Dashboards for Interactive Service Hub

Interactive Service Hub dashboards

The new CRM 2016 is introducing the interactive service hub. It is based around dashboards.

Eventhough they are called dashboards, their technology and capabilities are different from the existing CRM dashboards.

You should know that:

• CRM dashboards cannot be used in the Interactive Service Hub (ISH)
• CRM Dashboards and ISH Dashboards are not compatible
• You cannot convert one type to another
• One CRM dashboard can be set as default and one ISH dashboard can be set as default
• When you create or modify the ISH dashboard, the end user must download the new version. It does not appear automatically

Creating ISH dashboard

You can create two types of ISH dashboards: Single-stream and Multi-stream

Stream is a new type of component on dashboard. It shows one of the views of the entity that you select.

Each stream can have one view. The view cannot be modified in ISH.

At the moment the stream component in our preview CRM 2016 does not refresh automatically. We have to hit refresh button to see the changes.

The single-stream dashboard can contain only one stream - so it can stream information about one entity only.

The multi-stream can contain more streams on one screen. Therefore you can stream more entities on dashboard.

What are other differences?

In the Single-stream dashboard you can add Tiles - tiles show the count of records in the selected view. Tiles can show information from various entities.
Tiles cannot be added to Multi-stream dashboard.
To both type a Chart component can be added. It is the same as in the CRM Dashboards.

As you know, the CRM dashboards as we know now can also include a List component, a Webresource component and iFrame component. None of these can be used in the ISH dasboards.

I hope that this introduction to Interactive service hub dashboards was helpful to you.

Happy CRM day ;-)
Michal

Interactive service hub - where is the link?

In case you don't see the link in your CRM 2016 - you can generate it manually:

https://instancename.crm4.dynamics.com/nga/engagementhub.aspx


Michal

Microsoft CRM 2016 - UX (current user experience)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Preview

As Microsoft is working hard on the new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which will be called 2016, I would like to share the current user experience with it.
The new version of CRM is supposed to be released in Q4 2015, but the official timing has not been published yet. The release date will be published here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/get-ready-for-the-next-release.aspx#bkmk_ReleaseTimingAra

Currently, the most awaited feature is the Interactive Service Hub (or Engagement Hub as it used to be called). This is a completely new feature. It should help the people at the service centers with their work through increasing productivity.
There are predefined dashboards for users to see the overview of cases. Admin can create new dashboards or modify the existing ones. I will talk about this in some of the later articles.
At the moment, the Interactive Service Hub does not take the theme from the CRM and the navigation (buttons, menus) is also different from the CRM. Interesting thing is that the UI looks better in Chrome than in Internet Explorer :-). I hope MS will fix this, because the current version brings completely different user experience and I'm afraid, that the productivity of the service agents will not increase.

What is really surprising is that the current version of the CRM preview still has quite a number of screens in the old CRM 2011 design. So again, the user experience from the application is going to be "mixed".

The Office 365 Groups Setting screen is currently not working as expected.

Happy CRM day,
Michal

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Spellchecker

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Spellchecker

In the past implementations, we had actually have a requirements from our customers to implement a spellchecking feature in their CRM system.

The CRM does not contain a spellchecking and it will now be introduced in the new version CRM 2016 either, so we must rely on some workarounds and add-ons.

In case the CRM users use the same internet browser and operating system, you can install the browser add-on, there are plenty out there, some are even free. Just search based on your browser preferences...

In case the users are no so "unified", you can do spellchecking in the CRM app. There are several solutions - like eSpell by MyCRMGroup or Spell checker by MTC. You can try them out. Also, there should be some solution on Pinpoint. For these solution you need to be aware if you are using CRM On Premise or Online. They might not work with both.

But why am I writing this article? With Windows 8.1 and later, you have one more option how to implement spell checking.

Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 include build-in system spell-checker. It works in all the native Microsoft applications such as Mail, Calendar, Internet Explorer or Edge.

So here in the settings you can enable the spell-checking:

Windows Spellchecker

Be aware, by default, this feature is ON. It is a global setting, so it does not affect on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, but other apps as well.

Happy CRM Day!

Michal

Sandbox Instances with CRM Online 2015 Update 1

Sandbox Instances with CRM Online 2015 Update 1

Microsoft published some new information about the sandbox instances usage after Update 1. They are worth to mention.

In case you do not know - What is a Sandbox instance?

This term is used in Microsoft CRM Online. A Sandbox instance is any non-production instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Isolated from production, a Sandbox instance is the CRM instance which is used to safely develop and test application changes with low risk.

Many companies need to use the Sandbox instances when they want to test new functionality, such as a product update, a new add-on solution, changes to a form, or just any customization.

Sandbox instances can be scheduled to be updated prior to the production update, allowing you to test first.
With CRM Online 2015 Update 1 we have some more options now:

Switching an instance
 - enables administrators to easily change the CRM Online instance type - switch production to sandbox or sandbox to production

Delete a Sandbox instance
 - remove the instance which is not needed and to recover sandbox licenses and storage
Production instance cannot be deleted, so you need to switch to Sandbox first.

Reset a Sandbox instance
- while reseting, user is now able to change the instance base language and currency during the reset.


These features continue to complement existing capabilities, such as copy an instance (which provides the ability to take data and application information and copy it into a Sandbox instance) and reset an instance (which you can use to delete and redeploy a Sandbox instance).


Happy CRM day!
Michal

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Update - continued

This is a second part of the previous article.

So what's new in the CRM 2016 Update in the Service area?

Interactive service hub I am really looking forward to this feature, as it should make the work for service agents easier and more smooth.
MS says: "Dashboards and forms have been completely redesigned for the interactive service hub. Visual filtering and applied filtering in the new dashboards will help you prioritize your workloads and complete your most urgent tasks. The interactive service hub comes with a multi-stream dashboard for use by, for example, Tier 1 agents and a single-stream dashboard for use by, for example, Tier 2 agents."


External party access - new possibility to access the CRM from external application.

Knowledge management - this area was not updated for a while, so now we get the new version. Some of it comes from the Parature, which is great.

Also, with the new survey designer you can create and send out questionnaires to collect feedback from customers about your products or services. Customers can take a survey on a phone, tablet, or computer. When a customer completes a survey, you can use rules to trigger follow-up actions that occur immediately. The only limitation is that, customers will need Azure subscription, so if you already have ClickDimensions, you will probably stick with it.

Unified Service Desk - Especially configuration and installation should be easier. Also custom control can now be distributed in the customization file.

Dynamics Marketing

Dynamics Marketing is taking over all the CRM marketing capabilities and Microsoft is focusing on this application rather then the existing Marketing module.
This app is not available in all markets and also the new features like SMS marketing will be limited only to certain countries.

Social Engagement

Support for RSS and  internal non-public sources like Yammer will be added.

Social Engagement will automatically detect potential leads versus cases.

Social center will let you publish tweets and Facebook posts.

Social Engagement will be available in the following languages:

English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish.


Have a great day,
Michal

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Update

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Update

Last time I have posted a link to the introduction video of the new version of CRM.

Now it is clear, that the next version will be called 2016 Update and for OnPremise version it will deliver the Update 1 features which are yet available only for CRM Online. However, the 2016 Update will have some features limited to CRM Online. Microsoft is also going to offer some features of the new version only to customers with certain number of licences.
It is quite obvious that MS is pushing customers to CRM Online and also trying to sell more licenses to the existing customers.

For registered partners, the preview version will be available very soon.

The final version should be available by the end of this year.

I would like to comment on some features that have been already announced.

Excel integration - very nice feature, it can increase the productivity a lot. Users will be able to view sales data in familiar Excel templates, perform what-if analysis, and upload the changes, all while maintaining the CRM context. I am looking forward to the mobile devices capability, which should be also improved.

CRM App for Outlook - It was stated, that the CRM App for Outlook preview feature is available for CRM Online customers. This is very neat feature and we need it for OnPremise as well.

Office Delve - I have started to use Delve this year and it looks very promising. With the CRM integrated in it, it can server as the starting point for daily work.

Office 365 Groups - already available for preview, it should make collaboration easier, but from my point of view it is getting very complicated to set everything properly.

Document generation - We should be able to generate documents with one click. This is requested by a lot of CRM customers, as the current possibilities are not sufficient.

Very big potential is in the in-app learning, but the new in-app learning layer will be available for CRM Online only.

Mobile offline support - great improvement announced for users - they don't have to save your drafts as they did with the previous offline experience. However, this feature will be available only for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016 Update customers with 30 or more Enterprise or Professional licenses.

Mobile client enhancements - right in the mobile app we will be able to view the documents associated with the case, opportunities and any other entities.
When you design new mobile form, you will be able to preview it in the web client - this will save a lot of time for the customizers.

Task flows - it is going to be a preview feature, so I do not expect the final functionality, but it will be good for getting the idea of where the CRM is going.

In the next article, I will say a few words about service, social engagement etc....

The Marketing Module in the core CRM application is not being improved and it looks like that all customers should go for the Dynamics Marketing or ClickDimensions if they want some more marketing capabilities....

Enjoy you CRM Day.

Michal 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016

Microsoft has announced the new update of Dynamics CRM. It is suppossed to be called CRM 2016.
The release date has not been released yet.
Short promo video is here:

CASE - Primary Contact vs. Responsible Contact

Difference between Contact and Responsible contact fields on Case entity

May be you have noticed, that there are two out-of-box lookup fields on case entity which point to the contact entity.
One is called Contact (primarycontactid) and the other one is Resposible contact (responsiblecontactid).

There is a significant difference between these two fields, which limits their usage. Let me explain what I mean.

If you add both fields to the form and try to fill in the contact, you will notice that Contact (primarycontactid) can be only filled with the contact that is under the selected Account.
On the other hand, Responsible contact can be filled with any contact in the contact list.

Then if you go to customization area, you will notice, that the filtering is disabled on both fields.
It looks like this:

Field properties

You can enable the filter on both fields and also allow the users to disable the filtering, but it has only effect on the Resposible contact field. On the other one (primarycontactid) it is ignored - even when the user unchecks the check-box, the filter based on customer is still applied.

So be very careful when you customize the case and before implementing any rules what should be filled in what field consider this limitation.

I realized this because we wanted to use one of the contact fields for storing information about partner contact. Partners are different companies and therefore their contacts can be selected only in the Responsible contact field.

Summary

Contact - Primarycontactid - contains build-in filter for contacts only under the current Customer (Account) even though. Filter cannot be disabled.

Responsible contact - responsiblecontactid - by default not filtering the contacts based on company. Filtering can be enabled.


Have a great CRM day!
Michal

Windows 10 compatibility

Compatibility of CRM and Windows 10

Last week I have upgraded to Windows 10, so I was testing the compatibility with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
So far no compatibility issue was found.
However, here is the official compatibility statement:

• Edge will be officially supported for CRM 2015 with Update 0.2 (7.0.2) and Update 1.1 (7.1.1) - not yet released.
• Edge will be supported for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 with Update Rollup 4 for Service Pack 1 (6.1.4)
• Edge will not be supported for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, but you can use IE 11, which is also part of Windows 10 or Chrome.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011/2013 for Outlook has some known issue which is preventing the installation of the client into Windows 10 machine.
CRM 2015 for Outlook should be OK. I did not encounter any bug regarding the CRM for Outlook during upgrade.

Some more details can be found here:

https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2015/07/10/dynamics-crm-support-with-windows-10-edge-browser-and-office-2016

Enjoy your CRM day :-)
Michal

New Dynamics CRM Phone App

Microsoft released new Phone App for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft recently released a new app for our beloved CRM system. It is available the the app stores.

When using the new phone app, the user get much better experience now. It is very close to the Tablet app that was released earlier.

You can now find two applications for the phones. The Phone App and the Mobile express app.

The main difference is that the CRM Phone App is designed for CRM 7.1 (2015 Online Update 1) and later, while Phone express can be used with older versions of CRM.

So if you have CRM OnPremise, you have to wait until Update 1 is released.

My previous post about phone express app was mainly about using it with Cortana. So what happens when you install the new app and keep the old one as well?

Both applications support the same voice commands, so when you say for example "CRM Schedule meeting" - Cortana will ask you back - Alright, which one you want to use?

Then you must say which app to open and continue.

I think this is a nice feature, now you can work with two CRM systems in your phone, as the settings for both apps is individual.

I have the new Phone App set up to our demo (which contains Update 1) and the Phone Express app to the production (it does not have the Update 1 yet).

Best regards,


Michal

MB5-705 Managing Microsoft Dynamics Implementations - Passed :-)

I passed the exam yesterday. I should have more time for creating articles now.
Michal

Activity feeds removed?

Are you missing the activity feeds in your CRM system?

Recently I have come across a problem, that the activity feeds feature was not available in the CRM 2015.

After some investigation, we realized that it was due to the fact, that someone turned on the integration with Yammer.

The Yammer is not used, but we cannot go back to the Activity feeds now, so please be aware of this! Once you enable Yammer integration, you lose the Activity feeds.

Michal

MB5-705 Online proctored exam experience

How I took the Online Proctored Exam

As I mentioned earlier, I have applied for the MB5-705 Exam - Managing Microsoft Dynamics Implementations and I decided to took the Online Proctored version, which was just made available in my country.


Before I applied for it, I reviewed some blog posts that were mentioning this kind of exam. I thought, they are old, Pearson Vue must have improved it since that article....
So I read the manual, verified that my computer is capable of handling the Online exam and I was getting ready for it.




In the morning (2 hours to exam), I tried to access the http://www.microsoft.com/learning site, and it is not working :-( I was panicking. I checked different connections, and computers. It does not work!
BTW - it does not work until today, apparently when you are in some European countries, you will not be properly routed (you will get something like timeout, gateway error or something like that).

Fortunately - you can use this URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ and it should work.

So when you get in, you can log into to the exam.
Your desk should be clean and empty and also the room should be clean and there should be no obstacles. Also, note, that the door should be closed, no one can visit you during the exam.
I went through the checking process with the "Greater" everything was fine, I just struggled little bit with moving my laptop, because the greater needs to see the whole room and I was using wired connection. Next time, I would use the external webcam or WiFi connection.


Then I was transferred to the Online Proctor and the computer froze. I could not press any button, move the mouse or anything.
After one hour of speaking with polite Indian people, we stopped all the tries and ended the exam. I did not get even to the first question :-)
My online proctor issued me a ticket in their system and told me to call their office.
It was closed at that time, so I had to wait until it opened (it is US number and operates in US time zone, so I expected Americans, but it is also handled by Indian people).

So about a day later I received a voucher for my next exam.

I decide to register, but I am not able to register for the exam, as it is already in the system and you cannot register for the same exam twice if the previous one has not finished.

I have not been able to reschedule the exam either, because it is past the scheduled date. So I had to contact the helpdesk again.

Now I am in the stage, where they told me they will register me through email manually, so I am waiting for the confirmation of my date and time of the exam.




So to make some end, never take the Online proctored exam. It does not worth it. I lost 6 hours of trying and communication with helpdesk people and I did not get anywhere.


It is fair to say that my colleague scheduled the exam in the testing center on the same day and he was not able to take the exam either. There were some technical difficulties. So maybe the problem is with the whole Pearson Vue company. I always preferred Prometric, but now there is no choice.
I will let you know when I get to the end of this adventure :-)


Have a good summer.
Michal

Entitlements - automatic Renewal using workflow

Automatic renewal of Entitlement without coding

As mentioned in my previous post, CRM 2015 Update 1 has a nice feature - you can create workflow, action or dialog with entity called Entitlement.

Recently I needed to renew the Entitlements automatically on regular basis.

So there are basically 3 main ways how to do it:

• develop a custom windows service, which will renew the records
• develop a workflow activity or action to call the Renew action (RenewEntitlementRequest)
• create a workflow that will renew it without coding

I will focus on the third option, as it is easiest and it worked in my case just fine.

So, first of all some prerequisites which we need to keep in mind:

• you need to base all Entitlements on some Entitlement template, otherwise copying through workflow will not work and you need to use option 2 mentioned above
• copying with workflow is tricky for monthly renewals, as some months do not have 30 days
• workflow for copying is waiting for the whole period of the entitlement, so the performance must be taken into account if you have a lot of entitlements
• in case you have really o lot of them, you could create Entitlements using import for the whole year in advance and activate them. Then they will be in the Waiting status until their first day - actually this I would do in previous CRM versions

We start with Entitlement templates - create at least one.

Then go to the processes and create a workflow which look like this:

The workflow should be started as a new Entitlement is created. This way you will be able to loop it.

Also you can enable manual start when you already have some Entitlements in the system.

Second step is to create the copy of Entitlement. Here is the screen:

Then just save and activate the workflow.

Keep in mind, that it must be Asynchronous, as there is a Waiting condition used.

I hope you find this helpful some day.

Michal

Running workflow on Entitlements in CRM 2015

Cannot create workflow based on Entitlements

Hi,

I was trying to create a workflow based on the Entitlement entity. It was supposed to trigger when Entitlement turns Active and send notification.

I found out, that it is not possible in all CRM system.

In CRM 7.0.x.x you cannot create workflow, action, dialog for Entitlement entity. Only for Entitlement template :-(

However, for CRM 7.1.x.x it is possible. So please be aware of this fact. If you create such a workflow, you solution will not be compatible with CRM onpremise, as there is no Update 1 currently available.

I will continue with this later.

Michal

MB5-705: Managing Microsoft Dynamics Implementations

Hi,
Several year ago, I have passed the MB5-858 exam. It is now expired and it had been replaced with MB5-705.
I am now getting prepared for this exam, so this article is to increase my motivation :-)

Here is the list of resource I've found useful for this exam:

• Course 80199A - https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/course.aspx?id=80199a
• It is about implementation of AX, GP and NAV. Eventough I work mainly with CRM, I need to go through this course, to know the potential differences
• Course 80235A- https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/course.aspx?id=80235a
• It is a workshop for Managing CRM implementations. I have joined this workshop before I went to MB5-858 and it was very useful
• Course 80047 - Using Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step - accessible in IT Academy
• Short version here: http://www.slideshare.net/guptaamarnath/arvato-sure-steptraining
• Course 80054 - Project Managing Microsoft Dynamics® CRM Implementations with Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step
• Key resource for this exam
• Sure Step installation package or Sure Step Online - https://mbs2.microsoft.com/SureStep/

During the preparation, I will be updating this article.

Michal

Dynamics CRM 2015 Outlook client Troubleshooting

Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook

When we upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015, we had to upgrade the Outlook add-ins as well.
The suggested way how to do it, is to update the client through the update feature.
However we have encountered several issues after the update, so let me share it with you.

Issue 1

One of the errors you may encounter:

To Microsoft Dynamics CRM can only convert an item in your default

repositories Microsoft Outlook.ltem NamezFW: Unable to re-create CRM

Category 8 users

This is caused by items that were tracked in CRM and then moved to other folders. Apparently CRM client is searching the opened Outlook folders for items that are Tracked in CRM and it find an item in a folder which is not default, it shows this error.

Solution

In Outlook, you cannot filter emails that are tracked in CRM, so you have to search one by one based on the name. Then you can click untrack and the error disappears.

If you have a lot of such messages, you can also close the connected folder where the tracked emails and not use it anymore.

Neither one of these solutions is perfect, but if you find a better one, let me know.

Issue 2

There is a significant change in how the items are tracked  in CRM 2015. The new Outlook client shows significant delays when inserting Emails into the CRM system.

When you have automatic tracking in CRM turned on, whenever new email arrives into Outlook, you get a popup window which shows the progress. This is very annoying and it always stops your work :-(

We have tried many different configurations, but there are only two ways how to solve it.

Solution

1st solution could be to switch the users to Server-Side synchronization and then the synchronization is done by server and Outlook is not involved.

2nd solution is to continues using CRM Outlook Addin for CRM 2013. It works much better in this area, but the user will not be able to Go Offline.

Another option is to turn off the automatic tracking, but then you will not get email into CRM.

So I wish you happy CRM day :-)

Michal

Configuration Migration - useful tool for Unified Service Desk

Data Migration Utility

Hi,
we have been playing around with the Unified Service Desk and developed some extensions to communicate with Asterisk PBX.
However, we have also done a lot of configuration and we need to transfer from one CRM to another.
As you might know, the configuration of USD is stored in regular entities as data, so you cannot export them as a solution and import them in the new system.
You could export them using excel, but you would end up with lots of files and the import would be very difficult.
Therefore, if you are facing the challenge, do not start any development! Microsoft has already developed a tool for transferring data from one CRM to another one.
It is included in the SDK - the patch is like this: SDK\Tools\ConfigurationMigration\

Theres is a tool which is called DataMigrationUtility.exe and it can be used for transfering data from one CRM to another. You can use it with any CRM where you have the webservice available, so onpremise, online and partner hosted.

Transfer of configuration for USD (or just any CRM data) consists of 3 steps:

1. Create Schema
2. Export Data
3. Import Data

1. Create schema

Start the utility and choose Create schema.

Then connect to the source CRM

On the configuration screen choose UII (User Interface Integration) Solution:

Click Add all

Then you should remove the entity UII Audit USD Saved session and usually User as well.

These are system entities and do not include the configuration data.

Please note that in Tools menu you can disable the plugins on the selected entities, you should disable all plugins on all entities.

2. Export data

Click Save and Export

You will get a Schema file which you can use later and then you will be prompted to export the data.

You need to create a file into which data will be exported.

Save both files.

3. Import data

Then close the application and start it again and select "Import data" then just select the zip file and click import.

Then all data will be imported.

Michal

Form localized labels in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Reading localized labels through SDK

We have been developing an application which is using the metadata from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It is supposed to be multi-language, so we need to read Localized labels in various languages from the forms.

We are able to read the labels for fields just fine, but currently there is a limitation (confirmed by MS support team):

• The SDK does not currently exposes the Localized Labels for Tabs and Section names through .Net
• You could eventually get the information using JavaScript, but that would only work for the current language
• There is an unsupported way of getting the Localized labels and that would be accessing the database directly.

So if you are working with CRM Online, you cannot do anything, but if you have onPremise, you can read it from database. If you have control over the hosting machine, then you could eventually create a Web Service to retrieve this information and provide it to your application.

Happy day!
Michal

How to remove locked fields from Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Removing unwanted fields from forms

Sometime you would like to remove system fields from the form which are locked. Field lock is the property you can change on custom fields or on the field.

However, there are some fields which are locked on the form even though this property is not checked.

Most of these fields are system fields and are on the case form. So what should you do when you really want to remove these fields from the form?

• You can hide them using the Visibility switch or by creating a business rule.
• You can also move the unwanted fields to the section which is hidden (not Visible by default).

But what if you really do not want these fields on the form?

There is a small trick how to remove them completely.

I create a two column tab, then put all the unwanted fields in the second column. Like this:

Then open the Tab properties and switch the tab to one column. Like this:

Then you the unwanted fields are removed and you will get empty tab which can be deleted.

But please be careful, because you may encounter this error when you do this.

So good CRMing,

Michal

CRM 2015 Update 1 - Parature integration

Integration with parature in CRM 2015

You may have already noticed - there is a new configuration area in the Service management of CRM 2015 Update 1, as well as a new Tab KB RECORDS in the Social Pane on the CASE form.

If you have not configured Parature integration yet, you will see Knowledge Base Management hasn't been set up.

In the configuration area it is called "Set Up Knowledge Base Management".

Set Up Knowledge Base Management

Here you can actually integrate CRM with your Parature instance and make the tab on the case form work. It will be searching the knowledgebase from the case form.

Parature configuration

Parature configuration is very similar to the Sharepoint integration. It is good that Microsoft keeps all these settings similar :-)

But what if you don't have Parature and you do not want to have the extra useless tab on your CASE form?

How to remove it?

Well, you have several options how to do it. You can use the Javascript to hide the extra tab.

Personally I find the easiest way to delete the component

You can go to Customizations and edit the form. You will see a component "Conversation tab".

Remove this component.

Then it is gone, but also the activities and notes. So you need to add the Notes component back, that will include the posts and activities as well.

However, it does not allow you to put back the KB RECORDS Tab.

How to add it back to the form?

You can add just the KB RECORD component to the existing form. You will find it in the ribbon (last button on right):

So, that will add KB search in the separate component. If you want to put it back into "Social Pane" the only way in the CRM UI how to do it is to create new form for the case entity. New form automatically includes this component.
I would also suggest to backup the customizations of the case entity before you start playing with this, because that will help you with restoring the KB RECORD tab later if you need it.

Enjoy the CRM!

Michal

CRM 2015 Update 1 - Automatic record Creation and Update

Automatically create new records, not just cases

Since CRM 2013 SP1 we had the ability to configure automatic rule that creates cases based on incoming email or social activity.

This worked very nice and in the latest update, this feature was enhanced even more.

Now you can configure the rule to create new records of any type, not just cases.

Automatic record creation

As the source record, you can use the common activities:

• Email
• Social activity
• Task
• Phone call
• Appointment
• Service activity
• Custom activity

These activities can be converted to any default (system) entity records or custom entity records. For example, you could create a lead, opportunity (system records) or incident (custom record) from an incoming email.

Capture data from external sources

You can also capture additional valuable customer information provided by an external application in the form of JSON (a collection of name-value pairs) and use it to enhance the quality of the target records and set various conditions in the record creation and update rules.

These activities have an Additional Parameters attribute:

• Email
• Social activity
• Task
• Phone call
• Appointment
• Service activity
• Custom activity

This attribute stores the JSON payload received from an external application.

Be aware, for example Fax, Letter, Campaign activity or campaign response do have this field even official documentation states otherwise.

To capture this information in CRM, you can define channel properties and associate them with a particular rule or share them across multiple rules of the same source type. For example, along with a social post, you can capture important information about the post such as sentiment value. Sentiment value is the property of social activity, so you can use this property in any other record creation and update rule of type Social Activity. .

Here's the correct format in which CRM should receive JSON payload (data received as name/value pair in JSON format) from the external application:

{“PropertyName1”:”Propertyvalue1”; “PropertyName2”:”Propertyvalue2”}

Note 

Any configuration done in the channel properties is only valid if those name value pairs exist in the JSON payload. Also, you must only use parameters received from the external application in the rule item conditions and as record properties. 

Activate or deactivate a rule

For any records creation and update rule to apply to a matching incoming activity, after you add the rule items, you must activate the rule.

How does record creation and update rule work with queues?

In a record creation and update rule, when you specify a queue for a source type, any incoming activity from that source is added as a queue item for that specified queue. That is, if a rule for a particular source activity and queue combination is active, the rule processes the incoming activity on that queue to create or update records.

For an email source type, specifying a queue is mandatory (although the field is not marked as mandatory, the error appears when you try to activate the rule). For all other source types including custom activities, it is optional.

Rules in solutions

The record creation and update rules can be packaged as a part of a CRM solution. Customizers and developers distribute solutions so that organizations can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to install and uninstall the business functionality defined by the solution.

Keep the following things in mind about using rules in solutions:

• Any new rule that you created in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 can't be exported to an earlier release.
• Any rules upgraded to and edited in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 can't be exported back to an earlier release.

Why is it called Creation and Update?

This feature can not only create a record, but it can also update existing records.

The primary action area can only contain one step - record creation. It is optional. You do not need to create any record.

When the rule is activated, it can update the related records. You can update the sender record (when originating from email) , you can also update whatever entity you expect to have in the "Regarding" field.

It works like the workflow.

When I was setting up my rules, I have received error like this:

Unhandled Exception: System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[[Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.OrganizationServiceFault, Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk, Version=7.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35]]: System.Web.HttpUnhandledException: Microsoft Dynamics CRM has experienced an error. Reference number for administrators or support: #F0AC6BEADetail: 

<OrganizationServiceFault xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts">

  <ErrorCode>-2147220970</ErrorCode>

  <ErrorDetails xmlns:d2p1="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Collections.Generic" />

  <Message>System.Web.HttpUnhandledException: Microsoft Dynamics CRM has experienced an error. Reference number for administrators or support: #F0AC6BEA</Message>

  <Timestamp>2015-05-18T11:21:12.8868194Z</Timestamp>

  <InnerFault>

    <ErrorCode>-2147088140</ErrorCode>

    <ErrorDetails xmlns:d3p1="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Collections.Generic" />

    <Message>Error occured during activating Convert Rule.Please check your privileges on Workflow and kindly try again or Contact your system administrator.</Message>

    <Timestamp>2015-05-18T11:21:12.8868194Z</Timestamp>

    <InnerFault i:nil="true" />

    <TraceText i:nil="true" />

  </InnerFault>

  <TraceText i:nil="true" />

</OrganizationServiceFault>

The resolution is quite simple, there is an error in the Record Creation and Update Rule Item, so check the items and look for errors in the Actions area.

So next time,

Michal

Lead not able to qualify in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Error during Lead qualification process

Hi,
sometimes it can happen, that you do some incorrect customization, although you have only the best intentions.
If you play around with the Lead qualification, opportunities, contacts and account you may want to modify also connection roles.
But, please be aware!!!!

If you (during the qualification of a Lead) start receiving error like this (valid for CRM 2013, CRM 2015 and CRM OnLine):

Error code is: 2147159520

Message: "An error has occurred. Either the data does not exist or you do not have sufficient privileges to view the data. Contact your system administrator for help."

And in the trace log, you will get something like this:

Crm Exception: Message: An error has occurred. Either the data does not exist or you do not have sufficient privileges to view the data. Contact your system administrator for help., ErrorCode: -2147159520, InnerException: Microsoft.Crm.CrmException: An error has occurred. Either the data does not exist or you do not have sufficient privileges to view the data. Contact your system administrator for help.
   at Microsoft.Crm.ObjectModel.ConnectionService.ValidateConnectionRoleObjectType(IBusinessEntity entityConsolidatedValues, IBusinessEntity entitySuppliedValues, ExecutionContext context)
   at Microsoft.Crm.ObjectModel.ConnectionService.Validate(IBusinessEntity entityConsolidatedValues, IBusinessEntity entitySuppliedValues, ExecutionContext context)
   at Microsoft.Crm.ObjectModel.ConnectionService.Create(IBusinessEntity entity, ExecutionContext context)
   at Microsoft.Crm.ObjectModel.LeadService.CreateLeadParentContactConnectionIfNotExist(IBusinessEntity entity, ExecutionContext context, BusinessEntityCollection connections, BusinessProcessObject bpo)
   at Microsoft.Crm.ObjectModel.LeadService.AddContactAsStakeholder(IBusinessEntity entity, ExecutionContext context)
   at Microsoft.Crm.ObjectModel.LeadService.Update(IBusinessEntity entity, ExecutionContext context)
   at Microsoft.Crm.ObjectModel.LeadService.QualifyLead(BusinessEntityMoniker leadId, Boolean createAccount, Boolean createContact, Boolean createOpportunity, BusinessEntityMoniker opportunityCurrencyId, BusinessEntityMoniker opportunityCustomerId, BusinessEntityMoniker sourceCampaignId, Int32 statusCode, ExecutionContext context)


Then you have most likely deleted the connection role "Stakeholder" from your CRM system.

So the truth is, that when you qualify the Lead, a new Contact and a new Opportunity is created and also connections between these new records are created. The new connection records use a stakeholder role. If this role has been deleted, then the qualification process fails.

Here is the picture how it looks like:

Connection roles

After you qualify the lead, there are 4 new connection records in the connection database:

• Lead > Contact
• Contact > Lead
• Opportunity > Contact
• Contact > Opportunity

Each of these records contain reference to the Stakeholder role.

The enlightenment from this is: Do NOT delete system Connection roles!!!

I hope this will save you time when you get error like this.
Michal

CRM 2015 Product Catalog Localization

How can Sales operations managers or customizers localize the product catalog for different regions?

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM introduced many great new features. One of them is the new product catalog.

I like the families, the bundles, the connection between the products and all other features.

Unfortunately, one great feature is not mentioned much in the official material.

It is the Localization. Microsoft says:

"Sales operations managers or customizers can localize the product catalog for different regions with localization tools."

What it really means, is that you can now have the product names translated into different languages.

Many of our customers who sell their products or services in more countries were asking for this feature, so we had to create custom fields for names and descriptions and modify the reports and the export to work with such a customization.

Now it is not necessary anymore. The product fields such as name can be translated to any language enabled in CRM.

Before you can use this feature, you need to enable more than one language in your CRM. Once you have done that, go to Data management section and click Export Field Translations.

Three steps to localize product names

You will get a zip file, which contains two XML files. Do NOT modify [Content_Types].xml file. Just open the CrmFieldTranslations.xml file in Excel.

The structure of the file is similar to the file for editing translations of customizations, so if you have done that, it will be very easy to use this file as well.

You can then import the translations back into the CRM in the Data management section. When you import, it is reflected automatically. No need for publishing.

As this is new feature in CRM 2015, it has some limitations:

• So for now, you can have only product name in different languages, fields such as description or productid are not supported for translations
• You can translate only name fields of the Product properties and Optionsets names in the properties
• You can only translate to the languages which are enabled in CRM and the name in different languages appears after the user changes his/her language. If you do not translate to some language, then the default value is used (the one of the basic language)

So I hope, this will help you with this promising feature.

Michal

MB2-707 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization and Configuration

My thoughts about CRM Customization exam

Yesterday I have passed MB2-707 Exam. As its title suggests, it is about customization and configuration of CRM.

I had completed similar exams for previous versions of CRM, so I was curious about the new version.

I went through the online course, which is available for MS Partners and can be accessed here:

80665AE: CUSTOMIZATION AND CONFIGURATION IN MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM ONLINE AND ON PREMISE

This course covers all the topics, but it does not go deep enough, so I also suggest to study the Administration guide for CRM 2015.

You can search for it with this keyword: CRM2015_AdministrationGuide.pdf

However, you will most likely get version 7.1 or newer. At this time the certification is based on version 7.0. The new features such as theming are not included, so you can just skip those chapters or if you want the version which fits the exam you can downloaded it here CRM2015_AdministrationGuide.pdf.

Michal

Dynamics CRM for phones express

New update of Dynamics CRM Windows Phone 8.1 App

Today I received new version of CRM phone application. Version number in the update history i v 1.2.0.0

The only difference I see at the moment is that the name of the app changed to "Dynamics CRM for phones express".

Otherwise no visible difference in the app. In the "about" section of the app, it states the version is 1.0.5603.26714.

Michal

CRM 2015 - Script error on some forms

Did you receive this error?

Recently, I have been customizing some forms in CRM 2015 and I started getting this error. Mainly this was on some Case forms.

It is a Javascript type of error, which says:

There was an error with this field's customized event.

Field: window

Event: onload

Error: Unable to get property 'getValue' of undefined or null reference.

I removed all scripts and all business rules, but the error was still there.

Strange thing was, that the standard CASE form was working fine.

So I was investigating the differences between the forms. As you know, the case form contains some locked fields - such as Resolve by, First response by etc...You can recognize them in the form designer - they have red pad lock next to them.

I tried to open the forms which caused errors and add the "locked fields" to them. Then the error disappeared.

I did not want these fields on the form, so I have hidden them by unchecking "Visible by default" property.

I don't know why, but there seems to be some hardcoded script, which needs these fields on the form.

I hope this helps,

Michal

Cortana - how it works with CRM 2015

Cortana - how it works with CRM 2015

As you may already know, Cortana is "integrated" with Microsft Dynamics CRM.
Microsoft published article about the command we can use with CRM here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/cortana-voice-commands-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm-for-phones.aspx

I decided to test it a little and share the results. I would appreciate your feedback, if you have different results or some more information about this.

When you ask Cortana "What can I say?" and select CRM - it displays the list of commands you can use.

The list of what is displayed on the phone is  little bit different than what is presentend in the article mentioned above.

The Cortana in the phone does not offer "Open" feature and has two options how to get the selected view displayed.

So let's see how it works.

To do this in CRM	Say this	Result
Open an item	CRM open <item> called <item name>. Example: “CRM open account called Contoso.” Variation: “CRM open account named Contoso.”	Inputs whatever you say after "Called" into search query and displays the result. If there is only one result, it display the record.
Show a view	CRM show <view name>. Examples: “CRM show my active accounts.” Variation: “CRM show me my active accounts.”	Hard to use, you have to know your view by exact name and Cortana must recognize it correctly, otherwise home screen is displayed. It is frustrating :-(
Search for an item	CRM find <item> called <name>. Example: “CRM find account called Contoso.” Variation: “CRM find account named Contoso.”	Works similar way as Open item. Also puts the text into search query.  If there is only one result, it display the record.
Create a new item	CRM create <item type> called <item name>. Example: “CRM create contact called Maria Campbell.” Variation: “CRM add new contact named Maria Campbell.”	It starts create screen for the recognized entity and fills in the name into main field. Unfortunatelly, for contact it is the last name, so if you say the whole name, you will have to edit it later on, so I just say ie.  CRM create opportunity and then fill it manually.
Create a phone call activity	CRM remind me to call <call name>. Example: “CRM remind me to call Maria Campbell to set up appointment.”	Open a new phone call screen and prefills Subject, you then have to search for the "call from" and "call to" The same result can be achieved with "CRM create phone call"
Create an appointment	CRM schedule meeting to <subject>. Example: “CRM schedule meeting to discuss quote with Maria Campbell.”	Opens a new appointment screen. I was not able to use "CRM create appointment" feature, so this look like the only way how to create appointment.
Create a task	CRM remind me to <task name>. Example: “CRM remind me to email Maria Campbell.” Variations: “CRM follow up Maria Campbell.” “CRM follow up with Maria Campbell.” “CRM follow up on Contoso.”	Opens new task screen and prefills the Subject, basically the same result can be achieved when you say "CRM create task....."
Open task list	CRM what should I do next? Example: “CRM what should I do next?”	Opens task - easy to use, very nice.

Note: The create commands work only with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update. The other commands work with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online as well as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update.

CASE Status Reasons Transitions

CRM 2015 - how to edit Status reason transitions

I don't know why, but CRM has some great new features which are not presented by Microsoft much.

Status reason transition rules is one of those features.

Did you know, that you can now modify the status reason field options for the Case entity and custom entities to define which other status reason options people can choose?

There is one more restriction - each status reason option for an active status (green flag) must allow at least one path to an inactive status (red flag). This is because if you would not do it, it would not be possible to resolve or cancel the case.


When you go and edit a status reason field the Edit Status Reason Transitions button is in the menu. When you click this button the Status Reason Transitions dialog provides the option to choose Enable Status Reason Transitions. When this option is selected you must define which status reason values are allowed for each status reason.
You can enable or disable enforcing this rule.

Here is the screenshot of how we have it set up.

Case Status Reasons Transition Set Up

So let's hope, that Microsoft will work on this promising feature and enable it for more entities.
Michal

CRM Application Certification Exam

MB2-704: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Application

I have passed the CRM Application certification exam for CRM 2015 today :-).

It was not very hard, but not too easy either. The exam is very similar to the previous versions and about half of the questions are focused on the new functionality in CRM 2015 and the marketing stuff is completely out. There is a separate exam for Marketing.

If you are going to take the exam as well, I can share what I studied in order to pass the exam.

If you have some experience with previous version of Microsoft CRM, you need to study mainly the new features that were introduced in CRM 2013 SP1 and CRM 2015. CRM 2015 Update is not included in the exam yet.

So do not forget to learn something about entitlements, automatic case creation, routing rules, access teams, SLAs, business process flows, product catalogue, queues and social listening.

Ususally when I was preparing for previous exams, I used the Training kits. Unfortunatelly, they are not available at the moment, so I was searching for alternate information.

There are plenty of materials in the customer source, blogs etc. But it was just too much, soafter anaqlysisi the exam structure I narrowed down to these three:

Introduction to MS CRM - this is usefull if you are starting with CRM just now

Customer Service in MS CRM

Sales Management in MS CRM

If you are not familiar with Social listening, than I can also suggest this:

Social Listening

I think that these courses cover all the topics for the exam, they follow the outline for the exam and also some quizzes are included, so you can test your knowledge immediately.

All of these are online courses and they are accessible to the Microsoft Partners.

So good luck,

Michal

Unified Service Desk - using with IFD

Unified Service Desk - using with Microsoft CRM thorugh IFD

We have been using Unified Service Desk for quite some time already.

It works ok, but the documentation is not as good as the SDK for CRM, so we usually run into many troubles.
Last issue we had was with logging in. Unified Service Desk can be used with CRM Online, CRM Onpremise or CRM through IFD.
When used with CRM online, the Unified Service Desk remembers the CRM credentials and the users enters them only for the first login. The local CRM is using the domain authentication, so no credentials are need either.
When we are using the IFD login (forms authentication), user has to enter CRM credentials after every start of USD. This is very annoying and we were investigating how to get rid of this. We had even a support ticket with Microsoft for this issue. And the result is that this a feature. The only workaround for this is to implement “Keep me signed in” feature in the ADFS by customizing FormSignIn.aspx

Keep Me Signed In ADFS

So I hope this will save you some time when you hit the same issue.
Michal

New form engine in CRM 2015 Spring Update

CRM 2015 Update 1 Introduces New form engine

The new version is designed to provide extremely fast form load while maintaining compatibility. The new form engine will not impact end users, because they have the same features, interface, and behaviors as the legacy rendering engine.
There are changes in the page construction, frames handling, data loads, and how scripts are managed (custom scripts will be loaded in separate frames so that the main frame can be retained and reused for subsequent records).
Existing supported customizations, such as Client API, are still supported and so existing scripts should not require any changes. 

Microsoft announced, that the unsupported customizations will likely break with the improved form engine. Any customizations should be tested after the Update 1 will be applied.

CRM - service scheduling - invalid date error

Error when scheduling Service activity - Invalid date

Quite interesting error was introduced in CRM 2015.

The error is: "The specified date format is invalid or the date is out of valid range. Enter a valid date in the format: d/ M/ yyyy"

This error generally does not affect all the users, because it is related to user preferences.

We identified this issue in CRM 2015 Online, we were not able to reproduce this error in CRM 2013.

It happens when you have different date format for the CRM app and for the user.

So if you encounter this error, check your Date format settings in the CRM > Settings > Administration > System settings and also check the personal setting of the user in Set Personal Options > Formats

If these setting differ, then change it to the same setting. I prefer using "Reset button" to restore defaults.

I can imagine that this will cause a lot of troubles to multinational implementations of CRM.

Michal

CRM Spring 2015 Update - Themes

Now you can modify themes in your CRM 2015

CRM 2015 Spring Update now introduces theme modifications. You can now change the logo and colors of your CRM app.

Just go to Setting > Customizations > Themes

List of themes

We have it in the Preview and it is quite obvious, that this feature still needs some tuning (like translations of description text and button labels to all languages).

Anyhow, this is a great way forward and our customer will love it.

Here is the preview of the Theme editor.

Theme editor

Good thing is that the logo accepts pretty much any format, even transparent .ico files are possible.

Only one Theme can be default. You can switch template to default by publishing (Publish)  it.
Users cannot change their theme, so I don't think there is a point of having more templates in the system. But may be in future ?! :-)

So play with it :-)

Michal

Update 1.4.2015: Microsoft updated the Themes feature in latest update, sometransaltions have been added, logo handling is different, also some minor errors appeared.

CRM - System queues

Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Be aware of 3 hard coded system queues

This issue is in all CRM versions, but to me it started to be really significant when we migrated one customer from CRM 2011 to CRM 2013.

The customer was using dashboards in CRM 2011 intensively. The users were taking queue items from the queue, assigning them and resolving them. This was all possible in CRM 2011.

When CRM 2013 was introduced, the dashboards changed. They are no longer useful for work, but rather just for reading. Whenever user wants to work with the items on the dashboard, they have to open a new window.
So here is our issue. When you open queue which is on the dashboard in the new window, it automatically shows the default filter. We wanted to set the default filter to All queues, but the is not possible. (Usually default filter can be set by clicking Set as default)

We opened a ticket with Microsoft for solving this issue and it turned out, that this is hard coded feature in all CRM versions.

So be aware - in the CRM, there are 3 system filters which cannot be set as default, these are:

• All Queues
• All Public Queues
• Queues I'm a member of

"Queues I'm a member of" is usually the default one. Unfortunately, in our case, we do not have private Queues, so the users are not members of any queue. We use public queues, because all queue items should be visible to all users.

We asked Microsoft if this can be changed and the response was negative. It is in the code and it would be too dangerous to change this.

So if you have a similar scenario, keep this in mind.

Michal

New CRM online preview

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 - Update

We have got an access to the preview of new CRM online.
It looks very nice and I am going to post some updates about it later. For now, you can watch this video:

Edit mapping in CRM 2013/2015

How to do a custom field mapping in CRM 2013/2015

Hi,
I have been doing some more customization of Quote products and Sales Orders products  entities in CRM 2015.
There have been several fields added, so of course we needed to map these fields. In CRM 2011 we had a workaround for mapping in the hidden relationships and it was based on this article: http://dynamicslollipops.blogspot.cz/2011/07/mscrm-2011-mapping-opportunity-product.html

Now with the new versions of CRM we tested that it is still working.
I was not able to use the URL taken from existing views in the CRM system, but the old URL still works, so even in the new version of CRM we can use link in this format:

https://CRM/tools/systemcustomization/relationships/mappings/mappingList.aspx?mappingId=%7bXXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX7d

I just noted, that when I search for the relationshipid with this link SERVER URL/XRMServices/2011/OrganizationData.svc/EntityMapSet() I could not user Internet Explorer 11, because it was trying to get some feeds from there. So I had to use Chrome.

I hope this will be helpful,
Michal

Goals in CRM - owner vs. manager

Goals in Microsoft Dynamics CRM - owner and manager fields are different

Recently I have come across a fact, that fields Owner and Manager are different from the fields of the same names in other CRM entities.

What I mean?

Goal entity contains two lookup fields that are connected to the users or to the teams - these fields are called Goal Owner and Manager.

Goal Owner - goalownerid is a lookup, where user can fill in a team or system user. So this is the same behavior as an ownerid field in other user-owned entities.

Manager - ownerid is a lookup, where user can fill in only another user. So this behavior is different from regular ownerid field in other user-owned entities.

As you can see, eventhough there is an ownerid field on Goal entity, it is not normal Owner field. And same for the Goal owner field - it is not regular owner field.

I am not sure why Microsoft implemented this in such a way. This must have been some workaround or mistake during development.

However, let me explain what this means for further configuration.

We have tried to setup some goals which are assigned to the teams. So we set the Goal owner (goalownerid) to the specific team.
Manager is then some other user, who is controling the goals.

After the goals are properly set up, we wanted to created a new view where we want to display the goals of the team that the current user is member of.
For regular entities you can do this quite easily. Just go to the views, select filtering criteria and select Equals Current User's Team.
Here is an example of such condition for Opportunities.



Opportunity - Owner - Condition

 





When we tried to do the same for goals, we realized, that we are not able to set such a condition, beacuse the CRM UI does not include it for goalownerid field :-(
The system simply does not work with this field as an owner field, but it thinks it is regular lookup to user.
The condition for Goal owner looks like this:


Goals - Owner - Condition

On the other hand, the field Manager (ownerid), where you can insert only one single user has these conditions available:


Goals - Manager - Condition

This is really strange, isn't it?
So after some testing and trying, we realized, that the only way how to create the desired view is to modify the customization XML. To make it very simple, we have defined the filtering condition which we needed for the Goal Owner field for the Manager field instead (eventhough it does not make sense, because there cannot be a team in that field).


Then we exported the customizations and searched for the view in there.

It looks like this:

<savedquery>

            <IsCustomizable>1</IsCustomizable>

            <CanBeDeleted>1</CanBeDeleted>

            <isquickfindquery>0</isquickfindquery>

            <isprivate>0</isprivate>

            <isdefault>0</isdefault>

            <returnedtypecode>9600</returnedtypecode>

            <savedqueryid>{02214737-f56f-e411-80ca-005056b52fe6}</savedqueryid>

            <layoutxml>

              <grid name="goals" object="9600" jump="title" select="1" icon="1" preview="1">

                <row name="goal" id="goalid">

                  <cell name="title" width="200" />

                  <cell name="targetstring" width="150" />

                  <cell name="percentage" width="150" />

                  <cell name="actualstring" disableSorting="1" width="150" />

                  <cell name="inprogressstring" disableSorting="1" width="150" />

                  <cell name="metricid" width="150" />

                  <cell name="parentgoalid" width="150" />

                </row>

              </grid>

            </layoutxml>

            <querytype>0</querytype>

            <fetchxml>

              <fetch version="1.0" output-format="xml-platform" mapping="logical" distinct="false">

                <entity name="goal">

                  <attribute name="title" />

                  <attribute name="targetstring" />

                  <attribute name="percentage" />

                  <attribute name="actualstring" />

                  <attribute name="inprogressstring" />

                  <attribute name="metricid" />

                  <attribute name="parentgoalid" />

                  <order attribute="title" descending="false" />

                  <filter type="and">

                    <condition attribute="statecode" operator="eq" value="0" />

                    <condition attribute="goalownerid" operator="eq-userid" />

                    <condition attribute="goalstartdate" operator="this-fiscal-year" />

                    <condition attribute="goalenddate" operator="this-fiscal-year" />

                    <condition attribute="ownerid" operator="eq-userteams" />

                  </filter>

To get the desired condition we need to replace the row with this:
<condition attribute="goalownerid" operator="eq-userteams" />

Then save the customization file and import it back.
The view will show the correct results, but be carefull, never modify this view in CRM gui, or you will loose this modification.

In this post, I have screenshots from CRM 2015, but the same behavior is for CRM 2011 and 2013 as well.

I hope this helps.
Michal