QoS-IT Best Practise Blog

CRM AutoNumber

ged@qos-it.com — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:07:53 GMT

This is a general purpose Auto Numbering plug-in for use with workflows for any CRM entity.
The workflow plug-in is a dll file named as: ASK.AutoNumber.dll which needs to be registered using registration tool PluginRegistration.EXE
Both files, ASK.AutoNumber.dll and PluginRegistration.EXE should be downloaded and saved in this directory:

http://qos-it.comC:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Server\bin\assembly

Download ASK.AutoNumber.dll

If you don’t already have the PluginRegistration.EXE file saved on CRM server (at the above directory) then

Download PluginRegistration.EXE

Step 1: registering ASK.AutoNumber.dll

Run PluginRegistration.EXE as administrator
Set up connection to Microsoft CRM (two steps process)

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Aligning ITIL Change Management to QoS-IT / Microsoft CRM

ged@qos-it.com — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 08:30:15 GMT

By: Anton Avila, Process Manager for R-Group International Pty Ltd

Download RFC Entity

Often the discussion topic with Management Stakeholders comes up – “So when will our new toolset be ready?” Well that depends... comes the answer. What do we want to use it for?

If you’ve ever given that response, and been met with blank looks or vague business-speak for your trouble, you’re certainly not alone. In fact, most Best Practice adherents out there will tell you it’s a common fault in many organisations; trying to align the way you operate to the toolset after you’ve chosen it, rather than the infinitely more sensible approach of choosing (and then configuring) your toolset to support your existing operations and processes (and the processes you think you’ll be adopting in future as your organisation matures).

Taking this “Toolset supports the Process” approach gave us at R-Group a challenge recently in regards to ITIL Change Management. One of the few ITIL process areas to really gain traction in Western Australia to date (and indeed a primary process driver in the rest of the IT industry in Australia), Change Management really does represent the elephant in the room. But why does it represent such a challenge if everyone acknowledges just how important it is?

The key to any Process implementation is that the Process needs to be Effective, Efficient, and Responsive. This isn’t just for the sake of service delivery; it’s also just as important for the sanity of your own personnel. After all, if the way your organisation implements Change Management (and thus builds the tool to support the implementation) isn’t these three things, will your people use the process? If they don’t use it properly because it’s unwieldy (responsiveness), time consuming (efficiency), and just doesn’t deliver the results it’s supposed to (effectiveness), how can you expect your service delivery to your customers to be what you want it to be?

We took the perspective that we wanted Change Management to be as easy to use as possible. This means documenting as many types of minor, low-risk/impact Changes that we otherwise make every day as pre-set procedures; this allows our team to use the QoS-IT customised ‘Outage’ entity for a lot of general maintenance work... For the technician it means no mess, no fuss; a minute or two to log their ‘Outage’ ticket and they’re done with their administrative requirements.

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Q-Project for planning, monitoring & control of projects in Microsoft CRM

ged@qos-it.com — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:54:57 GMT

Q-Project is project management software developed for Microsoft CRM to be release November 2010.

Q-Project is the ideal tool for planning, monitoring & control of projects in the known environment of Microsoft CRM

Identify and define the products and services needed to achieve the project objectives.
Break down the work needed to deliver the products and services into separate work packages.
Define the responsibilities of the individuals who will deliver the work packages.
Construct a schedule that takes into account the logical dependencies between activities.
Estimate the quantity of resources and financial costs related with each work package
Identify and analyze the risks associated with each work package and how to handle them

Watch Q-Project web site for further details, beta download and final release notes.
Q-Project is available free for all QoS-IT customers

Workflow: Email customer when case is resolved

ged@qos-it.com — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 06:26:31 GMT

I was asked how to include the case’s work details in a workflow email sent to customer when case is resolved. The Case attribute “Resolution” (ask_resolutiontext) is created at the close case stage and saved to the activity type “Case Resolution”.
It is easy to create workflow that sends an email when case is resolved and to include the work details from the case attribute “Resolution” in the email to the customer.
What happens if all jobs are completed but the case is still active with the status “Ready for Billing”. At this status no other job can be created, but the case is not yet in “Problem Solved” status and therefore the work details are not available to be inserted to the email.
Each time an activity is created (such as phone, email, remote, onsite) the activity’s details are stored in the description field of the Phone, Task or Email activities that are linked to the case.
By creating new attribute in the case entity and using workflows associated with the phone, task & email activities we can merge the work details of all activities and store them in the case at the time each activity is completed.

Note: Before you modify customization, export the existing customization and backup CRM.

Firstly, create new attribute “Task Details” type “ntext” with maximum length of 2,000 characters.
Add the new field to the Form in the Administration tab.
Click and open the form properties. Select and open to edit the OnLoad event.
Add the following JavaScript after the last line of the existing script:

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Additional Instructions: Customers’ Web Portal Customization

ged@qos-it.com — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:08:51 GMT

Additional Instructions: Customers’ Web Portal Customization

The settings of customer’s web portal are stored as settings.xml file in the Portal directory (not PortalAdmin). When you open PortalAdmin you must firstly load settings.xml file by clicking the button “Load Settings File” on the menu bar.
When you modify the text of any web component you need to firstly save the formatted HTML text as well as click the Save button to save the settings of the modified web page (refer to image).

Once web portal customization is completed, click the “Create Settings File” button and save the updated settings.xml file by overwriting the existing settings.xml file in the Portal directory.

You must reset IIS (IISReset command-line)to view the changes made to settings.xml in the Portal web site.

When you click to open the customer’s report page on portal you may receive an error message similar to this one:

“The temp directory in chart handler configuration is not accessible [C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\portal\img\]”

The reason for this message is that the portal creates a chart (for the report) and stores it in a directory of the web site. You need to change the permission for the users accessing the portal.

Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Select the Portal Site
right click & select Edit Permissions

In the Security Tab edit permissions to Allow read and write permissions

Workflow: Find and Replace Text

ged@qos-it.com — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:48:36 GMT

Find and replace text

The workflow plug-in “Replace Text” search for word or phrase within an entity field and replaces it with another word or phrase.

This plug-in is useful when the Web Interface URL of HW Device needs to be replaced with another URL.

A workflow to find and replace text has two steps. The first one finds and replaces the text & the second step updates the field with the replaced text.
Note that you can update any field not just the one where the original text was stored.

How to create Find & Replace Text workflow?

Create new workflow for the entity HW Device

Select how to trigger the workflow either “On demand” or when “Record is created” or “Record attributes change” (select attribute).

Click: Add Step>QoS-IT Generic>Replace Text

Place the cursor in the “Original Text” field.

Select from the Form Assistant HW Device>Web Interface

Click: Add
Click: OK

Enter the word or phrase to search for in the Web Interface (of the HW Device) field and the word or phrase to replace with.

Click: Save and Close

The next step is to update the record with the updated Web Interface field.

Click: Add Step>Update Record and select HW Device as the record to be updated

Click: Set Properties

Click to open the Network Tab

Place the cursor in the Web Interface field and update this field by selecting the “Processed String” from the Form Assistant.

Click: Save and Close

Publish workflow

Note that you can update any field in the HW Device entity or any field in any entity that HW device is related to (such as Account, Contact and others).

You can also merge texts from different entities and update the results in another field of the entity or a related entity.

Example:

Create a workflow for Email entity

Click: Add Step>QoS-IT Generic>Replace Text

Click Set Properties

Any field in the Email entity can be selected as Original Text

The text we search is the exact same text that is in this field

The replacement text is a merge of Case Number + Sender (From)

The next workflow step is Create Entity (Task)

Update the Subject of the task with the Processed String created in the previous step.

Click: Save and Close

Publish workflow

Updated workflows

ged@qos-it.com — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:37:11 GMT

Updated workflows to resolve issues with duplicated emails.
Q4.1 – Customer notification when new case is created
Q4.1- Customer Satisfaction Survey email

Download workflows

Replace the workflows with same name but version Q3 with these new Q4.1 workflows

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Create sale’s opportunity from Level Platforms (LPI) devices’ scan

ged@qos-it.com — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:39:11 GMT

During RMM discovery process (RMM Sync workflow) some RMM software provide details on the applications installed on the scanned device (server, desktop or notebook). The device’s operating system is stored in the Hardware tab of the device while all other software applications are stored in the device’s Notes entity.

In this example a workflow “runs” on list of HW Device’s notes, searching for the words “ …” and when found it sends an Email to customer offering an upgrade to Acrobat Version 9 and also creates Sales Opportunity linked to this account.

To list notes related to HW Devices, got to “Advance Find” and create search on the Notes entity of HW Device where the Account field (of HW Device) contains data

Click>Find

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Workflow for RMM Sync.

ged@qos-it.com — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:14:46 GMT

The workflow steps are:

1. Perform Sync function (create / update HW Devices in QoS-IT)

2. Call a plug-in and calculate the next sync date based on the current “Next Run Time” and “Run Every” fields in the background process record associated with this workflow

3. Update “Next Run Time” on the background process record.

4. Timeout (wait until) the next run time (updated in item 3 above) is due

5. Call again this workflow (as child workflow)

Download workflow: HW Device Import (RMM Integration)

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How to filter out service activities in Outlook

ged@qos-it.com — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:55:27 GMT

How to filter out service activities in Outlook

Each job in QoS-IT is associated with service activity with the subject line includes the following text:

Action Required - when case is created or job is completed
Created date – when job is created
Job type – when job is assigned to CSR
Completed – when job is completed

To filter out the service activities associated with the words: Create, Completed & Required, follow these steps:

In Outlook>Calendar>Right click & select “Customize Current View”
In the “Customize View: Day/Week/Month” page click to open “Filter”
Click to open the “Advanced” tab and add the Subject field from Appointment as in this image:

Select Condition as “doesn’t contain”

Enter in the Value field: “Create Completed required”

Click: Add To List & OK

OK again and all service activities that contains those words in the subject line will not appear in your Outlook calendar