Exam MB2-868: CRM 2011 Applications Preparation tips

I got certified in Applications last week, and now completed all 3 certification exams for crm 2011. I was most confident in Applications and Customization (866) exam, as I have been working on crm 2011 for some time now. There are a few resources that you can use to prepare like classroom training and e-learning(which I used). Along with the study material, the best thing is to either get a 30 day free trail or install crm on a server and try it out!

The exams themselves are well organized. If you have used crm 4.0, try to focus on the delta (what is different from earlier version). I think it gave me a good understanding of the new features. Goal management is something I have brushed past many times before, and it is now one of my favorite new features in crm 2011!

Here are a few things to keep in mind before you take the exam. They are not an exhaustive list by any means, and it has been a little more than a week since my exam.


Managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Marketing Automation Applications (27 percent)
Core records that can be used to create marketing list
Questions about Dynamic and static marketing lists - how to create them, and how the lists are affected by changes to underlying records
Detials of how to add/ remove members to a marketing list
Campaign activities - Think about when they are "activated", and who can own them
When to use quick campaigns, and the features of quick campaigns
Components of a Campaign.
Different ways to create campaign responses



Managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sales Applications (30 percent)
Components of a sales cycle
Questions about product catalog - unit groups, price list etc
Details of outlook integration with the records
Goals and goal metrics - what type of information in available where
Fiscal settings in goals
when to use reports vs views



Managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Service Management Applications (24 percent)
Filling out a case form
Various options for creating recurring appointment
Questions about modifying Contact templates and Knowledge Base templates - what can be copied.
Questions about queue item details.
What kinds of reports are available, and how data is reported using horizontal and vertical grouping




Managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Service Scheduling Applications (19 percent)
Setting up work hours/ modifying work hours
Capacity scheduling - questions about how a boss can manage multiple folks, and how to set it up
Question about what is available in outlook along with crm
Different ways to display scheduling conflicts

Thanks to Neil Benson and Richard Knudson for their write on up the Installation and Customization exam.

http://www.dynamicscrmtrickbag.com/2011/09/12/preparing-for-exam-mb2-866-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2011-customization-and-configuration/

http://customery.co.uk/2011/09/14/preparing-for-mb2-867-microsoft-dynamics-crm-installation-and-deployment/

Integrate Dynamics CRM 2011 with Sharepoint Foundation 2010

Once we have Sharepoint (either server or foundation) installed, we can then integrate it with crm 2011. Some things to keep in mind before we start:

1. Install the crm 2011 list component for sharepoint, if you want your documents in crm to look and feel like they belong in crm. Without it, sharepoint will show up like an iframe with url pointing to your document library.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5283
2. You can have a single org point to multiple sharepoint sites. The corollary is true too: a single sharepoint site can be referenced by multiple orgs. This assumes the right user permissions.
3. You can enable document management for out of the box and custom entites.
4. A single entity (say account), can point to multiple folder locations in the same sharepoint site. For example, one location would have all the account invoices, another folder the account's orders, etc.

Here are the steps to do the integration:

Install sharepoint foundation 2010 on win 7

Finally, I was able to get Dynamics CRM 2011 play nice with Sharepoint Foundation (SF) 2010. I think the hiccup was due to me getting SF2010 installed on my windows 7 machine, rather than on a server.

This link has ALL the information you need to install SF on win 7.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869%28office.14%29.aspx

Pay particular attention to the following:
1. Extract the files using cmd prompt, rather than use tools like winrar.
eg: c:\SharePointFiles\SharePoint /extract:c:\SharePointFiles
2. Edit the config file to allow installation from win 7 machine
3. In "Turn Windows Feature on or off", select the right values from the screenshot.

The above were the things I did not pay much attention to, and thus was scratching my head trying to figure out what happened. Hope you learn from my mistakes!

Once SF2010 is set up, it is pretty straightforward to hook it up with crm 2011. I will follow up with another post for that.