Microsoft Dynamics CRM Step By Step Book Cover

Posted by Mike Snyder on August 7, 2008 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step Book  |  Comments (3)

This was a big week at Sonoma Partners because we officially finished the writing, editing and proofing of our Microsoft Dynamics CRM Step by Step book! It should be in print in late September, so go ahead and order a copy if you want to learns the ins and outs of CRM from an end user perspective.

We also received the final book cover artwork (front and back), so I thought we'd share:

Microsoft CRM Workflow...the Salesforce.com killer?

Posted by Mike Snyder on July 24, 2008 in   |  CRM Competitors,   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step Book  |  Comments (11)

We are working with a prospect to switch them from Salesforce.com to Microsoft CRM. As part of this process, I'm learning all sort of colorful details about why Microsoft CRM is a superior platform! Tonight I stumbled across one I just could not believe, so I thought I would share the goods!

First and foremost, Salesforce.com does NOT include workflow in all of their editions. If you want a workflow engine, you will need Enterprise Edition or Unlimited Edition. That means instead of paying $65/per user per month for their Professional Edition, you'll be paying $95 or $120 per user per month for their Enterprise or Unlimited Edition. As a reminder, Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes workflow with ALL versions of the software (on-premise, Online or partner hosted). The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online version includes workflow, and that costs just $39 (or $59) per user per month. That's quite a savings when compared to $95 or $120 per users per month! Assuming you have 30 users, you would save about $30,000 per year by going with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online at $39/month instead of $120/month!

Now Benioff might say that Microsoft is less expensive because it's not as good. Well if you're just looking at workflow, it only took me about 3 minutes to find one significant flaw in Salesforce.com's workflow (when compared to Microsoft Dynamics CRM):

You can't nest workflow rules within another? Even if you cough up the extra $$ for the Enterprise or Ultimate Editions? Yikes! Now let's take a look at Microsoft Dynamics CRM workflow:

As you can see, it couldn't be easier to have workflow rules reference one another in Microsoft Dynamics CRM! From here, you can create incredibly sophisticated and complex rules to automate all of your business processes. Enjoy!

Step by Step book wrapping up

Posted by Mike Snyder on June 6, 2008 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step Book  |  Comments (0)

We've been burning the midnight oil to get our Microsoft Dynamics CRM Step by Step book done to hit our deadlines. The book is coming along just fine and I am excited to see the final product in print this fall! Here's what we're planning from a chapter and page count perspective. This is about 95% accurate/finalized, but of course it's subject to change.

Section	Chapter #	Chapter Title	# of Pages
Overview	1	Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics CRM	10
	2	Getting Around in Microsoft Dynamics CRM	15
	3	Working with Account and Contacts	15
	4	Working with Activities and Notes	15
	5	Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook	20
Sales	6	Leads and Opportunities	20
	7	Quotes and Orders	15
Marketing	8	Using Marketing Lists	20
	9	Managing Campaigns and Quick Campaigns	20
	10	Campaign Activities and Responses	20
Service	11	Tracking Service Requests	15
	12	Using the Knowledge Base	15
	13	Contracts & Queues	20
Data Management	14	Duplicate Checking	10
	15	Reports and Views	15
	16	Using the Report Wizard	15
	17	Reporting with Excel	15
	18	Importing Data	15

The one thing that consistently amazes me about these books is that we've written over 1,000 pages of content about Microsoft CRM, and I still feel like we're just scratching the surface in some areas!

Two more books about Microsoft Dynamics CRM coming!

Posted by Mike Snyder on May 24, 2008 in   |  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step Book,   |  Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Book  |  Comments (2)

Some wiseguy called our office the other day to ask why we have not blogged in a while? Well the answer is pretty simple, we've been running like crazy to try and keep up with all of the demand for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. In addition, I have personally been trying to devote all of my free writing time to two new projects. These projects are two new books that Microsoft engaged us to write about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step Publish Date Sep. 2008 Target audience: End users of Microsoft CRM who want to learn more about the core sales, marketing and customer service functionality in a  step-by-step fashion.		Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Publish Date Oct. 2008 Target audience: Developers who want to learn the nitty gritty details of writing custom code and extending the Microsoft CRM platform.

As you can imagine, writing two new books is a massive amount of effort...way more than Jim and I could handle by ourselves. Therefore, we recruited some additional Microsoft CRM experts to help write each of these titles. Kara O'Brien and Brendan Landers (both from Sonoma Partners) are helping us with the Step by Step book. Corey O'Brien and Brad Bosak (also both from Sonoma Partners) are writing the Programming title with us. In addition, Phil Richardson from Microsoft graciously agreed to write two chapters in the Programming book.

As you can see from the links above, there aren't a lot of public details about these books yet but we plan to post more information as we get further into the writing process!