Last week our team signed off on our CTP3 release of Titan. Earlier this week we made it available to partners in our closed beta programs. If you are a partner in our Ascend/Metro or Pre-Release program please sign in to the Connect website and download the latest bits. At this stage access to CTP3 is by invitation only. I’ve also posted a set of Partner Test Scenarios on the private pre-release newsgroups. These scenarios will help guide partners through the evaluation and testing of CTP3.

FYI: We’ll soon be opening up access to Titan (bits or VPC) to a wider partner audience. Unfortunately I can’t help more partners be admitted to the current programs. If you aren’t in one the pre-release programs already you’ll have to hang on just a bit longer for Titan.

Update: Microsoft Internal people should check http://productsweb. There is a license key and the binaries for download. The internal VPC is on http://infoweb/crm.

 

Ye Xu, one of our CRM PMs in China, has developed an SMS (aka text message) add in for CRM 3.0. You can download the add in and the source code from CodePlex. The add in does more than just simple notifications. You can send messages, create/update records, query CRM etc. If SMS is an important part of your customer communications (or heavily used by your internal mobile users) then it's worth checking out this add in.

Here is some great CRM in action: Meijer prints notices of a recall which might impact a shopper based on purchase history. via The Consumerist. A great site/blog which I can't get enough of lately. All serious CRM practicioners should subscribe: each day there are great examples of customer experiences which require improvement (and the occaisional praise - like the Meijer example).

Could you pass the Australian citizenship test? Here are some of the proposed questions with answers in parentheses for my international readers. Via SMH. All were dead easy - except the one about the floral emblem being the Wattle. I always get confused with the Waratah (the floral emblem of New South Wales).

1. In what year did Federation take place? (1901).

2. Which day of the year is Australia Day? (January 26).

3. Who was the first Prime Minister of Australia? (Edmund Barton).

4. What is the first line of Australia's national anthem? (Australians all let us rejoice)

5. What is the floral emblem of Australia? (Wattle)

6. What is the population of Australia? (approx 21 million)

7. In what city is the Parliament House of the Commonwealth Parliament located? (Canberra)

8. Who is the Queen's representative in Australia? (the governor-general)

9. How are Members of Parliament chosen? (by election)

10. Who do Members of Parliament represent? (the people of their electorate)

11. After a federal election, who forms the new government? (the political party or coalition of parties which wins a majority of seats in the House of Representatives)

12. What are the colours on the Australian flag? (red, white and blue)

13. Who is the head of the Australian Government? (the prime minister)

14. What are the three levels of government in Australia? (Commonwealth, State or Territory and local)

15. In what year did the European settlement of Australia start? (1788)

16. Serving on a jury if required is a responsibility of Australian citizenship: true or false? (true)

17. In Australia, everyone is free to practise the religion of their choice, or practise no religion: true of false? (true)

18. To be elected to the Commonwealth Parliament you must be an Australian citizen: true or false? (true)

19. As an Australian citizen, I have the right to register my baby born overseas as an Australian citizen: true or false? (true)

20. Australian citizens aged 18 years or over are required to enrol on the electoral register: true or false? (true)

 

We hit the Westside of Seattle today (there is a strong psychological divide between the East and West shores of Lake Washington). It appeared that the Traffic Apocalypse over there had passed. Unwilling to stray far from familar territory we hit Espresso Vivace's Alley 24 Outpost, Urban Beast, REI and new Southlake Grill.

The folks at the 'beast' provided us with dog snacks that shouldn't poison our dog (thanks China - you really should do something about pet food safety). I'd like to see the domestic pet food manufacturers step up here and sell some premium products with a better safety record. I'd be happy to pay more than the cheap Chinese stuff found at Costco etc.

Vivace provided the usual high end coffee fix. I'm always puzzled at the nature of the barista. A relatively new 'craft' which has emerged - it may only be with us for a few years before automation and the soft drink companies kill off espresso. A Vivace barista typically does a year's apprenticeship as a bar assistant before being allowed to pull shots. The price is the same as a 'normal espresso' anywhere else. Yet, just meters away, out the front of REI there were barbarians lining up for some dodgy espresso stand. I watched the 'coffee technican' at the stand ply her trade. It was ugly. Like watching TV wrestler play a violin solo. I can only hope that the strong coffee culture of Sydney and Melbourne stays strong. The locals there value a good cup over the automated stuff (civet cat coffee notwithstanding).

We lunched at the Southlake Grill (just around the corner from Vivace). It's located in one of those bare concrete ultra modern office/apartment complexes (you know the type). Service was confusing (good - just confusing). A nice feature of the place is 1/2 price Sundays: everything on the menu is 1/2 price. A nice unexpected surprise. I liked the look of the place and I liked the menu. The service could be a little more 'crisp' and 'precise' - but that's no big deal (I tipped well). My dislike was temperature, specifically the temperature of my food. It wasn't cold yet it wasn't warm. During my meal it became apparent as to the cause. The chefs were turning out the food at a prompt rate and a large amount of plates were sitting under 'warmers' (I use the term loosely) wating for wait staff to collect them. About a dozen plates sat attended for 5+ minutes. Not good. The place probably needs a decent manager to sort out some business process issues and it will be great.

Many companies are now monitoring the internet for activities related to their products and services. Tools such as Google Alerts and Technorati are commonly used for this purpose. Pro-active companies typically reach out to customers by email and phone to deepen the customer relationship. An example of this occurred to me just last week. I posted this blog about my recent 're-adoption' of Mind Manager 7. Within hours (on a Sunday night) someone from Mind Manager's PR team dropped me a quick email and pointed me at some handy Mind Manager resources which might help me. The experience definitely gave me a direct connection with Mind Manager and certainly improved their chances of me converting from trial to purchase. This kind of proactive contact has happened to more than once (software companies, bars/restaurants, services companies etc etc). All have done a great deal of benefit to my opinion of these organizations through their timely and polite communications.

Typically these types of interactions are being initiated by 'web savvy' sales & marketing people within a company - but they don't have to. Using an app like Google Alerts you can funnel these activities into a CRM Queue. Simply set up a CRM Queue for a search keyword and associate an email address with it. Alternatively you could use our Workflow capabilties to route the alert to the appropriate person. Setting up the Google Alert is dead easy - just select your search phrase, choose the type (eg. Blogs, Comphrensive etc) and How Often. Always choose 'as-it-happens' as it will ensure a more timely response. Then have the alert sent to a mailbox which your CRM Email Router is monitoring. The rest is all 'regular CRM' at that point.

 
Full Size Image

Here is an example of one these emails which has been routed to CRM 3.0:

Full Size Image

Here is a sample workflow (not Workflow) which might happen.

1. Phil posts about Fabrikam's new Moonshine Still on his blog. Phil loves his new still - but can't figure out how to measure the alcohol content.
2. Google detects the post and matches it to a Google Alert set up by Fabrikam for the term: Fabrikam Moonshine
3. Google sends an email to moonshinesupport@fabikam.com.
4. The CRM email router picks up the email and creates an email activity in CRM.
5. The email activity is routed into the Moonshine Support queue.
6. A CRM workflow was fired on the creation of Activity and flags it's support level appropriately (based on it's origination from Google Alerts).
7. A Support opens the email activity and clicks through to link to Phil's blog.
8. The Support Rep locates Phil's contact information on his blog and sends me a quick email (based on a CRM template) with some links to Specific Gravity meters (for measuring alcohol content). Alternatively the Support Rep could have left a comment on the blog.

The cost to set up and execute this process is minimum. It involved zero coding and almost no retraining of the Support reps. The process is also extremely scalable. You could have many different queues for different search terms and/or different service levels for each term. You may also want to use workflow to fire up monitoring processes (eg. everytime an alert for customer complaints is triggered it could create Task activities for your Customer Complaints team etc etc).

It's unfortunate that Microsoft don't offer a competing service (if they do - I'm unaware of it). The good news is that Microsoft CRM 3.0 is an excellent app for consuming these types of alerts and our upcoming Titan release will even allow far more complex logic with it's improved Workflow features without writing code.

Before any asks: No I don't make moonshine, I don't even drink alcohol (for the next four months). Yes... Moonshine is illegal in the United States. It's inclusion here is one of parody - not of encouragement.

Michael Lu (our Program Manager for peformance, Outlook, Email) is presenting at Tech Ed Hong Kong this week.  His session is: BAB306 Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 As an Application Platform. His session will be in English (not Cantonese). If you are a Hong Kong customer or partner I strongly recommend you seek out Michael at Tech Ed to discuss both CRM 3.0 and the upcoming Titan release. Our PMs are always interested in meeting with customers and partners at these types of events.

One of the major features lacking in my homegrown blog app was comments. For a long time I was 'anti-comments' preferring that the 'conversation' continued on other blogs through referrer linking or privately on email. I almost never leave comments on other blogs so I didn't feel the need for comments on mine. However Alex has worn me down through his persistant feature requests and comments are enabled!

Please go ahead and make some test comments to this post... so at the very least I can ensure they are working.

I'm experiencing some minor issues with my SMTP server (comments email seems broken). Given my unorthodox domain mail situation (my hoster's SMTP gateway really prefers me to use their system for email and Gmail's SMTP settings can't be configured by my blog) - it will probably require a code change to fix.

I've just switched over my blog to some new software. Previously I was using an ultra-simple (and spartan) home grown app. I'm now trying out BlogEngine.NET. Let me know if you notice anything insanely wrong. Over the next few days I'll be tweaking the theme and some of the features.

Every expat in America knows this: you need to own a shredder in this country. When you go to buy your shredder you probably have a 'size' in mind. Take that size and go for one two orders of magnitude higher. Your shredder shouldn't be hand held. It should have a frightening set of ratings. It should be able to shred paper, credit cards, CDs and small calf. You are basically after something which could be used as a torture prop in a Bond movie.

This article sits really bad with me. Laptops have such a limited life (especially for hardcore technical users - who run them hot and have an ever expanding need for performance). My company buys my laptops at a significant discount (I always check the invoice price vs retail). On the positive side: I work at Microsoft - so I don't spend the equivalent 2-3K per year on suits, shirts, ties and leather shoes.

For me - a business needs to provide my professional technology. If that means people need to own two laptops then so be it.

So I've been running SkyDrive through its paces since it was launched ten days ago. I am, of course, a Microsoft employee: however I have no knowledge of any internal SkyDrive plans. All my knowledge on this topic is in the public domain.

At first I thought I'd be crying out for a Windows client (like folder share) - but I found the drag and drop browser add-in to be more than satisfactory. I'd like a little more control on downloading (it requires just one more click than I'd prefer). The folder creation and sharing is very clever. The user experience is very clear, concise and straightforward.

I'd dying to have access to a SkyDrive API. I'd love to be able to programmatically upload a document and share it with a set of Passport identities (sorry Windows Live IDs). Check In/Out of docs would also be great. I don't need any fancy doc merging - just a flag saying it's checked out by someone.

I'm also curious as to the storage quota. I'm currently using 244.5 MB of my 500 MB. Hopefully they'll let us pay for me.

My only serious criticism is the inability to share folders/docs with users who aren't in my Messenger Friends List. I'd love to be able to type in an email address. If the person has a Passport (sorry Windows Live ID) then it 'just works' - if not then they can get an email telling them of the sharing and inviting them to sign up.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Tags: microsoft

It's been a few years and a few versions since I used MindJet's MindManager. I downloaded the five day trial to see if it was the right tool to help me withe planning/documentation of a rather complex personal product. Within a few minutes I was up and running and had created a complex mind map with dozens of nodes and attached notes. I was also able to quickly transform my notes from Word, Visio and my Basecamp's Writeboard (a private Wiki).

MindManager's adoption of the Office 2007 ribbon was a pleasant surprise. Within minutes I had figured our the UI and most of the options. Note to all ISVs with a client side app: consider the ribbon! Microsoft has spent a small fortune doing the user experience research. Unless the UI is your competitive advantage then building a UI style project cost you probably don't want to invest in.

A could of my fellow PM Leads on CRM are MindManager fans. I could definitely see MindManager as being a core planning tool for our next release. To my colleagues: fire up the free MindManager Viewer and send in that procurement order for MindManager 7 Pro.

Apart from the money here (which is now next to worthless in the global market) - tipping is ridiculous. This interesting article on MSN notes that the Federal Minimum Wage for tipped employees is $2.13/hour. More Americans should travel... then they'd realise how much of a raw deal they get here: sub-standard infrastructure, expensive food, poor health-care, unstable retirement incomes, no social safety net, laughable public transport etc etc. America is a great country to be wealthy: but a shitty country to poor.