions catalog. These solutions help you accelerate and extend your Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation. Quickly discover and apply industry-specific applications and extensions from Microsoft and its partners. Then, Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace distributes your solution directly to you. Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace is fully integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

References : 1. http://www.preact.co.uk/microsoft_dynamics_crm/system-requirements 2. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics 3. http://www.accentgold.com/blog/microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-pricing-and-costoptions-for-online-and-on-premise/ 4. http://www.dynamicsexchange.com/crm-literature/crm2011_requirements.pdf 5. http://www.erpsoftware360.com/dynamics2.htm#price 6. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg309589.aspx 7. http://crmdynamics.blob.core.windows.net/docs/TEI%20of%20Microsoft%20Dynamics %20CRM%202011%20FINAL%2005092011.pdf