Transaction detail codes are useful in FRx for organizing and displaying GP transaction details, but not all of the available codes work with GP.  DynamicAccounting.net has posted this helpful entry on which codes to use with GP.

Microsoft provides a collection of "accelerators" for developers and CRM admins to jump start advanced Dynamics CRM customization.

Today, I will focus on the "Analytics" accelerator, though all accelerators are available at http://crmaccelerators.codeplex.com/

Background

This accelerator privides SQL Reporting Services (SRS) reports in an installation ready format as well as the code and basic instruction behind them.

The First thing to note is that the Analytics Accelerator is being released in three parts. As of this writing, the second release "Analytics R2" has just hit Codeplex.

• R1 - SQL 2005 Dashboards
• R2 - SQL 2008 Dashboards [AVAILABLE NOW]
• R3 - SQL Server Analysis Services Cubes, data mining

When R3 is available, 10 Types will post a follow up review on those additional functionalities.

NOTE TO SQL 2005 USERS:There is an as-yet uncorrected issue in the new R2 release in that the SRS reports for SQL 2005 released with R1 no longer work with SQL 2005, though there are new reports also provided that work with SQL 2008. At this point, the community is waiting for Microsoft to rebuild the provided SQL 2005 reports correctly, or re-release the R1 reorts, which include the correct SQL 2005 reports

Getting Started

Once you have downloaded the code, you will need to install the Reports into your CRM environment. Note that you will need CRM 4.0 and SQL Server 2008 correctly configured for web deployment and reporting. This is a good time to note that Microsoft has updated this Virtual PC (VPC) for CRM 4.0 and it is available to Microsoft Partners on Partnersource.

The provided documentation details the installation. If you have imported custom SRS reports, you will be familiar with the process. For reports with multiple graphs and tables, import the parent report first, then the sub-report and ensure that you link it to the parent report. Also check your CRM report's sharing permissions if you find other users unable to view the report.

Obviously, these reports are using data from your CRM DB so be sure to populate it with some reasonable data if you see that your reports are a bit uninteresting.

What is Provided

There are multiple reports provided that include some hypothetical reporting metrics for:

• Account Executive
• CRM Usage by Salesperson
• Sales Funnel
• Sales Manager
• Support Case Management

What to do

These SRS reports are provided with full customization possible through SRS Report Designer or Visual Studio, which I prefer. Some things you might want to try out once you have loaded them into Visual Studio:

• Check out the data soruce to populate your CRM with data to see the reports in action
• Create a gauge report using the Account Executive Dashboard as a model
• Change the data source on sub-reports
• Create your own custom "Traffic Light" report charting the red-yellow-green values of key data elements achieving certain threshholds.

Next Steps

• Look for the release of the Analytics R3 accelerator and review on 10 Types
• Look for our hands on code creation of a "Traffic Light" report

The contents of this Blog Post were presented at NextCorp Client Day on September 17, 2009

Executive Summary

• Key Performance Indicators - create a quick snapshot of the metrics that that measure your business
• Real-time availability - eliminate the hours or days it takes to compile critical reporting
• Low cost alternative to BI - dashboards can bridge the reproting gap at a fraction of the cost of full system integration or data modeling projects
• Distributable via email/web - get the data in the hands of those who need it and even automate distribution via email
  

Background

• Use Dashboards as a daily tool for monitoring key metrics for health of your business
• Facilitate cross-departmental meetings with dashboards that provide clear performance measures without requiring industry or technical proficiency
• Key Performance Indicators are the more critical metrics that let you know the health of the business
• Real-time availability eliminates the "rear-view mirror" effect of reviewing last month's numbers
• Drill down capability makes going from summary to detail data just mouse clicks away
  

Immediate Benefits

• Relieves staff of compiling data
• Real-time reporting to compliment trends
• Easy distribution
• Minimal requirements (SQL Server 2005+ / Included with NextCorp Premier Services for Hosted Clients)
• Rapid, low cost alternative to BI suites

Report from Multiple Systems

• Report from multiple systems
• Data integration not required
• You provide constraints
• Integrated into your systems or stand alone

Know Sooner

• Push reporting to inbox, mobile device
• Graphical indicators
• Drill down into the issue
• Export to Excel and use BI tools to slice and dice

Sample Dashboards

The following Dashboard provide simple, graphical indicators of complex business metrics and also provide quick drill down capability to source data. Not the guage gives a clear indication of a key metric.

NextCorp CRM Usage Dashboard Example.png (255.52 kb)

The next dashboard does not use guages but provides both trend and summary data for a quick snapshot report the sales manager can access any time to determine how the team is performing.

NextCorp Sales Manager Dashboard Example.png (126.83 kb)

Next Steps

• Consider your key business metrics and reports your team requires
• Note the multiple systems data comes from and at what frequency
• Evaluate the time to compile and analyze
• Contact NextCorp to discuss providing your consolidated, simplified, automated reporting dashboards
• Check out the [link]10 Types blog on Implementing the SRS Dashboard Accelerators for Dynamics CRM[/link]