iPad Sales Experience for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online

Now we can access Dynamic CRM online on an iPad in a supported manner. This means that iPad experience only supports the new look & feel of the updated Polaris forms. Now existing CRM online user turns this on by installing product updates. For new customers in CRM Online, this functionality will be enabled by default.

After installation you’ll be able to see iPad Sales Experience on your iPad by simply hitting the CRM URL on your Safari browser.

 

Things that you must have for using CRM 2011 on your iPad

• You must have iOS6 installed to use CRM online in your iPad
• You can only access this from Safari on an iPad
• For Safari, Dynamics CRM will work with:  Mac OS-X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), Mac OS-X 10.7 (Lion), Mac OS-X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) will offer full support.

Things those are available on the iPad and Functionality in the iPad

• COLA(Contact, Opportunity, Lead & Account) entities will open up in the new process based forms of Polaris. (screen shots for lead & account are attached at the end of blog)

• Other Entities in Dashboards & Sub Grids can’t be accessed through Sitemap & while opening other entities they’ll open up in either Mobile Express UI or Read Optimized format. (If you disable the new UI through any security role then the mobile express form is displayed.)

• Customized forms will always open in Mobile Express. The Home and Most Recently Used buttons are removed, and the navigation pane is collapsed by default when in portrait mode.

• Whenever the task is created/ updated for the customer you will see the feeds posted on your as well as your followers’ wall in CRM as shown below.

 

 

With what’s new feature you can delete, like and, reply in a comment for the post which is similar to well known social networking site, Facebook. You can also follow Entities like opportunities, Leads so the team will have an update regarding the progress on each customer task; whose functionality is similar to another popular social networking site, twitter.

• Polaris is designed to load quicker

• All fields can be easily modified on the iPad including lookup fields. Lookup fields are now available in a dropdown fashion. However, when you click Lookup More Records you get a lookup dialog that’ll appear overlaid on the CRM window.

 

 

 

• You can work with the Charts and Dashboards like you did within CRM. When on a grid, you can expand the Charts pane to click on a section of the chart, the data in the grid automatically refresh’s for those records that section applies to, and even selects a new field and chart type to report on different data.

The updated Polaris forms have few limitations which if handled correctly are quite manageable. Few limitations which are quite observable I’m listing out as follows.

·         You won’t see any ribbon extensions.

·         You can only add a phone call & task with a record. If you want to add appointment, Email or a Fax you have to switch to classic or add via a sub grid.

·         Unlike the ribbon, the command bar is not customizable.

·         You can see related records but you can’t add new ones. Though this can be achieved using sub-grid or switching back to classic.

·         On Load, on change or On Save event handlers don’t support JavaScript.

·         You cannot create dashboards for the new UI.

·         Customized forms will show up only in a very basic layout. If you have added client scripts to any of the forms listed above, you’ll still be able to access them normally on other devices, but your customizations will not be present on the iPad.

·         You won’t be able to access the process editor for sales (or service) forms.

·         You won’t be able to share records.

·         You won’t be able to access the form editor.

·         Most of the commands that were available in the ribbon at the top of the screen have been moved to the command bar at the bottom of the screen.

·         You will be able to edit records individually, but you won’t be able to edit them in bulk.

·         You can’t re-size a chart, but you can maximize and minimize it.

·         Entities like Quote, Product, Goal, Marketing List, Rollup Query, Rollup Field, & Article do not open on the iPad.

 

[Screen Shots]

 

1.  Dashboard

 

 

2.  Account

 

 

 

 

3. Lead