July 2006 - Posts
Microsoft has recalled SBS 2003 R2 because it has found some minor issues in the Releast to Manufacturing product. It is to Microsoft's credit that it did a recall, rather than issue patches. Thanks to SBS MVPs Andy Goodman and Susan Bradley for alerting the community. Susan provides this: Microsoft recalls small-business product | Tech News on ZDNet:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6099857.html
My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe this fall. We have been advised to have a GPS with us, even by seasoned European travelers. We checked whether we could get a rent car equiped with GPS from our point of entry, Zurich, and were told they just weren't available. Our friends who had just returned from a trip indicated it was a couple hundred Euros at least. So we decided to look into buying a GPS that we could use with either my notebook and/or my Pocket PC. Prices were all over the place. We even checked Best Buy which showed us units designed to be installed in your car for $500 and up! That was not what we had in mind.
Then I decided to check with the MapPoint MVPs. Good idea! I posted a query on the MapPoint MVP newsgroup and was immediately told to check out Microsoft's Streets and Trips with GPS Locator. This neat package comes with the software AND a neat, small GPS receiver. And the total price, RETAIL, was only $129. It's compatible with MapPoint as well. I was assured it will work in Europe as well. One of the bennies of being awarded MVP is they give you some MVP bucks to spend in the Microsoft Company Store. The Company Store has very good pricing. I still had enough bucks left to buy the package! It arrived today.
I immediately tried it out, in the house. Not so good. It didn't seem to respond :-( Then I took it outside and walked around the driveway with it. My poor ole notebook's screen is pretty hard to read in the South Texas summer sun, but it did register and tell me where I was, etc. We took it for 'a spin' this evening, having set a couple of points for our route. It did 'pretty well'. It told us we were 'Off Route' when we drove up to our first destination. I think the mapping folks need to do a little more work. My house is always indicated at the other end of my block on ALL maps. Of course folks trying to find us for the first time get real confused too. Our address is 218, the house across the street is 232! Blows a lot of minds.
Now that I got my new toy to work, at least outdoors, I'm looking forward to using it. We'll give it a bit of a workout on an upcoming trip to visit our daughter in Dallas. And then on to the Tuscany wine country!
Yesterday our Saturday morning CRM study group had a look at Discount Lists. Discount Lists allow you to set quantity discounts, such as 10% off for orders of 10 to 99 units or 15% for orders over 100. I'd not had an opportunity to play with Discount Lists as my small business customers are likely candidates for volume discounts. We created a Discount List called 'Geeks' (our study group is affectionately called The Geeks). We assigned it to a product from our Product Catalog, and then had fun playing with the quantity. We conveniently priced our test product at $100 each. When we entered a quantity below 10, it should a price of $100 each. When the quantity went to between 10 and 99, the Volume Discount ($) field showed a $10 per unit discount. Changing the quantity to 100 or over resulted in a per unit Volume Discount of $15.
Discount Lists are easy to create. In the CRM Web Client go to Settings, then Settings and Product Catalog. Just give it a name and then define either an Amount of Percent discount for given quantity ranges. Give it a date range as well so that you can use it for specials and sales.
Assigning the Discount List is a bit more tricky. Our group spent a bit of time figuring this out. One way is to go to Settings, Settings, Product Catalog, then Price Lists. From there select the appropriate Price List and then select Price List Items from the Navigation Pane. From here, select the appropriate product and you will find Discount List on the product's Price List Item form.
Happy discounting!
On a recently installed SBS 2003 client I have installed the eval version of a popular antivirus software (which will remain unnamed). I install their 30 eval so my clients are protected while we wait for the order for the software to eventually be fulfilled. Today I received, finally, the software, license, and serial number for the purchased software. In order to activate this on the client though, I have to turn the serial number into an activation key. To do so I have to go to their on-line registration site. Tonight I attempted to do so but when I click on the Continue button to progress, nothing happens! I have had this experience more than once. Why do vendors, or at least this one, make it SO difficult to install their products. I started to say "why do they make it so difficult to BUY their products", but they got my money at least a week ago! I'm sure tomorrow, IF I have a chance to try once again, I will likely be able to register, get the activation key, and complete the process. But why can't this vendor be a little more 'partner friendly' if not customer friendly and make sure it works when I'm ready and available?
For the last several weeks I have been trying to figure out a problem at a new SBS client's site. When the boss attempts to right-click on a file on the server and select Send To, it takes about 25 to 30 seconds for the list of Send To options to be displayed. When opening My Computer, it also takes about 25 or so seconds for it to display the contents. And when trying to Save As, it again takes about 25 seconds before the list of files is displayed.
After quite a bit of trial and error I finally examined the Event Log (whoda thot?). There I found entries relating to the Windows Image Acquisition service starting and then stopping unexpectedly followed by a related DCOM error. Googling on this I found it has to do with scanners and cameras. So, I went to the Control Panel, Scanners and Cameras, and after about 25 seconds of searching, it came up empty. Then I went to Device Manager and found Imaging Devices. There I found listed the HP OfficeJet 7300 All-in-One printer. I disabled this and lo and behold, my problem vanished! I think the printing part is all right but the scanning function is probably what was causing the problem. So, beware of All-in-Ones and consider them when you have 'performance' problems that can't be otherwise explained.
Addendum: After posting this, I went back into the client to check one other thing. To my surprise I found that eventhough the HP was Enabled, the problem was still resolved! I guess the act of disabling and then re-enabling the device cleared 'something'.
One of the nice features of Microsoft CRM is that the help files are updated from time to time. You don't have to buy a new version, just download the new help files. Thanks to Susan Bradley [MVP] for posting the address for the latest update, here.
There are 3 versions of the new help files: one for the server which loads them for the CRM web client; one for the Laptop client which provides the new help files for your Laptop Client; and the last is a 'stand alone' which can be installed on any computer, whether or not is has CRM installed. That way one can examine the help stuff without having to have CRM accessible. The current version is 3.3a.
The downloads are tiny by today's standards, only about 1 MB. But they do take a little while to install, so be patient.
One of our CRM Study Group members, Glen Carter, encountered an issue with the Outlook Client and Outlook profiles. He installed the Outlook Laptop Client in the customer's notebook but when Outlook was then opened the CRM client would not function. Then he learned that the customer had TWO Outlook profiles and neither were set as the default (he worked for two different companies). It appears that the CRM Outlook Client cannot install properly without a default profile being specified. It has no capability of asking which profile to use. Glen uninstalled the CRM Laptop Client and deleted the existing profiles. He recreated one of the profiles and set it as the default and reinstalled the CRM Client to resolve the issue. He was then able to again recreate the second profile so that there was no default profile and the customer was able to again select the profile he needed.