New features of Dynamics CRM 4.0 Client for Microsoft Office Outlook

The Dynamics CRM 4.0 Client for Office Outlook has a number of new configuration options that enhance the usability of the Outlook client.  One major noteworthy point is that the Outlook client is all that is needed to track your e-mails and activities in Dynamics CRM.  This basically removes the requirement for the bulky and unstable Exchange service connectors and allows for all CRM integration to take place at the client level. 

The 4.0 Dynamics CRM Client for Office Outlook is totally independent application that is capable of tracking e-mails from a different windows domain then either your current domain or your CRM domain.  This same principle applies when tracking e-mail from POP3 sources.  Any outbound e-mail that goes pending through your CRM Web Client or Workflow will be queued and sent directly from your Outlook e-mail client (this requires that you setup the correct allow outbound e-mails to be sent using Outlook).

Below are some screen shots of the new setup options in the Dynamics CRM 4.0 Client for Outlook.

The address book tab of the Dynamics CRM Client allows for more configuration of which contacts you want to resolve email information to, as well as the ability to configure how often the address book is synchronized with Dynamics CRM.

The email tracking options below are important and should be reviewed by someone familiar with your Dynamics CRM System.  The “Allow Microsoft Dynamics CRM to send e-mail using CRM for Outlook” is somewhat confusing since it should probably just read “Allow CRM to send mail using Outlook” since this seems to be a more accurate and concise way to explain the option.  If you have this option unchecked and no other e-mail connector is configured for you CRM implementation then you will most likely notice the CRM alert box telling you that you have mail in the pending queue that needs to be sent but cannot because you have no method for delivering outbound mail from the CRM web-client.  You can check this option and then the queued up mail will be sent out.

The second check box option allows you to decide whether or not to use the new tracking algorithm to track incoming e-mail.  This new algorithm is supposed to be more efficient at finding the correct target to track e-mail activities against.

The track options picklist (drop down) allows you to further set how you want to track e-mail in CRM, the new option here is to track against leads, contacts, and accounts.

The regional options have been extended on the user configuration side and include number, currency, time and date preference/localization configuration.

Another new option is the ability to use CRM forms for creating new activities from Outlook.   This option allows you to launch the CRM forms instead of the standard Outlook forms when using the Outlook buttons to create activities for Appointments, Contacts, Tasks, and E-mail.  The real benefit I see here is the ability to enforce workflow and business processes via the CRM forms where structure can be defined using business required fields.

The enable high-contrast option, in early testing, does not seem to have any effect on a 32 inch Dell display although it was very brief testing and not at all thorough.

The synchronization progress window does a great job of summarizing all of the new features of the Dynamics CRM 4.0 client for Office Outlook.  In case the CRM synchronization window below isn’t appearing on your browser, it has the following list of items that it is synchronizing.

-          Contacts

-          Tasks

-          Phone Calls (as Tasks)

-          Letters (as Tasks)

-          Faxes (as Tasks)

-          Appointments

-          Service Activities (as Appointments)

-          Newly received incoming e-mail

-          E-mail in CRM (the CRM database) that is pending – waiting to be sent

-          The Outlook Address Book

The synchronization tab allows you to select which types of activities that you want to track in CRM including all of those named above.  It also answers the request by many users to have the company information populated from the CRM contact record.  Those of you who have used CRM 3.0 know that the Company Name field was blank in any contact the synchronized from CRM to Outlook.  In CRM 4.0 you have the option to allow this field to be populated from CRM.

Outlook tasks can now be tracked as 1 of the following 4 types of activities, including:

-          Tasks

-          Phone call

-          Letter

-          Fax

The last feature pictured allows you to convert e-mail activities into 1 of the following 3 types of entities, including:

-          Opportunity

-          Case

-          Lead