The new features described in What's New are covered within the following feature areas:
Reports from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 are upgraded for use with the new version, which includes a new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. Customizations are also upgraded.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 has offerings -- Workgroup, Professional, and Enterprise -- that cover a variety of implementations for small, mid-level and large organizations. In each case, deployment operates on a single license key, making it easier to add licenses.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Enterprise supports multiple organizations (a feature known as multi-tenancy) on a single Microsoft Dynamics CRM server.
This makes it easier to manage data and resources more efficiently. The new multilingual user interface makes it possible to have more than one language available for the user interface, Help, and metadata in a single installation.
An organization can now enter any financial transactions -- such as opportunities, quotes, orders and invoices -- in multiple currencies.
The Import Data Wizard is useful for importing and enriching data of many types, including custom ones. It includes support for data maps and better error handling.
The Data Migration Manager helps users migrate data from another customer relationship management system to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It can also be used to delete migrated data and manage data maps.
With the duplicate detection feature, users can establish duplicate-detection rules and then run the Duplicate Detection Wizard to maintain data quality.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook now includes a diagnostics tool that makes it easier to identify records that cause synchronization problems and addins that have been disabled. It helps administrators trace diagnostics information on client computers.
The user interface for Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook now includes the Microsoft Office Ribbon instead of menus and toolbars. Also, synchronization of Microsoft Office Outlook has been improved.
Synchronization of data taken offline also has been improved. It can be configured to occur in the background, which guarantees that users have up-todate data every time that they go offline.
The new Report Wizard lets users create more sophisticated custom reports.
It is now possible to create system-to-system relationships, many-to-many relationships, and self-referential relationships between supported entities. Combined, these new relationships make it possible to construct a more robust system. For example, a user can establish a hierarchical relationship between two lead entities by using self-referential relationships.
Customizations are now easier to import and export, making it possible to transport whole solutions from one implementation to another. This includes systems that have different base languages from one another.
Views of record lists have been improved. Personal views can be saved and shared. Also, all attributes from a primary entity can be displayed in a related entity's views.
Child workflows and workflow templates provide two ways for users to build upon existing workflow logic while they are creating new workflows.
Workflows now support many more record types. Also, they can now be triggered by the update and delete events, and a single workflow can be triggered by more than one event.
Dynamic values and conditionals are more useful. The new user interface for workflows includes the Form Assistant, a tool for specifying dynamic values. Dynamic values are also improved by the increased number of record relationships. So, there are more records and attributes available for inclusion in dynamic values.
Workflow logic has been bolstered through the increased support for stages, which make it possible to define and monitor parts of a complex workflow.
Most significantly, a unified event framework includes both plug-ins and workflows. This reduces the learning curve for developers. Plug-ins have replaced callouts as the primary tool for building custom code. Workflow code is now executed through the .NET version 3.0 Windows Workflow Foundation.
The plug-in model supports asynchronous in addition to synchronous events. Plug-ins also support multi-tenancy, as long as each plug-in is registered with a specific organization.
Web services now support Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, offline users, pluggable authentication, and metadata.
Last Updated: Thursday, February 16, 2012; at 12:43:37 PM
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