Microsoft will be releasing the December 2012 Service Update for Dynamics CRM, starting in mid-December and continuing through January 2013.  There are many new and exciting updates with this release, including multiple browser support and updated user interface (UI) changes.  Let’s review some of them!

New Pre-Defined and Configurable Sales and Service Processes

Microsoft is releasing three new pre-defined integrated sales and service processes for leads, opportunities, and cases.  Notice “pre-defined” and also “configurable!”  Each process will have one or more stages that are based on industry best practices. The goal is to help you get up and running with CRM, and to give you a base to work with.  The processes will be customizable, because we all know every company has a different process.

Collaborative Selling

This new release will allow you to track and manage stakeholders for your opportunities, and tag people with a particular role, such as Influencer or Decision Maker.  This allows you to better track who is key on that Opportunity.

Also coming is integration with Skype and Yammer, two social tools Microsoft has purchased recently and are working to integrate into their existing products.  Yammer is a social collaboration tool for the enterprise – think of it as twitter but only for your organization.

Updated UX (User Experience)

This is and will continue to be a big change.  Microsoft has just released Windows 8 and the new interface is being worked into multiple products, including Dynamics CRM.  The goal is to “flatten and streamline” the information presented, and make it a more process-oriented experience.  Initially, the changes will be around the sales and service areas of Dynamics CRM, so think Leads, Opportunities, Accounts, Cases, and Contacts.  You can opt-in to the new forms or keep the “classic” forms and continue to run as is.

I am looking forward to these changes, as I think it will present more actionable information in a screen that what is currently displayed, and keep it nice and clean as well.

Browser Support

Now for the other big changes, besides the new user experience and form changes – support for multiple browsers!  You may know that Microsoft hoped to get this out in the summer, but it was postponed.  Now it is ready and I know many people are looking forward to this update, including me!

For the full release guide, you can download it from this location: http://crmpublish.blob.core.windows.net/docs/Release_Preview_Guide_December_2012_FINAL.pdf.

If you are running CRM Online, look for these updates towards the end of the year.  If you have CRM on-premise, these should be available for installation towards the end of the year.

If you have any questions, please contact us!