Research Saved on Early Bound OrganizationServiceContext from CRM Answers

Just spreading the love on this great explanation about Early Bound entity use. I am working on the creation of a xRM portal and was having trouble with the maintenance of the data between pages, and across the site, then realized I was not using the OrganizationServiceContext. Which does this automatically for us. A great YAY, but Duh moment for me.



Just wanted share what I found. This post says better than I could. I recommend anyone to follow Guido Preite. There have been several times I am searching for an answer and find something good, just to look and see it is coming from Guido. (No I do not have a man crush). Have a wonderful day!



Get the Id of records created using Early Bound OrganizationServiceContext ~ CRM Answers

Data Migration Migraine

Who's your Data?

While the focus of this article comes from Microsoft Dynamics CRM experience. I believe these tips are very useful for any data migration. I have applied these to Kentico, Dynamics SL, SharePoint and other business system data migrations. However, I have been fortunate to go through data migration into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online four different times.

• Oracle to Dynamics CRM 2011
• CRM 2011 to CRM 2013 Re-implementation lateral shifting of data
• SalesForce to CRM 2013
• CRM 2013 to CRM 2015 Split off business unit components in xRM Re-implementation

The beginning of any CRM data migration is knowing where your data is coming from. Success in data migration comes from Careful Planning, Complete Testing, and Continuous Validation post go-live.

Careful Planning

Break out the excel spreadsheets and exports of metadata from the system. Throw out assumptions of what the data is intended for and open up to the variations in what the data actually is and how the system displays the data. Quick tips for this stage.

1. Listen to the business requirements. I mean really listen for key words that give insight to how the business applies that data to their work.
2. Question the business requirements. This comes up when trying to determine the relevance of old data, or the necessity of current field mapping complexity. With an earnest desire to understand ask "When was the last time this data was used for a business decision?" Once you understand data from that angle your migration planning will take shape and allow you to make better judgement calls in the design. 
3. Get the facts on the data. Just because the business uses this one field for Money values does not mean it is a decimal, it also does not mean it is a Money field in CRM either. Use the XRM Toolbox to export metadata from CRM.  Use other tools to get to the metadata in other systems. 
4. Leave some breadcrumbs. Duplicating some fields to track legacy values, especially unique ID's in the other system are essential to validation and troubleshooting after the dust has settled. It may seem less is more, but in data more is more, and storage space is cheap, especially when compared to the man hours needed to find legacy data without a matching KEY. 

Complete Testing

This can not be stressed enough. Every mistake I have made I can trace back to incorrect testing, or assumptions that were not clarified during testing. 

1. Fake Test data gets you fake results. Several times we have tested using data we made up to represent opportunities, or accounts. But we failed to realize we knew what fields were needed and values accepted, so we created records that would pass. Of course we made variations to try different expected scenarios. However, real data does not care what we think it should have or not have. Real data has '*' symbols in the phone number, and option set values that have symbols in them, or blank values on that field that has "always" been required and will never be empty. Of course run the first tests with fake data to get close, but run majority of your testing through the migration of real data into a test environment. 
2. Involve the users early. The business will know what an account should look like, or what relationships they expect to see on an opportunity. Use their skill and experience to speed up the testing process. Create documentation to make it easy for them to review without taking them away from their duties too long. Gather them together in one meeting to avoid multi-tasking and incorrect assumptions to what is wrong. 
3. Be thorough and do not skip a field, or entity believing it to be insignificant. I have found entities that were believed to not be used, but were actual cross references required for other functionality to work. 

Continuous Validation

Initial validation may look like reports are verified matching in new and old system, and the business stakeholders sign off that all records are there and essential requirements are met. After all this is the time to keep pushing with the admin team to spot check and monitor those high impact relationships. Having legacy fields as placeholders for data is helpful to perform these checks. 

1. Set the legacy fields to be open strings that accept any type of data, then run reports comparing the legacy field with its system/db field counterpart. This will show where data was in the legacy field but not in the new field, or the data that was in legacy field shows decimals and the new field rounded them
2. Create new don't modify. When validation shows errors in field formatting, make sure to create a new field and move the data again for that field. Or check with SQL admin to verify the change will update existing content. Do not assume because the field changes from Decimal to Integer that the trailing zeros after the decimal will be trimmed off. We want to avoid having some data formatted incorrectly, and some correctly. 
3. Don't throw the database out with the schema. If your mapping shows incorrectly for a few fields take a breath and find out if you can just change those field, and remap only that segment. Validation is a living breathing process that must continue for some time after go-live, so do not think because one or two fields are wrong the whole migration went wrong. (But don't think it didn't either)

I am sorry this is longer then I planned. The true purpose of this article is to provide encouragement and clear direction to areas that tripped me up in the process. Above are hidden parts that take time and experience to uncover.

Below, I posted the links where I found useful information in the CRM projects. So I am hoping to save you time in searching, and offer tips along the path.

• Of course start with the official Microsoft CRM Implementation Guide and the CRM SDK. If you are not migrating CRM Data most business systems have implementations guides refer to those. They have basic data maps that can help get started. These maps help save time when creating the data mapping documents. (Do NOT skip the data mapping documentation process.)
• Microsoft offers a CRM Online Data Migration Tool.
• An older post from Power Objects but still relevant for data migration tips.
• Setting up easy to use Data Import Templates which you can manage in Excel.
• I have used both Scribe Insight and Scribe Online. Scribe main website
• Webfortis has a great blog on deciding on Insight vs. Online. 
• I have used SSIS for integrations but I have not used this for CRM or migrations so I will leave that one alone. If you are looking to go that path, here is a good place to start; Data Migration/System Integration by Andre Margono.

Please reach out if you have any questions or feel stuck. I find luck is directly proportionate to my attention to detail. Have a wonderful day!

Accepting the Certification Challenge

Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012

I started this journey to get pass 70-463 exam back in November 2013. With Hindsight I should have taken the lower hanging fruit by taking the 70-461, and 70-462 which are querying and reporting for SQL. But true to who I am, I took the harder one first. This all part of my path to MCSA for SQL Server 2012

I am blessed to have an employer who supported me and sent me to official training through NetCom Learning. on 10777 course. This was great and I learned a lot. 

I am on my third attempt coming Friday 5/23/14. 

With all the studying during late nights because I have three small boys and work full time. I am sleep deprived and irritable. However, the greatest part is my organization is facing the need for improved data quality, and a solution to speed up the process of data cleansing, and data migration. I manage several system integration's and my work life blend requires me to be able to work smarter not harder. 

Studying for this exam has prepared me to do just that. You can Bing It, and find the topics and key areas for this exam. This is for sure an exam for building and designing BI Solutions. This is not a relational database design exam. All the questions are around and related to how you would use SSIS to set up and maintain a data warehouse. 

Microsoft offers self-paced content Implementing a Data Warehouse with SQL Server Jump Start.

And of course the practice exams were indispensable. These helped me grasp the verbiage and terminology around scenarios used in the exam. 

So I have found the certification challenge from Microsoft to encourage me along the way. Not that I think the Microsoft Kool-Aid is that good, but after the long hours and several attempts, I appreciate the little pat on the back from big brother. 

THIS GUY is getting certified.

http://www.certificationchallenge.com/  

Is there room for Service in Support?

There is a growing interest in the ability for IT to bridge the gap between techie know-it-all syndrome and used car salesman customer service. I worked in the restaurant business as a server, bartender and lead trainer, during which I was running my own wedding photography business, and before all this I was flying over the Pacific Ocean taking pictures of massive navy ships and aerial acrobats as a Navy Photographer. I feel I have covered the gamut of no customer service necessary to absolutely the customer is always right or your fired. When my wife and I had our first child, John, it was time to quit what I felt was the hustle of working for myself and find a stable job that would provide benefits, and be reliable for my future. I chose technology because as I looked at other career paths there was always computers involved at some level and there always seemed to be a lack of technical skill. For example I looked at teaching and there was significant growth in technology in the classroom yet our college professor had trouble working the projector. Even in my business management class the professor had trouble with power point.

So I thought to myself the IT world is a part of everything and that is where I want to be. The in between and backbone that makes this engine of life run. Enter into my first IT class online. The discussion forums were full of snide comments, and obscure Star Wars references. I was surprised at the limited interpersonal skills even on discussion comments. I know it may be hard to make eye contact for some but written communication should be a little easier. You get to review it before it goes. I am grateful for my advisor in college who helped facilitate conversations during our visits around this kind of topic. Dr. Dave Dawson was his name and he will forever be my hero for IT and the new era of support coming of age. Dr. Dawson would say unless we convey technical data in a relevant manner to those making the business decisions we will continue to fail at what we do. This was in reference to the statistics around IT projects being over budget, past deadline, and under deliver on extravagant promises.

This motto has driven my career since. I started providing customer support in a call center for a national bank. This was intense to say the least. I then moved to Studer Group who was looking for IT support that had a history in customer service. They were willing to let me learn the IT part since I had such a large background in customer service. I immediately saw the service techniques that we teach fit into the IT help desk.

• ·        Key Words at Key Times – This is the concept that providing specific wording around our intent will set the memory of the experience in some structure.
• For Example: If our support survey results are low in accuracy I would include in all communications something about our goal is to be accurate and avoid rework, and ask if we have done this for them. (Now of course this does not mean anything if it is not genuine, meaning you actually have to look at processes that are impacting your low scores in accuracy, in addition to Key Words)
• Fly Wheel
• Prescriptive To-Do’s – This is the idea of providing clear action and precise steps for employees to follow. A set of principles to guide us through all phases of support.
• In my situation this involved creating a help desk manual, and knowledge base wiki. We needed a central place for consistent answers. This also outlined the organizations principles that are part of our culture. These principles are usually not something that can be taught and should drive hiring. We can teach anyone how to fix something, but we cannot teach them integrity or honesty.
• Bottom Line results – This is measurable achievement.
• For me I created a dashboard of ticket numbers, and produced on a monthly basis for the team to review.
• Self-Motivation – This is passion and connection to purposeful worthwhile work.
• For our team we shared wins from our customers where we had impacted their lives and made a difference.
• Highmiddlelow® - This is the concept of managing employees and identifying those High Middle and Low performers.
• I did not apply this as a leader, that was my leader’s job, what I did was apply this to myself. Honest self-assessment of where I was and how I was going to continue to grow.
• Studer Group outlines a clear process for how to:
• Recruit and retain those High performers who insist on change and growth or they will leave.
• Educate and encourage those Middle performers to keep them moving up
• Clarify and outline clear expectations for Low performers always providing a path to Middle performance

So the question was; Is there room for service in support? Can we fit time for customer service when our task lists are growing and the tickets continue to pour in? Can IT afford not to be relevant? How can we expect to be a driving force or backbone of an organization if the employees of that organization are not our most cherished assets. So change your “end-users” into “customers”, roll out the red carpet while not being rolled over (later blog coming), and be not only the catalyst for change but the cheerleader for it. We have to spread the good news of technology and what better way than when people are having trouble with technology. If our support desk is not providing excellent service on a consistent basis then our project teams working on implementations and upgrades have an uphill battle from the start.

I knew a Pastor who told me the ministry work is great, if it wasn’t for the people. We say that in IT, software would work great if it wasn’t for the end-user, but one requires the other. Here is an idea for discussion; what if we applied Highmiddlelow® to IT support customers.

·         Offer training and additional technology to those High tech savvy individuals

·         Provide direction and spend a little extra time training middle performers the how to and why of an issue so they can troubleshoot and fix themselves next time

·         Schedule time as a team to come up with a plan for each low performer who are most likely frequent flyers and require the most effort while perceiving the least supported.

"Culture outperforms strategy every time; and culture with strategy is unbeatable."

Quint Studer

Fishers of men...

We can feed someone fish for a day, but if we teach them to fish they eat for a lifetime. As technologist we should make the marketing department fishers of consumers.

Lead scoring is the assignment of a number (score) to a contact determined by the contacts activity. Once the contacts score reaches a certain level they can be handed off as a qualified sales lead. This indicates someone who has been consuming data on your website is possibly interested in more of your products. While setting up scoring and having the initial conversations we found it difficult for some to grasp or visualize the intent and purpose of the scoring.

Scoring is developing workflows that nurture someones interest by taking a journey of well timed and appropriate content depending on their previous actions. In these workflows individual contacts can have media pushed to them depending on their previous response. If you send a newsletter and the person clicks through, then they will move to the next step and receive an invite to customize their profile. If the person clicks through and navigates to another section on your site they receive a coupon for a future purchase, and a link to download that coupon. When they click through that they move to the next level and so on.

I see this as a virtual self guided tour through your website and content. If you were going to sit down with someone and walk them through your website, what would that look like? Now map that out and create a workflow for each phase of that process.

The benefit is a personal engagement with your customer. I know "personal" can be a catch phrase in sales but I believe we don't sell things, and I don't buy things that are sold to me. I buy things I need, and offer solutions to people who are looking for them. The old saying when the student is ready the teacher appears, offers great insight to how we learn. The goal of technology in marketing should be to automate the movement of consumers to students, and at that right moment placing the teacher within arms reach.


Below is a good reference for lead scoring.
http://www.kentico.com/Product/All-Features/Marketing/Lead-Scoring

I walked the LINE...

Walking the line between conflicting requirements

This week I will spend 16 hours in meetings discussing the development and roll out of lead scoring in our Kentico Enterprise Marketing Suite (EMS). We just rolled out the new website in June and we are pleased with Kentico, and our developers https://bitwizards.com. 

There is always more than one way to skin a cat, or peel a banana if you are an animal lover. Well actually there is only one way to peel a banana properly, and if I think about it there was only one way to properly skin a deer when I was a kid on a farm, so I would imagine the same holds true for a cat. (I promise not to fact check that)

Now back to the point, every project, and every process has a several layers to it, and several intersections that can be navigated differently depending on the desired outcome, and prejudices in perspective.
The Key?

• Ask Questions
• Why is this process, project important?
• Why is that answer important?
• Why is that important?
• And down here you usually find their "What", their esprit de corps, purpose behind their flywheel. For some it is family, and making a difference, for others it is money, retirement and making a difference in their own life. 
• Both are acceptable tools to connect members to purpose. This helps them remain engaged and dedicated to the big picture - drive organizational outcomes.
• What does success look like? 
• In your mind what was the step right before that success?
• How did we get to that point? 
• And so forth until you get to today. Stepping backwards through a problem is a great way to avoid the pitfalls of "We can't do that... We've tried that before... That won't work..." etc. 
• I think those involved are looking at each event individually rather than wondering if each event feeds their own goal. 

Remember that no matter where you work, everyone on the project is human. They all have a goal, and a motivation to reach that goal. I do not want to miss my goal when I remember the impact it will have on my family. I will miss my goal to protect my family, but I will not protect my goals to hurt my family. Keep priorities straight in your heart and your business will follow.

Seek to understand rather then be understood, do not come to scoff without further inspection. 

Check out next post where I share a story about 1,000% process improvement from re-engineering. 

Below is a great article about Requirements Elicitation.
http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/what-questions-do-i-ask-during-requirements-elicitation/ 

I'm Windows the 8th, I am... (Part One)

Windows 8 Deployment Journey

In the beginning...

Hello world, 

(may that never get old)

Please contribute to this work by adding your questions and experience in the comments section. This is not intended to be a complete review of Windows 8, I have listed some below. This will be a journal of my rode to deploying Windows 8 to a corporate environment with 85 local users and another 120 virtual users. We will deploy with Office 365 Enterprise licenses, SharePoint 2013, and CRM 2013. (Let me know if interested in those journeys.) 

I just received my new Dell XPS 12 Touch. This device is amazing with a solid state drive. Which means it turns on when you turn it on, not after it thinks for a minute finds what it needs and then loads that in order to load the application to load the page you need to log in and load your profile, etc. 

So my 3 year old windows 7 laptop was slow to start. But that has as much to do with amount of programs and junk that you accumulate over the years. 

But I digress, lets talk about how I was surprised and confused with Windows 8, yet in the end I love it.

Key initial takeaways

• Users will need their own Microsoft Live account aside from their corporate domain account (even with Office 365)
• Ghost Image will not account for Apps that we may want to load for each user
• App review and recommendations are essential to successful user acceptance
• While the desktop is available to use in traditional manner, doing so will feel like eating soup with a fork.
• Basic work processes will change, I could not intuitively ind control panel, command line, etc. 
• Windows 8 Training apps do the work for us, and are useful
• Touchscreen is not mandatory, mouse interaction works fine

This is just the beginning. Stay tuned as I move forward with this project. Spoiler alert, IE 10 does not work with ADFS, and Office 365 Portal. 

A review of Windows 8.

http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/windows-8-1093002/review

CNET - Reviews of Windows 8 Devices

http://reviews.cnet.com/8300-33642_7-292.html