Bloggers

How to Track Dynamics CRM PowerWebForms

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:04:16 GMT

PowerObjects writes "[by JoeCRM]...PowerWebTraffic is a great way to see what your customers are interested in from your website. Individually they are both very helpful, but working together they can be an even better tool. With the steps below, you can create a simple workflow to send an email from CRM when a form is submitted and in that email is a link back to your tracked page..." more

Tips on Branding and Customization in SharePoint 2013

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:54:06 GMT

Perficient writes "[by Parshva Vora]...Overall I feel Microsoft did a great job by clearly segregating the tasks of developing master pages and page layouts from rest of the branding tasks and keeping them for SharePoint developer instead of designer...Design Manager is available only in publishing sites. Like earlier versions of SharePoint, you can pick any master page to start with so you don’t have to start from scratch. It’s always better to..." more

5 Step Walkthrough on Creating an IT and Business Roadmap

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:50:11 GMT

Skyline Technologies writes "[by David Manning]...roadmaps may be created during the multi-generational product planning process. MGPP is a technique often used in product planning to provide structure, direction, and timing, and to base product development on strategic principles .During the MGPP process, I suggest five steps to develop your roadmap..." more

Code Sample for Copy All To Clipboard: A Silverlight DataGrid Story

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:45:33 GMT

QA writes "[by Daniel Ives]...I first thought of using some kind of SendKeys API but there isn't one for Silverlight and I didn't fancy using UIAutomation to work around it...here's the LookForBindingObject method, based on my idea earlier of walking the template to find bindings..." more

3 Challenges when Exporting Dynamics GP Purchase Orders

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:42:01 GMT

Precipio Services writes "[by Steve Endow]...a client asked me to help them export purchase orders out of Dynamics GP. They work with third-party warehouses and logistics services that receive their inventory and also fulfill customer orders...to this day, I am still updating and refining the PO export to properly send data to the third party warehouses and trading partners...There are three primary reasons why exporting a PO is difficult..." more

Walkthrough Creating a Master Page in SharePoint 2013 Design Manager

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:39:57 GMT

Perficient writes "[by Aml Ajgaonkar]...The Design Manager assists in creating the master page from simple HTML, CSS files. The designer now only has to worry about his design and convert that into HTML, CSS and Images. Once these artifacts are ready, the design manager can process these to generate a master page...The process to create a master page is really simple:.." more

Using Advanced Find to View Appointments in CRM 2011

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:39:53 GMT

PowerObjects writes "[by JoeCRM]...How do we separate those views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011? You may think that creating two views could by done by adding the filter criteria of Activity Type equals Appointment or Recurring Appointment. However, that won’t fetch the desired results...the Appointments created in the recurrence series do not get flagged as a recurring appointment. In order to fulfill this requirement..." more

Walkthrough on Search-Display Templates in SharePoint

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:56:58 GMT

Perficient writes "[by Will Tseng]...Display Templates are the new dynamic way of displaying your search results. They are no longer .xslt based, but are HTML/JavaScript based, which allows greater flexibility in designing your search experience. You can set your search results display to be based off of different content types. Let’s take a look. First off, head over to your..." more

SharePoint 2013 eDiscovery Security Tips

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:28:43 GMT

ARB Security Solutions writes "[by Adam]...Typically, if you export content from eDiscovery, you will also need to export a list of things that aren’t able to be indexed. The search crawl log will contain that information. This means eDiscovery users also have to be able to access the" more

Microsoft Rolls Out Partner Subsidy for Cloud

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:44:59 GMT

Scott Bekker writes "...A new "Cloud Easy" partner subsidy similar to the recurring Big Easy incentive is now available for Microsoft partners in the United States...The Cloud Easy program consists of a 15 percent subsidy check, sent by Microsoft to the customer and made out to the partner of the customer's choice. Customers can use the checks for partner services or software....Intended primarily for..." more

Digital Signatures Solution in the Cloud

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:43:34 GMT

ARX writes "[by Ashley]...signature is fully compliant with international standards and regulations...CoSign Cloud also offers cloud services for SharePoint, enabling users to seamlessly add digital signatures to SharePoint documents..." more

Walkthrough Custom Paging -VS2012 LightSwitch Using RadDataPager for Silverlight

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:39:15 GMT

Telerik writes "[by Vladimir Enchev]...how you can customize easily paging behavior in Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 LightSwitch using Telerik RadDataPager for Silverlight..." more

Windows 2012 Essentials - Walkthrough Setting up a Child

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:35:51 GMT

Susan Bradley writes "...starting off with the first virtual server underneath the Server 2012 HyperV, let's start by downloading Windows 2012 Essentials Releease Candidate..." more

SkyDrive Pro is Another Notch in the SharePoint 2013 Toolbelt

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:32:17 GMT

Socius writes "[by Brett Pitstick]...In version 2013, the SkyDrive hub will be your single location for storing, sharing and collecting all of the files pertinent to you. Your “My Documents” folder has any files that you create or upload which are private by default, but it is easier than ever to share them with individuals or groups in your organization...There is also a “Shared with Everyone” folder which automatically makes the documents saved in it available to..." more

Does Technology Maturity Matter?

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:28:08 GMT

Skyline Technologies writes "[by Aaron Hayon]...Well, as with Microsoft, every organization needs to know when to adopt a new technology and include it in their toolbox. As a developer, I am constantly looking for a new way to do things that is more efficient and provides a better user experience. When I find a technology that seems to fit this, my nerdy side kicks in and makes me want to include this in..." more

SharePoint Project Management App Addresses Complex Issues

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:13:22 GMT

Bamboo Solutions writes "...As organizations gain project management maturity, project planning and scheduling gains complexity, and project managers and team members want to do more with their project scheduler tool...high-demand features..." more

September Events Highlight Dynamics Opportunities

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:46:28 GMT

Barb Levisay RCP Mag writes "If you are considering adding Dynamics CRM or ERP to your solution lineup, there are two partner events being held in September that could get you up to speed quickly. eXtremeCRM 2012 has an impressive roster of industry leaders ...in Las Vegas. And The Partner Event ,popular with the Dynamics ERP crowd,in Fargo, N.D...." more

Disabling User Accounts in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:41:25 GMT

PowerObjects writes "[by Joe CRM]...The only way in Dynamics CRM to delete a User account is by direct SQL modifications. Many different tables reference a User account, so it is very easy to break the database in doing so. It is highly NOT recommended to use this approach...The first step is reassign the User’s records that will be deactivated. To do this, open the User account by clicking on..." more

Why Windows Server is a Better Platform to Deploy DirectAccess

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:39:22 GMT

Concurrency writes "[by Shannon Fritz]...Let’s just compare UAG DirectAccess to Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess and you’ll see why the new Windows Server is a better platform to deploy DirectAccess (the third generation now), even if your clients are still running on Windows 7..." more

A Quick Peek at .NET Regular Expressions

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:31:08 GMT

Intertech writes "[by Andrew Troelsen]...If you are authoring a .NET application which needs to determine if a body of textual data matches a given pattern...regex provides a way to do so. Now, perhaps because of its origin in Unix, regular expression syntax can make your eyeballs bleed the first time you encounter them. For example, here is a regular expression that tests for a internet email address:..." more

New Applications Begin to Merge the World of Traditional and Social Credit

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:41:21 GMT

EMC writes "[by Steven Goddard]...gives you access to your credit ratings in real time. It notifies you of events that might impact your standing in the process and connects you with the financial products that are most suitable for you. We think it’s only a matter of time before the world of traditional and social credit merge to the considerable benefit of everyone involved..." more

Study Finds Remote Workers are More Not Less Engaged

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:19:52 GMT

Aspect writes "[by Cristine O'Brien]...Some might be surprised to learn that employees who work from home may actually feel more, not less, engaged. A study highlighting this fact was discussed by Scott Edinger for Harvard Business Review in his recent blog, revealing that team members who were not in the same location as their leaders were more engaged and committed...UC applications like Lync equip employees with better collaborative tools, like..." more

Office 365 Infographic: The Future of Productivity

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 22:02:36 GMT

BCG Systems Inc writes "[by Erin Lea]...Regardless of the business you're in, developing strategies to do more with less, faster and while improving services is key to remaining competitive. This infographic visually depicts the next step in the future of productivity - Microsoft Office 365 - how it's empowering organizations with the tools to work smarter, and why it warrants your attention..." more

Do Your Research Before SharePoint 2013 eDiscovery Exchange Integration

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 22:01:35 GMT

ARB Security Solutions writes "[by Adam]...It is possible to manage the discovery process for Exchange Server 2013 from a SharePoint eDiscovery Center. There are several options you have. Adding Exchange mailboxes...apply a hold to an Exchange mailbox, and export content that is discovered from an Exchange mailbox. In order to discover content in Exchange mailboxes, you need to configure a trust relationship between SharePoint and Exchange. You also have to grant..." more

Start Button Syndrome

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:21:04 GMT

Capgemini Group writes "[by Ron Tolido]...Don’t worry. It’s just the generation gap. With the release of Windows 8 now imminent and the preview edition being widely installed and tested, the same, tough criticism is heard over and over again: why is that user interface so completely different from what it used to be?...The Windows 8 user interface is redesigned from the ground up to facilitate a new era of working and being entertained through multiple (mobile) devices with..." more

5 Tips for Turning a SharePoint 2010 Search Center into a Find Center

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:06:15 GMT

Axceler writes "[by Andrea Bichsel]...it was my job to figure out best practices for creating a search experience that would yield results and keep users coming back. Some of the following recommendations are fairly easy to implement and others take a bit more effort, but all can greatly improve search results...The following articles provide useful information on customizing Search Centers..." more

How to Get Plug-ins to Auto Update on WordPress and IIS

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:30:12 GMT

Susan Bradley writes "...for anyone else who has tried the webmatrix/wordpress on IIS and couldn't get plug ins to update.. it's your wincache file causing you..." more

How to Create Managed Properties in a Site Collection in SharePoint 2013

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:27:36 GMT

Steve Peschka writes "...In SharePoint 2010 and prior versions of SharePoint there were a couple of limitations with how they were used that made them kind of cumbersome:...In SharePoint 2013 we open this up and make it a lot more accessible. You can still create managed properties at the SSA level, but now you can also augment those with managed properties at the site collection level. The whole process starts out like..." more

Answering Questions about Kerberos Time Skew

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:24:40 GMT

Ned Pyle writes "...Everywhere I look, I find documentation saying that when Kerberos skew exceeds five minutes in a Windows forest. I recently re-tested that and sure enough, no amount of skew on my member machine against a DC prevents me from authenticating. Looking at the network trace I see..." more

Deploying Mobile Applications Using Robust Windows Intune

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:16:52 GMT

Paradyne writes "[by Loryan Strant]...For organisations that prefer to stay within the Microsoft product stack, keep their licensing simple, offload as many workloads to the cloud, and prefer strong integration - the current release of Windows Intune provides quite a robust feature set of MDM...An amazing component of Windows Intune is the fact that it can deploy applications to iOS and Android devices..how to load applications onto..." more

One View of the Knowledge Depth Required to be a Dynamics GP Consultant

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:04:46 GMT

Precipio Services writes "[by Steve Endow]...The breadth and depth of knowledge required to be a competent, full service Dynamics GP consultant is staggering...when you think about everything from debits and credits to SQL queries, to business process, to accounting controls,... to project management, it requires a pretty huge pile of knowledge and skills to take care of your customers. And any one consultant typically only handles certain realms, such as" more

RSS feeds for Windows 2012 and 8 KBs

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:00:46 GMT

Susan Bradley writes "Put these in your RSS reader:...RSS feed for Windows 8 KB articles...Most Recent KBs for Windows Server 2012:" more

7 Ways to Lead Without Uttering or Writing a Single Word

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:45:56 GMT

QA writes "[by Jennie Marshall]...Here are seven of the best ways to lead without uttering (or writing) a single word: Eye Contact - Nothing says "I'm paying attention to YOU" better than actually looking someone in the eye. Looking at the floor, the wall, or worse yet, at your Blackberry, sends a message of disinterest, even if it's totally unintentional. An Open Door...it's one thing to talk about it, and another thing to..." more

AD Replication Status Tool is Live - Cool Features Include...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:33:19 GMT

Ned Pyle writes "...The Active Directory Replication Status Tool (ADREPLSTATUS) is now LIVE and available for download...helps administrators identify, prioritize and resolve Active Directory replication errors on a single DC or all DCs in an Active Directory Domain or Forest. Cool features include: Auto-discovery of the DCs and domains in..." more

Business Needs Better Metrics for Customer Multi-Channel Interaction

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:29:35 GMT

Aspect writes "[by Tim Dryer]...Part of the problem, and it’s a big part, is that organizations today are not structured in a way to be able to go toe-to-toe with the way their customers want to engage them. A lot of this has to do with agent and employee inefficiency, specifically related to information management. A report by McKinsey Global Institute found..." more

Marketing Is Alive and Kicking in the Partner Channel

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:23:14 GMT

Barb Levisay RCP Mag writes "...Who knew that Microsoft partners were leading a marketing revolution...It's wonderful to recognize that partners have been setting the pace in marketing for years. "Peer-based, community-oriented marketing" comes naturally (and authentically) to Microsoft partners..." more

How to Remove a web.config Modification Using PowerShell - SharePoint 2010

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:20:46 GMT

Bamboo Solutions writes "[by Duy Do]...Some custom SharePoint products make changes to the web.config of a Web application via SPWebConfigModification objects to support their features. Sometimes, we need to remove these changes for a particular Web application...but it's not a good idea to manually remove the text, because the web.config would not match what has been set in the configuration database and might cause problems. In this article, I will demonstrate how to..." more

Administering Office 365 for Small Businesses Jump Start

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:19:36 GMT

Susan Bradley writes "This special course is offered to individuals interested in acquiring the key skills to administer Office 365 for Small Business clients and is especially designed for Microsoft partners excited to achieve a Small Business Competency through an Office 365 certification...This Jump Start will prepare students for this new exam..." more

Walkthrough on How to Re-send an Un-completed Dynamics CRM Survey

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:18:19 GMT

PowerObjects writes "[by Joe CRM]...To create the workflow that will resend the survey if it is not completed, go to Settings, Processes and click on New. You will want to create a new workflow that runs on the survey activity...." more

Nissan Pathfinder Kinect Virtual Showroom in 16 Dealerships

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:16:52 GMT

IdentityMine writes "[by Jackie Kmetz]...We’re always working on amazingly cutting edge stuff here at IdentityMine and the Nissan Pathfinder Kinect for Windows Experience is one of our favorites. The work we did to create the impressive virtual Pathfinder debut at the Chicago Auto Show in February has been enhanced and is now live in 16 Nissan dealerships across the US....The solution was a massive interactive display that..." more

Top 5 Features - Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:38:22 GMT

SWC writes "[by Michael Lee]...The recent release of Hyper-V 3.0 on Windows Server 2012 is very exciting to all of us in the virtualization industry. I was lucky to get my hands on the product early and thought I would share my top five favorite features..." more

Walkthrough Install of HyperV with Windows 2012 RTM Final

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:37:12 GMT

Susan Bradley writes "...I've rebuilt my HyperV test box - AGAIN - this time with the final RTM of Windows 2012...launch the "UI formerly known as Metro" Server manager and click on Local Server. On the right hand side is IE Enhanced Security Configuration. Turn this to off..." more

Customers on BPOS Need to Get Their Head Out of the Sand and Into the Cloud

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:33:50 GMT

Paradyne writes "[by Loryan Strant]...While BPOS was a great platform for organisations moving to the cloud for the first time, Office 365 far surpassed it – as you would expect for a product built for the cloud. For almost a year Microsoft has been transitioning customers from the BPOS platform over to Office 365. Some migrations in the beginning were problematic, while many..." more

Another Barrier Removed with Fibre Channel Virtualisation Windows 2012 Hyper-V

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:53:10 GMT

QA writes "[by Bryan O'Connor]...now supportsVirtual Fibre Channel,this enables VMs to now use a Fibre Channel HBA, which in turn allows the VM to use Fibre Channel devices. All we have to do is ensure that our Hyper-V host has a supported and..." more

How to Set Up a General User Role in Dynamics CRM

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:57:14 GMT

Socius writes "...Learn how to set up a general user role with the lowest possible security settings in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and CRM Online in 2 1/2 minutes:..." more

Review on Managing the 7 Dangerous Meeting Personalities

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:55:32 GMT

PGi writes "[by Joshua Erwin]...Whenever you’re meeting with a group, diverse meeting personalities emerge. Sometimes they work in harmony, fostering collaboration, creativity, and ultimately, productivity. However, occasionally more dangerous personalities bubble to the surface, personalities that have the capability to empower your meetings if properly handled, or ruin them if left unchecked. Here are 7 of the worst offenders and suggestions on how to manage them..." more

5 Steps to Next-Gen Customer Experience in the Contact Center

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:42:24 GMT

Aspect writes "[by Christine O'Brien]...How do leading organizations keep the customer at the center of every interaction? ...There are five ways you can help ensure your business is delivering a next-generation customer experience that will inspire customer loyalty: 1. Fully integrate unified communications with workforce optimization... 2. Formalize an expert escalation policy..." more

Create a Bar Chart with RadCartesianChart Using Windows 8 UI Controls

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:19:58 GMT

Telerik writes "[by Jesse Liberty]...In this blog post I will review how to create a bar chart, and no doubt you will notice some striking similarities. All of this is done with the Telerik Windows 8 UI Controls. We’ll begin with the data. Our bar chart will compare revenues for five stores..." more

Resource Metering in Windows 2012 Hyper-V Allows for Tracking Usage

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:15:26 GMT

QA writes "[by Bryan O'Connor]...Do you run a datacenter and do you need to charge for usage of your valuable hardware resources...new feature within Windows 2012 Hyper-V is the addition ofResource Metering...in a cloud environment you may be hosting many virtual machines for your customers or internal cost centers, the ability to be able to meter the usage of virtual machines and the resources they consume will allow you to..." more

Walkthrough Customizing Discussion Board Plus Email Alerts for SharePoint 2010

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 20:15:35 GMT

Bamboo Solutions writes "[by Chau Huynh]...Among the server-side files, there is an XML file called Alerttemplates.xml that is used by default to define the format, contents, and properties when a user creates alert messages from each SharePoint list type. SharePoint provides server administrators with the ability to customize this alert template, then deploy it using the stsadm -o updatealerttemplates command..." more

Walkthrough Increasing Dynamics CRM Online Scribe Data Migration Performance

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:38:42 GMT

Slalom writes "[by Jayson Goldinger]...I had approximately 52,000 account records with associated contacts to import. I also needed to do a check (Seek Step) against CRM to see if the record was already in CRM. I was using Scribe Insight with my source being Excel and my target was Dynamics CRM Online using the Dynamics CRM Adapter. On my first attempt my job ran for 9 hours and only imported approx. 15,000 records. At that rate..." more

Social Media Gender Demographics

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:36:54 GMT

QA writes "[by Lianne Marie Mease]...I am often asked to provide social media demograpics for various business purposes – users by location, age, industry…but this is the first time that I’ve been asked about usage in relation to gender..." more

Walkthrough Real World Scenario Detaining Docs with DAC

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:27:15 GMT

Ned Pyle writes "...walks through the configuration of “document quarantine” to protect sensitive data on file shares and automatically clean up files that violate storage policies. We’ve seen a lot of DAC blog posts over the past couple of months but this one talks about a real-world scenario Robert encountered with some of our early Beta customers...." more

How to Create a RadCartesianChart - Line Graph

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:25:23 GMT

Telerik writes "[by Jesse Liberty]...In this post, I will explore creating a line chart using the RadCartesianChart from the Telerik Windows 8 UI Controls. You can Download Telerik Widows 8 Controls here. Figure 1 shows the chart we wish to build. This is a linear chart built with a RadCartesianChart. It represents revenue for the last six months of 2012..." more

How to Implement SAML Token Based Authentication in SharePoint 2013

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:23:22 GMT

ARB Security Solutions writes "[by Adam Buenz]...It is possible to configure many SAML token based authentication providers. Keep in mind that you can only use a token signing certification once per farm though. All of the configured providers will be displayed as options in the Central Administration. The claims from different trusted STS environments won’t conflict with each other..." more

Walkthrough Redirect IFrame Content

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:20:47 GMT

Webfortis writes "[by Chuck Oldes]...One of the advantages of MS CRM 2011 is the introduction of Web Resources, which allows you to reuse JavaScript across mulitple Entities... In this example we want to centrally control the URL use by IFRAME located in different Entities. First step is to build a function that would allow for changing the URL based on variables being passed into the function...." more

Walkthrough Creating a Drop Down Nav Menu in SharePoint Using JavaScript

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:19:22 GMT

Slalom writes "[by Dennis Jackson]...we have a preference in our practice for using out-of-the-box SharePoint first, and avoiding customizations if possible. So the approach that we ended up going with was client side JavaScript (JS) using the content editor web part to host the script...We create an async call, and add handlers for success and failure responses..." more

SharePoint Designer 2013 Missing Design View

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:16:56 GMT

Sympraxis Consulting writes "[by Marc D Anderson]...Some of us MVPs have been talking about this since the beta release...I’m of the belief that this is going to cut a lot of people off at the knees. This will be a *huge* problem for many...who are very used to using SharePoint Designer as the tool to build full scale applications. Here are some scenarios which will no longer be possible, which we see real users doing all the time:..." more

Excel 2013 Interactive View Allows Visitors to Interact with Data

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:13:47 GMT

Extended Results writes "[by Patrick Hastings]...a very cool feature that I’m personally looking forward to. With the Excel Interactive View, I can add a button to my web site that brings up an interactive spreadsheet with data and allows visitors to interact with that data....source..." more

Adventures with Windows 8 - Upgrading Experience

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:58:45 GMT

Moose Logic writes "v[by Sid Herron]...I've been holding back on doing any testing with Windows 8, mostly because I didn’t have a suitable system that I was willing to risk screwing up by putting a pre-release OS on it. But, now that Win8 has been RTM and the bits are out there on MSDN, the Microsoft Partner site, etc., I decided to take the plunge...One oddity had to do with the license key..." more

Bandwidth QoS in Hyper-V

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:52:43 GMT

QA writes "[by Bryan O'Connor]...As Cloud technology evolves we need stricter controls on what can consume our network bandwidth and with 802.1P compliant Quality of service in Hyper-V we can...in Windows 2012 Hyper-V we can, we can use Quality of Service (QoS) bandwidth management; we can also define minimum and maximum network bandwidth for each Virtual Machine.Below is a brief description of the technology and its uses..." more

Everything You need to know about SharePoint Social Capabilities

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:50:25 GMT

MetaVis writes "[by Dave Coleman]...I had the great pleasure of hosting a webinar with Richard Harbridge focusing on the social capabilities of SharePoint. This really was a superb session and I have never seen so many thank you messages at the end of a webinar. Below you will find the recording of the session and also the slide deck used..." more

Complete List of Windows 8 RTM Information and Resources

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:49:38 GMT

Eric Ligman writes "...Hopefully these resources and information resources are helpful for you on your journey to learn more about Windows 8 for your company and that of your client..." more

Retailer Social Media Efforts Point to the SmartPhone

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:42:43 GMT

Cole Systems writes "[by Amanda Raines]...What will be happening in the near future with social media and retail will be focused around smart phones. Retailers are developing even more ways to reach consumers whether it be a check-in in a store to automatically receive a discount on things you purchase the most or if they see on your social media site that you have a serious interest in a particular product. If so, there’s a good chance..." more

8 Top Tips for a Painless Operating System Migration

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:28:32 GMT

Camwood writes "[by Lauren Loubser-Bell]...With end of support for Windows XP looming, organisations are looking to move to new operating systems. One of the main stumbling blocks to this is often application migration. The...eight top tips to successful app management – not just for enterprises considering migrating to Windows 7 or Windows 8 but for those who want to successfully manage their app portfolio on an ongoing basis..." more

U.S. Partner News for Friday, August 16, 2012

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 19:03:46 GMT

Diane Golshan writes "...you’ll find the latest partner-related information and news about optimizing your membership benefits, plus role-based training recommendations for Windows Server 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics ERP..." more

How to Get All Hands-on-Deck in the Contact Center

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:47:38 GMT

Aspect writes "[by Christine O'Brien]...Forrester’s Kate Leggett highlights the vital role of collaboration in the contact center as it relates to cases...and content.... She goes on to list a suite of enabling technologies such as rich presence, collaborative workspaces, remote support, and shared databases of information...To achieve better collaboration in the contact center, organizations must often pursue technology implementation along three tracks:..." more

Walkthrough Deploying a Report in Dynamics AX 2012

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:33:58 GMT

Clients First writes "[by Mark Chinsky]...Below find a nice online video on how to deploy reports in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. It is for the technically minded, so we recommend whomever in your IT department is going to handle this review the video..." more

What IT Professionals Say About Windows 8

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:32:12 GMT

SWC writes "[by Peter Lee]...I think this is great feedback from the Loyola Tech Guys! In my experience, probably one of the hardest audiences to please is techies, because they are early adopters of technology and have very high expectation for performance and fluidity. Techies also typically have the most applications to use, so hearing that the guys at Loyola have been using Windows 8 in production..." more

Setting up Software Metering in Configuration Manager 2012

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:30:14 GMT

IT Concern writes "[by Peter Daalmans]...The Software Metering Feature is enabled by default in the Default Client Settings package and configured to report usage information back to the site server once every 7 days, this value can be altered from 1-59 minutes, 1-24 hours, 1-31 days or you can create a custom schedule...." more

Walkthrough: See Your CRM Perf Metrics in Outlook before Opening the Inbox

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:25:40 GMT

Customer Effective writes "[by Kevin Wessels]...We recently had been reviewing and modeling the capabilities of Dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011...[is it] possible to see CRM Dashboards immediately upon opening Microsoft Outlook as opposed to first seeing...Inbox. After researching this, I found out you can do this by changing your Outlook settings. I have shared the necessary instructions below for Outlook 2010..." more

How to Deploy Apps Remotely to the Office 365 Preview - SharePoint 2013

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:22:44 GMT

Bamboo Solutions writes "[by Quang San]...In this post, we will demonstrate the ways to remotely deploy apps to the Office 365 Preview and SharePoint 2013 Preview using the tools...Visual Studio 2012 RC Preview..."Napa" Office 365 Development Tools..." more

Walkthrough Planning Zones for Web Apps in SharePoint 2013

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:21:07 GMT

ARB Security Solutions writes "[by Adam]...There are different logical paths, and zones represent them for gaining access to the same sites within a given web application. Each of these web applications may have up to 5 zones. As you create a web application, one of the zones will be named default by Central Administration (WCAM). You can create the additional zones by extending the web application. Then you can select any of the zone names that remain. They include:..." more

3 Reasons Architecture, Engineering and Construction Firms Need Dynamics CRM

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:19:48 GMT

Sonoma Partners writes "...Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (A/E/C) firms operate a little differently than most businesses. And marketers at those firms work a little differently than marketers in other industries. Generating proposals on time is a brutal process. Keeping track of projects in one place seems impossible. We know some of your challenges, so here’s the top 3 reasons you need Microsoft Dynamics CRM:..." more

RadControls for WPF Control Suite is Ready for VS2012 RTM

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:17:10 GMT

Telerik writes "[by Michael Crump]...Let’s Take a Quick Look at VS2012 RTM and our RadControls...Once everything is installed, launch VS2012 RTM and navigate the project tree until you find the Telerik Project Templates. You will notice that the WPF project templates in VS2012 RC look very similar to what they did in VS2010 as shown in Figure 1..." more

Peeling Apart SQL Server Master Data Services and Where it Fits

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:14:30 GMT

Skyline Technologies writes "[by Eric Hyland]...I’ve been getting quite a few questions regarding SQL Server Master Data Services (MDS). These questions are not so much technical questions but are more of the variety of “How can MDS benefit my organization, where does it fit?”...The decision to adopt MDS does mean the inheritance of an additional system and processes but the benefit can be realized in better data quality which should provide a return on investment due to..." more

Strategize Kerberos Authentication in SharePoint 2013

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:10:13 GMT

ARB Security Solutions writes "[by Adam]...With SharePoint 2013, Kerberos delegation will result in a front end service to authenticate the client and their identity to a back end system. The back end system is then able to perform with its own authentication. When a client uses Kerberos for front end service, then the delegation can be used to pass the identity of the client to a back end system. The Kerberos protocol is able to support 2 types of delegation:..." more

Fix for Error when Changing a Managed Metadata Site Column to Allow Multiple Values

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:52:45 GMT

Sympraxis Consulting writes "We were trying to change an existing Managed Metadata Site Column from allowing single values to allow multiple values. When we did so, we received this error...The error is a little bit misleading, as it might lead you to believe that the list is currently being indexed by search...In fact, the issue is that the column is indexed in the indicated list, which in this case was: /Lists/Projects. I found a Microsoft KB article" more

8 Questions Before Setting up an eCommerce Store

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:50:58 GMT

Skyline Technologies writes "[by John Moynihan]...While this is by no means an exhaustive list of what is required to get your online store off the ground, these are some key elements that will make your transition into ecommerce a little smoother. Having these questions answered ahead of time will not only help in the success of your ecommerce site but also can have significant impact on your project budget and timeline. Your next challenge..." more

Walkthrough Configuring SharePoint 2013 Preview for On-Premise Apps

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:48:07 GMT

Perficient writes "[by Andrew Schwenker]...On-Premise Apps are difficult to set up because you have to do all of the setting up to get your apps hosted on SharePoint manually. There’s no pre-configured Office 365 environment for you to use. Unfortunately, none of these steps can be done through the UI other than the creation of a Developer Site. To successfully develop SharePoint On-Premise Apps, you need..." more

Soft Delete Functionality in Office 365 Lync is a Huge Time Saver

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:47:58 GMT

New Signature writes "Previously if you...deleted an account from Office 365, it was gone and you needed to open a service request to get the data back. With soft delete recovery, you now have 30 days to recover the account and its associated data. This is great for those situations where you expired an old account...One of the major feature differentiators between Lync on premise and Lync on line up until this point has been..." more

Walkthrough Handling Prepayments in Dynamics NAV

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:42:36 GMT

Clients First writes "[by Mark Chinsky]...In this demo, you learn how NAV 2009 can be used in a common prepayment situation. Follow a typical accounting manager as default values are setup, and then how the person taking orders applies those values to a specific customer. Then see how an Accounts Receivable clerk prepares final invoicing." more

What You need to know about OAuth and the Rehydrated User in SharePoint 2013

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:36:54 GMT

Steve Peschka writes "...within a farm you may grant rights to content based on a Windows group, an FBA role, a SAML claim, or any claim added via augmentation. If you don’t possess those claims when you query for content, then it will be security trimmed out and you will not see it. So you can see how important it is that..." more

Resource for Windows 2012 Hyper-V Cmdlets

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:34:30 GMT

QA writes "[by Bryan O'Connor]...PowerShell allows us to administer, configure and manage our Hyper-V install. It also allows us to script complex tasks...with Hyper-V in 2012 we get over 100 Cmdlets which are used for managing not only the host, but networking, storage and VMs. I'm not going to list them all, instead here's a link to the Hyper-V Cmdlets..." more

10 Steps in Building Dynamic Intelligence into Static Governance Processes

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:22:53 GMT

Camwood writes "[by Lauren Loubser-Bell]...Typical application governance processes oversee the allocation of resources based on, usually, standardised policies, procedures and rules....what do you do to build dynamic intelligence into your static governance processes? There are 10 key elements of application status management you need to master:..." more

Some of the Best Resources on Understanding the AX 2012 Organization Model

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:13:56 GMT

Brandon George writes "...webinar that really gives you a feel for the thought process of modeling an organization with AX 2012. This is the 'unified natural models' that Microsoft speaks about a lot. I should correct that really and say one of the unified natural models...one of the best resources for understanding how to implement and extend the organization model for AX 2012 can be found here..." more

Resources to Help you Get in Front of Your Customers with Windows 8

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:11:05 GMT

Barb Levisay RCP Mag writes "...As the release of Windows 8 approaches, now is the time to get in front of your customers as the go-to partner. Every new release presents partners with the opportunity to educate customers and prospects, building credibility as an expert. This year is a bonanza for Microsoft partner...Microsoft has some great resources to help you get started on the Ready-to-Go Marketing Site. The Sneak Peek at Windows 8 campaign has a variety of tools, including:..." more

Strategizing App Authentication in SharePoint 2013

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:06:30 GMT

ARB Security Solutions writes "[by Adam]...App authentication is the validation of an external app for SharePoint’s identity. It also allows for the authorization of both the app and an associated user. For this to occur, the app requests access to a secured SharePoint resource..." more

How to Correct the Full Name Field in Dynamics CRM

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:13:53 GMT

Socius writes "[by Brian Geraghty]...Many of our clients have inconsistencies in how the Full Name field in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is populated. Whether you want to see “LastName, FirstName” or “FirstName LastName”, we’ve figured out a way to quickly and easily correct and standardize these across Accounts. Here’s how:..." more

Command Gets the List of Preferred Domain Controllers on Exchange 2010

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:57:08 GMT

Risual writes "[by Paul W]...We were in the process of looking to decommission a few older 2003 domain controllers and wanted to ensure that Exchange 2010 was not pointing to them as preferred DCs. After a bit of playing around in EMS (Exchange Management Shell) I managed to get this command working that got me out all of the information that I needed:..." more

Walkthrough Hyper-V VM Replication in Windows 2012

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:55:20 GMT

QA writes "[by Bryan O'Connor]...One of the new features of Windows 2012 Hyper-V is a feature called Hyper-V Replica. This feature enables the administrator to replicate a single virtual machine over WAN or LAN to another Hyper-V host. Hyper-V replica enables you to have two instances of a single VM residing on different hosts, one VM is the primary or live and the other is the replica or offline copy. The copies are synchronised and..." more

Windows Server 2012, VS2012, and Azure Event Series Across US

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:53:06 GMT

New Signature writes "...The Cloud OS Signature Event Series will give you the opportunity to engage with the Redmond product team experts...Get hands-on with the new technology, and learn how to manage and build your modern data center with the Microsoft Cloud OS platform: Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure, Visual Studio 2012 and System Center 2012. Here’s some of what you can expect:...Attend The Cloud OS Signature Event Series near you..." more

Have You Heard about the Cloud Easy Partner Subsidy Program?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:50:35 GMT

Eric Ligman writes "...Here is an exciting offer that the U.S. Team has put into market that brings with it a lot of the great features and benefits of the highly popular “Big Easy” partner subsidy program, but this time, it is for cloud related services. With an offer combining great cloud solutions and features/benefits similar to the “Big Easy” partner subsidy program, it makes perfect sense that this promotional offer would be called the “Cloud Easy” partner subsidy promotion." more

3 Imperatives for Advanced Quality Analysis in the Contact Center

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:47:31 GMT

Aspect writes "[by Christine O'Brien]...While most contact centers actively record customer interactions, this data is useless until it has been analyzed. It’s this process of analyzing data that tends to be dauntingly time-intensive, inefficient and overwhelming...three...imperatives for the next-generation contact center..." more

Fix for Dynamics Bug 64711: Year End Close Report is Not Balanced

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:05:34 GMT

Rose Business Solutions writes "[by Francisco Hillyer]...I had the opportunity to work on a case where the Year End Close report was being printed with the Debits not matching the Credits...Customer showed me how “before the upgrade” all YEC reports matched and “after the upgrade” they were not in balance...Here is the information I used to recreate the scenario and its improved with comments from Microsoft CTS..." more

7 Trends From Recent Mobile User Experience Report

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:03:15 GMT

IdentityMine writes "[by Jackie Kmetz]... study on emerging mobile behaviors – particularly from a user experience standpoint...a UK-based firm, recently released their Going Mobile 2012 report to help us gain some deeper insights into how people behave. Here are a few highlights of their mobile user experience..." more

Good References on Disposing SharePoint Objects

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:59:39 GMT

Tallan writes "[by K Adasani]...Good reference...The SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool can give false positives (or negatives) so this documentation should provide additional guidance..." more

PowerShell Script Extracts WSP Files from Current Sharepoint Farm

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:57:44 GMT

IOTAP writes "...dirName = " more

Walkthrough Cluster Shared Volumes in Windows Server 2012

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:54:25 GMT
Slalom writes "[by Derek Martin]...If you aren’t familiar with CSVs, see this excellent post on TechNet for the full scoop. The basic rendition is this: let’s say you have a cluster of machines and you want to have common storage among all of the instances. This common storage would be used for like SQL Clusters, file server clusters, etc. The problem with CSVs ...main culprits were: they only worked with certain workloads, they were hard to configure, and often broke..." more

Lots of Changes Coming to MPN Competencies in November

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:52:11 GMT
Scott Bekker writes "...the most significant changes yet to its Microsoft Partner Network competency structure. Microsoft is consolidating six competencies into two, and redirecting two other competencies. Here are the changes, announced during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, that will take effect in November...Also in November, Microsoft plans to hike the gold competency membership fee by an amount that hasn't been disclosed yet..." more