If your organization has customers, you need a software system to help you manage your customer information. Unfortunately, many companies today are stuck using antiquated customer systems that don’t integrate with Microsoft Office Outlook, aren’t available from the Web, and can’t be accessed via mobile devices. Even worse, some companies rely on Outlook contacts and Microsoft Office Excel files for precious customer data, making team collaboration on these records very difficult.
You probably already know that Microsoft offers a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution as part of its Dynamics family. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an easy-to-use application that businesses of all sizes and types can utilize. One of Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s most important benefits is its native integration with other Microsoft productivity tools: Outlook, Excel, and Microsoft Office Word. Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows organizations to manage their sales, marketing, and customer service information more efficiently, leading to higher sales revenue and improved customer satisfaction.
But just as important as Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s integration with other Microsoft tools, Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers developers a powerful customization and programming platform that you can use to satisfy almost any business requirement. This book provides a detailed explanation of the key areas in the Software Development Kit (SDK) and the Web-service–based Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This book includes plenty of code samples and examples on topics such as form scripting, plug-ins, workflow assemblies, customizing the user interface, and more.
Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 was written by the consulting firm Sonoma Partners. Our firm has written several other successful titles for Microsoft Press, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step (2008) and Working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, Second Edition (2008). We tried to bring our real-world customer experiences to the writing process and share the most relevant information we think you’ll need to program with the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.
We wrote this book for professional developers who want to use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK and its APIs to extensively customize the software application. We assume that you’re comfortable working with .NET solutions and Web services. In addition, we also assume that you have a basic understanding of how to navigate the Microsoft Dynamics CRM interface and you understand its configuration capabilities. If you’re looking for a detailed explanation of the Web-based configuration tools that Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers, please refer to Working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, Second Edition, which explains these topics in great detail. If you’re brand new to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and you want to learn how to navigate through the user interface (from an end-user perspective), you can refer to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Step by Step, which explains various day-to-day tasks such as creating accounts, logging a phone call, tracking an e-mail, and so on.